Press Release, State Assemblyman Steve Hawley

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R-Batavia) joined Assemblyman Bill Nojay (R-Pittsford) and a coalition of lawmakers speaking out against the governor’s decision to not fight a lawsuit relating to the unionization of farmers.

The governor’s decision to not defend the complaint, filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union in the State Supreme Court, effectively endorses unionization of farmworkers in New York State, a policy that those in the agriculture community say is not wanted or necessary. In fact, due to the individual climate and environmental concerns of each state affecting their growing season, the federal government specifically excluded farmworkers from the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.

“As the former owner of our family-owned farm, former Genesee County Farm Bureau President and having served on the Assembly’s Agriculture Committee since I was elected in 2006, I can attest to the daily struggles of our farm community.” Hawley said. “The governor’s decision to support unionized farm labor, coupled with a $15 an hour minimum wage, will be absolutely devastating to Western New York’s agriculture industry.”

“For decades our communities have been crushed by the state’s economic policies and the unionization of farmers will only push our family farms closer to the brink,” said Nojay. “Throughout his tenure Gov. Cuomo has demonstrated a total lack of respect for Upstate’s economy by repeatedly pushing policies, from GMO labeling to the $15 minimum wage, that have had a disastrous effect on our family farms and agricultural communities. The efforts by these wealthy labor unions will not only kill businesses and family farms but continue the exodus of Upstate families to less economically oppressed regions of the country. Agriculture is the foundation of our state’s entire economy and we must give our farming families and communities the attention and support they deserve.”

“Here in Western New York, farmers work extremely hard to develop positive and long-lasting relationships with their farm hands and seasonal workers. Unionization would only add another level of bureaucracy to a system that is not broken, and further complicate the ability of our state’s small family farms to succeed,” said Assemblywoman and Minority Leader Pro Tempore Jane Corwin (R-Clarence).

Assemblyman Marc Butler (R-Newport) said, “Leave it to New York City politicians to get it all wrong about agriculture and family farmers. Gov. Cuomo and others like him have done much to vilify the family farmer. Not only have he and the Assembly Majority increased the minimum wage and operating costs for these important rural job providers, now the governor is joining special interest groups that are trying to force family farms into unionized shops. I will work diligently to block any efforts from the governor or anyone else who tries to impose a New York City progressive agenda on our upstate family farmers.”

Assemblyman and Chairman of the Assembly Minority Conference Clifford W. Crouch (R-Bainbridge), a former dairy farmer, said, “To say that this would be devastating to our farming industry would be an understatement. Over the years it has become very clear that advocates of unionizing farm workers, who predominantly have downstate interests, neither understand the relationship farmers have with their employees nor the negative repercussions this would have on our small family farmers. I have visited and spoke to many farm employees across the state – from Buffalo to the North Country, to the Southern Tier and Long Island. In those travels and to date, not one employee or farmer I have spoken to has expressed the need or desire for what is offered by unionizing their employees. With already tremendous expenses – including grain, feed, seed, equipment, workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, property taxes, energy expenses, and transportation – compounded with the recent minimum wage increase, how are family farmers expected to survive? Unionized farm employees may make sense for states like California that have a year-round growing season, but not in New York. Let’s call it what it is: a money grab by organized labor and their political counterparts in state government to gain an extra 35,000-40,000 new members paying union dues. The government should not be telling family farmers how to operate, especially when its policies will lead to closures of those farms. When there are no farms left, what will be the cost of food and where will it come from?”

“Gov. Cuomo’s next chapter in his war on upstate seems to be financially crippling our family-owned farms. Farmers have just recently begun learning how to absorb a $12.50 minimum wage hike upstate and a cut to agriculture local assistance that New York City politicians slammed down their throats, and now they want to force union mandates on them,” said Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin (R-Troy).

File photo by Tom Rivers – Dirk Biemans is co-owner of Intergrow Greenhouses, which built its first 15-acre greenhouse in the Town of Gaines in 2003. The company has done multiple expansions to 55.5 acres under glass in Orleans County. Today, Intergrow announced plans to expand in Monroe County.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that agricultural company Intergrow Holdings, Inc. will expand its operations to Webster, creating 100 new jobs in the Finger Lakes Region.

The expansion will include building two new, 25-acre state-of-the-art commercial greenhouses to grow produce year-round for the Northeast market.

Intergrow began operations in the Town of Gaines in 2003 with an initial 15-acre greenhouse. It has expanded to 55.5 acres at its site on Route 98.

Dirk Biemans, CEO of Intergrow Holdings said: “We continue to see a growing demand for locally grown, year-round produce from our customers and are excited to stay in Western New York where we have found an opportunity in Webster for a greenhouse project to produce this product.”

Intergrow will build two new, 25-acre greenhouses at the intersection of Salt and State Roads in Webster. The produce grown will provide local, year-round, hydroponically-grown tomatoes, an alternative to produce that requires warmer, distant climates. The greenhouses will utilize state-of-the-art and sustainable growing practices, and product packaging will be performed on site. Construction of the first greenhouse is scheduled to be completed next fall. The second greenhouse is scheduled to be completed by 2020.

The first 50 employees at the Intergrow site in Webster are expected to be hired by July 2018; the remaining 50 employees will be hired before June 30, 2021, according to the Governor’s Office.

“Our strategy to drive economic growth across New York has focused on investing in regional potential,” Governor Cuomo said. “By expanding its operations in the Finger Lakes, Intergrow is driving job growth in a vital sector of our economy while offering New Yorkers greater access to high-quality, locally grown produce.”

Empire State Development, New York State’s economic development agency, will provide up to $750,000 in performance-based Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits and a $750,000 capital grant in return for job creation commitments. Rochester Gas & Electric will be providing a $400,000 grant to help offset electric infrastructure costs. Farm Credit East is providing a farm credit loan. The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency has offered mortgage and sales tax abatements, as well as a 10-year standard PILOT.

The governor was named in a lawsuit to allow farmworkers the right to organize, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today he won’t fight the lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The group said farmworkers are excluded from the critical protection of the right to organize without fear of retaliation under New York state’s labor law, a violation of the state constitution.

The New York Civil Liberties Union named New York state and Cuomo today in the lawsuit filed in State Supreme Court. It is the first lawsuit that demands that farmworkers receive the same basic protections from the state that virtually every other worker receives.

“It’s a shame for New York that in 2016, a holdover, racist policy from the Jim Crow era prevents farmworkers from organizing to improve their brutal work conditions,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Enough is enough. Farmworkers who we depend on to put food on our tables deserve no less dignity and humanity than any other hardworking New Yorker.”

Cuomo issued a statement that he supports the lawsuit.

“Because of a flaw in the state labor relations act, farmworkers are not afforded the right to organize without fear of retaliation – which is unacceptable, and appears to violate the New York State Constitution,” Cuomo said. “I agree with the NYCLU that the exclusion of farmworkers from the labor relations act is inconsistent with our constitutional principles, and my administration will not be defending the act in court. We will not tolerate the abuse or exploitation of workers in any industry. This clear and undeniable injustice must be corrected.”

The NYCLU’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of Crispin Hernandez, who was fired from one of New York’s largest dairies, Marks Farms LLC in Lowville, after his employer saw him meeting with co-workers and an organizer to discuss workplace conditions, even though it was after work hours and in a worker’s personal residence, NYCLU said.

The NYCLU’s lawsuit was also filed on behalf of the Workers’ Center of Central New York, a group that organizes and advocates for low-wage workers, and the Worker Justice Center of New York, an organization that seeks justice for farmworkers through advocacy and legal representation. Both groups have been unable to provide critical supports to farmworkers because they are unconstitutionally excluded from protections for organizing.

Farming in New York is a multi-billion dollar industry, with sales of $6.36 billion in 2014. The state’s approximately 60,000 farmworkers are critical to making New York a national leader in farm produce and the fourth largest dairy producer in the country.

New York Farm Bureau issued this statement about the lawsuit:

“New York Farm Bureau is unable to comment on specifics of the NYCLU lawsuit until we have had a chance to review the case. However, public allegations being made in the organization’s announcement greatly misrepresent dairy farms, and working conditions of all farm employees, in New York. In addition, the allegations contradict and ignore the valued relationships that farmers across the state have with their employees.

“The farm industry has long been pushing for comprehensive immigration reform that will have many positive benefits for the employees and the industry as a whole. However, the right to organize is a labor union tactic that may work in a factory setting, but not on a farm where the planting and harvesting of crops and the milking of cows are extremely time sensitive and weather-dependent. For a farm to lose employees to an untimely walk-off of the job could jeopardize a season’s crop and place livestock health at risk.”

State Sen. Robert Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, also issued a statement against the lawsuit, saying it “is nothing more than politically-driven theater from New York City radicals.”

Ortt said agriculture is critical to the state’s economy.

“Anyone who knows anything about farming, or about New York State north of the Bronx or East of Queens, knows how vital agriculture is to our economy and to our communities,” Ortt said. “And, they know a measure such as this would be the final nail in the coffin for many of our small family farms and result in dramatic price increases for nearly all of our foods. Efforts to apply certain labor practices from other industries to the agriculture industry ignores the realities facing our farms. We have a very short growing season in New York with many specific crops that demand intensive labor or specific skill sets. Our farms aren’t giant corporations, they’re universally small family operations that require flexibility. They already face one of the nation’s worst tax and regulatory climates and yet they persist because farming is in their blood and it’s in their hearts. It’d be a shame if our Governor and our state turned our backs on them to appease the swelling influence of liberal New York City interest groups.”

The NYCLU said farmworkers are excluded from the workplace protections afforded to nearly all other workers, including a day of rest, overtime pay, disability insurance and the right to organize without retaliation.

“Because of an 80-year-old outdated law, poverty, fatalities and legally-sanctioned discrimination are a way of life for tens of thousands of people working in New York,” said Erin Beth Harrist, senior staff attorney at the NYCLU and lead counsel on the case. “New York must reject the farmworker exclusion for violating our constitution, progressive values and commitment to human rights.”

The group said the combination of poverty, isolation, and lack of permanent legal status and language access makes farmworkers among the most exploited groups in the American labor force.

Photos by Kristina Gabalski – David Russell, Genesee County Master Gardener, discusses native pollinators with participants at the 2016 “Spring into Gardening” Education Day held Saturday.

KNOWLESVILLE – Gardeners and those interested in learning more about gardening and related topics gathered Saturday at the Education Center on the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds for “Spring into Gardening” Education Day.

Workshops were held a number of topics including Cut Flower Gardens, Native Pollinators, Butterfly Gardening, Herbs, Local Foods, Composting with Worms, and a Make-it/Take-it project.

David Russell, a Genesee County Master Gardener who is better known as “David the Crazy Bug Guy,” presented an introduction to native pollinators of western New York and the Northeast. His talk included how to create “housing” to attract beneficial bees to your landscape.

Russell advised gardeners to avoid using pesticides as both bad bugs and good bugs are destroyed, including bees. “I’m all for pollinators,” Russell said.

A slide from Genesee County Master Gardener David Russell’s presentation on native pollinators. It shows an intricate “house” made for solitary bees. Russell said the bee houses do not have to be this detailed and noted tongue-in-cheek, that the houses are, ” so easy to make, even a man can make them.”

Amy Guptill, associate professor of sociology at the College at Brockport, discussed what defines “local” when talking about local food as well as how local foods get from the producer to the consumer. Guptill said many farmers and growers are struggling and losing money.

“It’s hard to make it work,” she said about farming. “There is room for innovation to make it easier for people who want to farm.”

Additional topics included planning a cut flower garden, butterfly gardening with Master Gardener Gail Culver, and the wondrous world of herbs with Bonnie Heck of Herbalty Cottage.

Participants in the 2016 Orleans County Master Gardener’s Spring into Gardening Education Day use curly willow and other natural materials to make rustic trellises for garden containers during the Make-it/Take-it workshop led by Master Gardener Alex Greene.

Jena Buckwell, master gardener, spoke on composting with worms, which allows gardeners to compost kitchen scraps inside, year-round. Buckwell said vermicomposting produces an organic soil amendment with 5-10 times more nutrients that traditional composting.

Additionally, participants were able to make rustic container garden trellises with wild grapevine, curly willow and other branches in a workshop held by Master Gardener Alex Greene.

Provided photo – Darrel Oakes from LynOaken Farms in Lyndonville and Leonard Oakes Estate Winery in Medina makes his appeal to state lawmakers to oppose the $15 minimum wage.

Press Release, NY Farm Bureau

BATAVIA – Small business owners and local farmers joined together today at The Days Inn in Batavia to ask state lawmakers to oppose the $15 minimum wage.

The April 1 budget deadline is just days away, and the coalition remains united in its efforts to defeat what will be a tough blow to local employers.

The consequences of a 67 percent wage hike are far reaching. The small businesses shared their personal stories of what this will mean to each of them, including the decisions that will have to be made to compensate for the major increase in labor costs. A reduction in the number of employees and an increase in automation are on the table should this proposal pass in Albany.

The impacts will be felt statewide. A recent report conducted by the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, found that at least 200,000 jobs will be lost across the state. A separate independent analysis by Farm Credit East estimates a $15 minimum wage in New York State would cost farmers between $387 and $622 million in 2021 at the peak of the wage rollout and nearly 2,000 farms would no longer be profitable.

Because of the statewide ramifications, today’s event coincided with more than a dozen others happening in communities across New York. It is a final push to make the compelling point to lawmakers that there are serious consequences, from job loss to higher consumer prices, should New York pass a $15 minimum wage. The small business owners asked their local lawmakers to vote no on $15.

“Businesses will be forced to raise prices to compensate. As a farmer, I cannot do this. I am a price taker not a price maker. This will make me uncompetitive with surrounding states, like Michigan and Pennsylvania, whose labor costs will be half what they are in New York. This will put some farms out of business or force them to move to a different state which will hurt our economy,” said Pat McCormick, a dairy farmer from Java Center and member of the NYFB board of directors.

File photos by Tom Rivers – Joseph Cecchini, 11, of Medina cleans a cow on July 27, 2015 at a new wash rack at the 4-H Fairgrounds.

Press Release, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orleans County

KNOWLESVILLE – The Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds will be the place to be this year.

The fairgrounds on Route 31 has experienced a steady increase in use over the past few years, but 2016 will be a banner year. The addition of 10 horse shows, a major dog show on Labor Day Weekend, and a Fiber Festival in November along with the return of existing horse, dog, & rabbit shows; the April Home & Garden Show; spring horse pull; and fall Christmas Antiques Show mean just about every weekend at the fairgrounds will be busy.

These activities will be held in addition to Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension’s educational programs in agriculture, horticulture, nutrition, food preservation, and 4-H youth development, which includes the annual Orleans County 4-H Fair held July 25-30 this year.

Teams of powerful draft horses, with participants from eight states, competed on April 25 last year at 4-H Fairgrounds in the “Pull of Champions.”

Community members are encouraged to view the schedule of Events at Orleans Extension’s website, cceorleans.org. Registration forms and contact information for event organizers are posted online and the website has a contact box to email questions directly to Extension staff. The website also includes a “Facility Use” page with registration forms and information for groups interested in using the grounds.

The fairgrounds was purchased in 1965 by Orleans Extension and its first building, the Trolley Building, was built in 1966. A majority of the funding for purchase and development of the fairgrounds was raised by 4-H volunteers, members, and their families along with donations primarily from farmers, business owners, and long-time residents.

In recent years, technology-centric companies such as Baxter and Xerox have contributed to the growing 4-H Robotics program and Extension staff has sought grant funding to maintain strong programs.

With the fairgrounds 50th anniversary in 2015, significant infrastructure improvements were made and continue as funding allows. The rabbit & poultry barn, named for the Wachob family, received a new floor, a new wash rack was installed near the cattle barn, and a fitness trail was established. The Trolley Building kitchen also received updates including a 3-bay sink, fire suppression hood and updated range oven, and commercial refrigerator.

During the Home and Garden Show last April, Cindy Smith, right, of Batavia eyes the wine choices by Vizcarra Vineyards at Becker Farms in Gasport. Mindy Vizcarra, left, served up wine tastings throughout the day, April 12, 2015.

In 2016, updates will continue with new plumbing, flooring, and stainless countertops and storage units. Orleans Extension has also requested $25,675 in grant funding to complete the kitchen update with commercial appliances, islands with prep sinks, and a stainless steel serving window, along with $250,000 from New York State for renovating the entire Trolley Building, which is estimated to cost a total of $350,000. Options are also being explored to upgrade the fairgrounds’ restroom and shower facilities, which could cost an additional $240,000.

Orleans Extension board member, Charlie Pettit, sees grant funding as a significant component to continuing fairgrounds renovation. The board has tasked Executive Director, Jennifer Wagester, with seeking funds and streamlining operations to make every dollar count.

Over the past two years, the Extension has implemented changes and renegotiated vendor contracts to save over $10,000 annually. These changes are allowing Extension to maintain services amidst rising costs.

Currently, about one third of Extension’s budget is supported by funding from the Orleans County Legislature, one third by state funding, and one third by funds raised by Extension through program participation fees, rental of the fairgrounds, winter storage, and fundraising by volunteers. Federal funding has increased in the past year from about $9,000 in Smith-Lever funds to over $50,000 with Orleans Extension’s participation in the federal Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program; however, it remains a small part of the overall budget.

John Steier and his son Evan haul tires on Oct. 8 at the new fitness trail at the 4-H Fairgrounds, which opened that day to the public.

The Orleans fairgrounds is one of three in the state that is owned and operated by a county Cornell Cooperative Extension association. The others are in Niagara and Orange Counties. While owning and operating a fairgrounds requires a major investment in infrastructure, it ensures the Orleans community has a facility for learning, gathering, and holding activities.

Extension staff are excited about the increase in use and look forward to introducing new people to 4-H, Extension, and Orleans County. If you or your organization is interested in using the fairgrounds or reserving a classroom or building, contact the Extension office at 585-798-4265 for details.

Staff are housed in the Education Center at the fairgrounds, which is open year round, and office hours are 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday.