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Page 2 Grassroots November 2011 Cuomo announces state flood relief measures By Julie Suarez jsuarez@nyfb.org Gov. Cuomo and a variety of elected officials spent time on two farms in Ulster and Orange counties: Wallkill Valley Nursery and Glebocki Farms. Both these farms, along with many others in the Hudson Valley, watched floodwaters from the Wallkill wash away crops, equipment and damage structures. The governor’s visit coincided with a local press announcement, with numerous elected officials including Sen. John J. Bonacic, Assemblymembers’ Annie Rabbitt, Nancy Calhoun and Aileen Gunther, and facilitated by Commissioner Darrel Aubertine. Gov. Cuomo spoke eloquently about the need to end the partisan bickering in Washington, D.C. to ensure that communities, small businesses and farmers have access to the disaster programs that are needed to help New Yorkers rebuild. He also detailed the actions his administration had taken to help farmers cut red tape – including faster permit issuance from the Department of Environmental Conservation to make emergency conservation repairs and easing the reporting deadline for environmental impairment issues to accommodate farmers stranded and without phones, and electricity. NYFB had also communicated the need to push back several tax reporting deadlines, and applauds the actions taken by the Department of Tax and Finance to take some steps, albeit a little more limited than NYFB would like, to provide a delay in reporting to give farmers who lost their records in the flood the time to recreate the necessary documents. NYFB Vice President Eric Ooms was able to speak from the podium, addressing the numerous farmer members who were present in the audience. “The need to do immediate clean up of debris in our farmer members flooded fields, to stabilize stream banks to prevent additional flooding, and address critical conservation needs is tremendous,” said Ooms. “We’re pleased that the Governor, in the middle of a time of extreme fiscal difficulty, did the right thing and is allocating some funding to help our farmers and communities While the funding won’t make anybody whole, every little bit helps.” NYFB Vice President Eric Ooms talks with Assembly member Aileen Gunther about far the reaching impact of storms from the Northern Capital District area, Southern Tier, to Long Island Commissioner announces $1M specialty crop grants New York State Agriculture Commissioner Darrel J. Aubertine has announced $1 million has been awarded for nine projects that will enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in New York. Specialty crops include fruit, vegetables, maple, honey, horticulture and nursery/landscape. The Specialty Crop Block Grants are funded and approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). “Agriculture is one of our most important economic sectors. These grants help us improve and grow our agricultural economy,” said Aubertine. “We appreciate the support we have received from our members of Congress in obtaining these funds. These grants will better the industry as a whole and make New York crops more competitive.” The competitively awarded projects reflect input the Department received from industry stakeholders about priorities and needs related to research and grower education as well as consumer outreach and market development. A total of $506,652 was awarded for 7 research and grower education projects. In addition to those projects, the Department will be using $447,423.69 to implement two statewide consumer outreach and market development projects that will positively influence all specialty crop commodities throughout the state. A total of 31 applications requesting over $2.2 million were received by the Department for funding. The awarded grants, which were competitively chosen, average $72,000 each and do not require matching funds. The Specialty Crop Block Grants were available to not-for-profit organizations, government entities and educational institutions. Projects were required to benefit a commodity or the industry as a whole and could not benefit a particular commercial product or profit to a single individual or entity. A committee made up of 17 industry representatives with expertise in a wide range of subject areas was assembled to provide technical review and comments for proposals received. The committee and the Department strongly considered the project’s impact on the industry and ability to achieve measurable results in the review and ranking process. USDA gave the final approval to fund the chosen projects. YEAR-ROUND TAX PLANNING ❖ STATE & FEDERAL TAX PREP ❖ ASSET SALES OR TRANSFERS ❖ AUDIT ASSISTANCE Work with a Team That Knows Ag Taxes Inside and Out Monitoring your tax situation year-round is the one sure way to capture valuable financial opportunities. We know, because our agricultural tax specialists spend all year helping businesses like yours develop the best tax strategies to achieve their goals. No matter what or how you farm, the way you handle tax-sensitive decisions today can have a tremendous impact on the future of your operation. Choose a financial partner with a team of experts who know ag taxes from the inside out. Call us today! 800.562.2235 FarmCreditEast.com
November 2011 Grassroots Page 3 Congress passes free trade agreements By M. Kelly Young kyoung@nyfb.org Both houses of Congress voted on and passed the three pending trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama on Oct. 12. Combined, these long-stalled agreements will mean more than $30 million in additional agricultural exports from New York each year. The impact on U.S. agriculture as a whole will be $2.5 billion annually and support up to 22,500 new jobs, based on American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and USDA data. “Finally passing these trade agreements means that New York farmers will begin to see a more level playing field for agricultural exports to these three countries,” said NYFB President Dean Norton. “During the past four years we’ve seen Korea, Columbia and Panama negotiate trade agreements with other countries and U.S. market share has slipped. “With the President and Congress focused on job creation and Governor Cuomo hosting economic development councils across the state, passing these agreements just makes sense. The agreements are estimated to generate $3 million in additional exports annually for fruit and vegetables from New York, $3 million for beef, $2.6 million for dairy and $1 million for grain. Processed products, such as applesauce and canned vegetables, will expand by approximately $12.5 million a year. This growth is exactly the kind of shot in the arm our rural communities and food manufacturers need right now.” NYFB and AFBF supported all three trade deals, which were voted on as separate bills. Voting records for the New York Senators and Representatives are listed in the accompanying chart. The president was expected to sign the three trade agreements quickly. Once signed, the United States can begin the implementation process with Colombia and Panama. The South Korea agreement still needs to be passed by the Korean government, but action in Korea is expected soon. A related Trade Adjustment Assistance package, commonly called TAA, was also passed by the House in October and the Senate in September. Disagreements over this package slowed down the trade deal approvals earlier this year and once it was negotiated, opened the door for the President to send the implementing legislation for the three trade agreements to Congress. TAA will provide the opportunity for producers and workers who have been harmed by imports to receive some support for their losses and give them time to make adjustments if necessary. The funding level is significantly lower than TAA programs in the past; the new program is roughly $900 million over 3 years versus the previous program that was $6 billion over 6 years. Assembly hears direct wine shipping success stories By Julie Suarez jsuarez@nyfb.org How they voted on trade agreements SENATE SENATE S. Korea Columbia Panama Schumer Y N Y HouSE S. Korea Columbia Panama Ackerman Y Y Y Bishop N N N Buerkle Y Y Y Clarke N N N Crowley Y Y Y Engel N Y Y Gibson Y Y Y Grimm Y Y Y Hanna Y Y Y Hayworth Y Y Y Higgins N N N Hinchey N N N Hochul N N N Israel N N N King Y Y Y S. Korea Columbia Panama Gillibrand Y N N S. Korea Columbia Panama Lowey Y N Y Maloney Y N Y McCarthy Y N N Meeks Y Y Y Nadler N N N Owens Y N Y Rangel Y N Y Reed Y Y Y Serrano N N N Slaughter — — — Tonko N N N Towns N N N Turner Y Y Y Velazquez N N N In 2005, NYFB fought a difficult battle against entrenched liquor interests for our grape and wine members. That year, we were able to successfully conclude a 10 year fight to allow our wineries the ability to ship wine directly to a consumer – both in New York State and in states that passed reciprocal agreements to open up their marketplaces to our products. This topic came up recently in Albany, during a hearing held by Assemblymember Schimminger, Chairman of the Assembly Commerce & Economic Development Committee, and Assemblymember Hevesi, Chairman of the Government Oversight & Investigations Committee. Testifying at the hearing were State Liquor Authority Chairman Dennis Rosen, Julie Suarez from NYFB, Sally Jennings from the Wine Institute, and Peter Saltonstall, NYFB member and owner of King Ferry Winery. Chairman Rosen opened the meeting by re-iterating the commitment of the State Liquor Authority and Governor Cuomo to New York’s family grape and wine farmers. In fact, the Chairman actually spoke favorably of the nexus between locally grown products, local farms, and the ability of wineries to navigate on all levels of the three tier structure. Mr. Rosen was strongly supportive of the ability of the state’s wineries to ship wine intra and out of state, and indicated that the wine industry was a significant contributor to our state’s economy. He also pointed out that enforcement issues have been few and far between for wineries shipping directly to consumers, and also mentioned the frustration that he’s heard from member wineries about the complexity and the difficulty of the conflicting and confusing alcoholic beverage control regulations and required reports. Speaking for NYFB, Julie Suarez indicated that a quick look into wine industry statistics proves the point that direct shipping has been good for New York’s economy and for our wine and grape farmer members. “In fact, many of the arguments NYFB used during the direct shipment fight have been shown MIllbrook Vineyards, in the Hudson Valley has built a brisk business on directly shipping internet orders. to be the case – wine writers are regularly reviewing our members products, and the percentage of wine in New York sold through a distributor from 2000 to 2009 has actually doubled,” said Suarez. “This is important because during the direct shipment battle, our wineries kept hearing that we would be flooded with California wine and unable to compete. Not only have we shown we can compete, we’ve shown that the attention paid to our wines now by the national press has enabled our wineries to expand, doubling not only the amount of products sold through distributors but also doubling the amount of wine shipped into out of state markets,” continued Suarez. NYFB’s testimony can be found on our website at www.nyfb.org. Pete Saltonstall, a leading advocate for direct shipment, indicated that for his business capturing the tourism dollar has been extremely important. “All I wanted was to be able to say to my customers, yes, I can continue to ship wine to you after you’ve gone to your home in Florida for the winter.” “Direct shipment has meant that I am able, as a smaller winery that can’t access the standard distribution chain, to directly sell to the customers who come to my winery every summer,” said Saltonstall.
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