Forum looks at future of local farming
Farmers and other agriculture stakeholders with an interest in Dutchess County gathered at the county fairgrounds this week for the fourth annual Agricultural Advisory Committee Forum to tout accomplishments and address the future of farming in the county.
County Legislature Chairman Gregg Pulver, the only full-time farmer in the county’s governing body, initiated the forum.
“When I was growing up, we had over 200 dairy farms in Dutchess County. Today we have 17,” Pulver said Thursday, during the county fair. He credited the county’s Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan of 1998 with preventing further decline of working farms in the county.
In the years since the plan was adopted, the Dutchess County has remained committed to farmland preservation and the plan has protected 3,477 acres on 20 farms, said County Executive Marc Molinaro, who is the Republican candidate for governor of New York.
There also is a second effort underway in the county to help farmers, Molinaro said.
“We’re educating farmers, we are educating consumers, and we are creating new opportunities for farmers throughout the region,” he said.
He said the effort, being carried out in cooperation with Cornell Cooperative Extension, aims “to open up new markets and support existing farmers to overcome bureaucratic challenges and create new opportunities for farming.”
Pulver, R-Pine Plains, said the county also is working to develop a “right to farm” legislation to encourage new farmers and support existing ones.
Several farms in Dutchess County have banded together to protect and grow the local farming industry. The Hudson Valley Farm and Food Alliance participated in Thursday’s forum and called their “pooling of resources” a benefit to all of the farms involved.
The alliance is working closely with Dutchess Tourism Inc. to continually improve the agri-tourism business in the county.
Dutchess County Commissioner of Planning Eoin Wrafter said there is the potential to create a “farm trail” for visitors that would be similar to the county’s existing “wine trail” — helping visitors, primarily from New York City, navigate their way
around the county to visit the farms and farm stands.
Agricultural education also was addressed at the forum. Jen Fimble, of the Dutchess County Cornell Cooperative Extension, said John Jay High School in East Fishkill has joined Dutchess County BOCES in offering farm educational programs to high school students. Educating municipalities also is a task assigned to Fimbel.