| Sarasota Springs, N.Y., June 18, 2009 —The small town of Hoosick, located in Rensselaer County, recently sent a big message to Congress on behalf of rural communities when its town board unanimously passed a resolution urging President Barack Obama and the United States Congress to increase federal support for dairy farmers who have been hit hard by rock bottom milk prices. “People have no idea how hard dairy farmers are struggling,” says Eric Sheffer, a Hoosick dairy farmer. “In Rensselaer County alone, four dairy farms have gone out of business in the last six months. It is really stressful but we can’t let up now.”
“Dairy farmers in the Northeast and around the country are facing severe and prolonged low milk prices—prices well below the cost of production,” says David Haight, New York Director for American Farmland Trust. “Without federal action, New York will lose more farms that produce milk for millions of consumers across the state.”
Dairy farms are critical to New York’s rural landscape and environmental health. According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, dairy farmers in New York manage more than 2.5 million acres of land—roughly eight percent of all the land in the state. The sustained slump in milk prices has already caused a number of dairy farms to go out of business, and it threatens the future of thousands more.
“If a farm goes out of business, it will either be bought by another farmer or it will be developed. It comes down to who can afford the land,” says Sheffer. “People can afford to put a house on land but the way things are now with milk prices the dairy farmer can’t afford to put cows there.”
Site of the famous Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington and birthplace to folk art icon Grandma Moses, Hoosick remains undaunted when it comes to jumping onto the national stage, and its townspeople mean business when it comes to protecting their farmland and sticking up for their farmers. “Farms are vital to Hoosick,” stresses Town Supervisor Marilyn Douglas. “Agriculture constitutes the single largest land use in the town. Our farms produce food, employ people and pay taxes.”
Just across the Hudson River from Albany, New York, Hoosick’s farmland faces considerable development pressure. The town is working intensely with farmers, local partners, and American Farmland Trust to prevent the loss of valuable farmland. Last month the town was awarded a grant of nearly $223,000 by the state’s Farmland Protection Program to purchase development rights to 155 acres of extremely fertile farmland belonging to Carleton and Corinne Philpott.
“We are excited to be working with the Philpotts,” says Teri Ptacek, executive director of the Agricultural Stewardship Association, a non-profit agricultural land trust based in Greenwich that shepherded the farm through the application process and will hold the conservation easement on the land. “The Philpotts’ conservation ethic is so strong. They love farming and they want to see their land remain in agriculture rather than become developed.”
American Farmland Trust is about to begin working with the town of Hoosick to develop a Municipal Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan that will take stock of the town’s agricultural resources and identify strategies to prevent the loss of farmland and support the business of agriculture for the next generation. The state’s Farmland Protection Program provided a $25,000 grant to the town for the development of the plan.
“We’re excited to see more and towns like Hoosick recognizing that they can’t take farms for granted,” says American Farmland Trust’s Haight. “With more and more New Yorkers interested in a home-grown supply of healthy food and renewable energy, it’s critical that communities take action to support our farmers and protect the land that farmers depend upon.”
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