The Sun Shines for Spring Fest, A 'Fun-Fab' Day - Albert Wisner ...

12 WARWICK VALLEY DISPATCH, MAY 4, 2005
A Little Bit of Texas, Comes to Pine Island
By Jennifer O’Connor
With a slow “Texas-drawl” and clad in cowboy hats,
while wearing mixed styles of leather jackets, T-shirts and
denim jeans, Texan farmers took to the Black Dirt region of
Pine Island, as part of the Texas Agricultural Lifetime
Leadership (TALL) program. Being accustomed to barbecue-style
boar roasts in their home state, the group dug
into a Polish meal of kielbasa with sauerkraut, pierogis, and
galombki at the W. Rogowski Farm.
But before they had a taste of Poland, Cheryl Rogowski
introduced, the group to, some of the women – immigrants,
from Puebla, Mexico - who work on her farm. “I’m
glad that my girls joined us today,” she said. “They are a little
timid, but without them - this place would not happen.”
During the luncheon, the Texan guests mixed-in well
with the cream of Warwick’s crop, including - local farmers,
Virginia Martin, Al Buckbee, Diana Lupinski, Marie
Pillmeier, Russell Kowal, and Paul Ruszkiewicz, as well as
Linda Glohs, the Executive Director of the Warwick Valley
Chamber of Commerce; Seymour Gordon, PDR; John
Buckley, Assistant Principal at Warwick Valley High School
(WVHS); Nancy Colgan, WVHS Agricultural teacher and
two of her Future Farmers of America (FFA) students.
The students - America’s future farmers, listened
attentively to the agricultural experiences of those in the
TALL program, gaining invaluable insight to the business
as a whole. This year, TALL, joined forces with its “sister”
program – LEAD, New York, an extension of Cornell
University.
About two months ago, Paul Ruszkiewicz and Cheryl
Rogowski, recent graduates of the LEAD, NY program,
toured farms in South Texas and parts of Mexico. “The
Texas programs really helped us out,” said Larry Van De
Valk, Director of the LEAD, NY Program. “When Texas
came to New York, we welcomed them.”
Both of these two-year leadership programs have the
same goals - developing participants leadership skills such
as public speaking; learning about the policy process and
understanding how the local, state and federal government
works, as well as how to influence that process; and help
those in the agricultural community to acquire a greater appreciation
of how agriculture interacts with society as a whole.
In past programs, the TALL group did not tour New
York State. As in the case this year, the TALL group would
go to New York City to get a feel for the metropolitan influence
and the financial markets. Van De Valk convinced Dr.
Jim Mazurkiewicz, the TALL Director, that he needed to
“get outside of Manhattan, to get a greater picture of New
York agriculture.”
Dr. Mazurkiewicz couldn’t have agreed more. “NYC is
a wonderful place of many cultures and people. It’s the
financial capital of the world,” said Mazurkiewicz. “And I
realize that. And I appreciate it and respect that. But they
(the participants) also need to realize that NYS is a large
state within itself. There’s a lot of agriculture here – it’s a
large dairy state and fruit and vegetable state.”
And, that’s an understatement! After all, farming is a
3.7 billion-dollar industry in New York State. “A lot of peo-
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Cheryl Rogowski scoops up some of the black dirt on her farm to show the participants of the TALL group.
ple in agriculture are really good at what they do,” said Van
De Valk, “but they only know a specific part of agriculture.
By giving them a wide variety of issues to look at - this
gives them a better handle on the whole system. Many
people feel that this program is a life changing experience
– it opens their eyes to other opportunities.”
Eyes certainly were opened and the crowd burst into
laughter as Jeff Camp of Wellington, TX said, “Our soil is
as white as yours is black and as poor as yours is rich.”
Camp is the owner and operator of Camp Farms, a producer
of cotton, peanuts, sorghum, small grains, and cattle.
Danny Sosebee, who grew-up in South Texas said, it’s
interesting to see how agriculture functions in a different
area like this (Pine Island). He added, “The challenges they
have to face are just like ours, but in different climates.
They (Farmers in NYS) have to meet against a small market
window, not like - California and Texas.”
Dr. Mazurkiewicz spoke about some of the major
challenges the industry faces as a whole. “We’ve enjoyed a
‘cheap food policy’ since Roosevelt, with about 10% of our
disposal income being spent on food in the United States.
Whereas, in other countries like Mexico they spend 33%
and I think in Japan they probably spend about 40 to 50
%,” said Mazurkiewicz. “So we enjoyed that ‘cheap food
policy’ through subsidizing. But it doesn’t really subsidize
the farmer – it subsidizes the consumer.”
“And it’s a message that we need to get out there,” he
added, “that if you don’t want the program then be willing
to pay more for food, just like we have to pay double for
gasoline today than we did years ago. I see that as a trend
here. The cost of production is escalating in the United
States.”
He also said that regulation, labor and laws are encompassing
a “way-of-life,” in the ability to produce the ‘cheap
food supply.’ Consumers will either want to continue that
policy or it will be moved to South America, China, Russia
and other places of the world. “And we’ll import food and
fiber just like we do gasoline. And we’ll pay the price for
it,” added Mazurkiewicz.
As the group walked onto the soft soil of one of the
Rogowski fields, Cheryl Rogowski said, “We (the LEAD NY
group) were at a ranch in Texas that was 17,000 acres. The
entire Black Dirt region is 14,000 acres. So one of your
ranches is bigger than our entire area.” She then laughed
and said, “You sneeze and we’re gone.”
Yet, after weathering recent floodwaters and the many
obstacles of farming, the Rogowski Farm and other local
farmers are still standing tall. Other than the Rogowski
Farm, the Texas group visited the Ruszkiewicz Onion
Farm, Leonard DeBuck’s Sod Farm, Bellvale Dairy Farms
and Harley Matsil’s Wheat Grass Entrepreneurship and
Marketing.
Library Hosts Water Gardening,
Book Discussion & Plant Sale
On Thurs., May 19 at 7 p.m. the Albert
Wisner Public library will host "Water
Gardening: Establishing and Maintaining a
Water Feature." For gardeners planning to
install a pond this spring or for those who
would like some tips on maintenance and
care, this will be a very informative program.
The presenter will be a Master
Gardener from the Cornell Cooperative
Extension and the program will be a
Slide/Lecture Presentation with a question
and answer period.
Book Discussion
On Sat., May 21 at 2 p.m. the Albert
Wisner Public Library will host a book discussion
of the best seller "The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by
Mark Haddon. Leading the discussion will
be architect be Paul Mays and his wife,
Lisa. Mr. Mays, of the firm, Butler
Rowland Mays, created the design for the
new library building.
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night-Time" is a murder mystery of
sorts told by fifteen-year-old Christopher
John Francis Boone. He knows all the
countries of the world and their capitals
and every prime number up to 7,057. He
relates well to animals but has no understanding
of human emotions. He cannot
stand to be touched and detests the color
yellow. Solving this mystery leads him to
the secrets and mysteries of his own family
life.
Friends of the Library Plant Sale
Calling all garden enthusiasts! The
Friends of the Albert Wisner Public Library
will be hosting their annual Library Plant
Sale on May 22 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. in
Lewis Park on Main St. in Warwick. Rain
or shine the Friends will be selling hardy
perennials, colorful annuals, container
plants, fragrant hanging plants, shrubs,
flats and more! Many of the plants, especially
the perennials, are donated from
existing Warwick gardens.
In addition to plants, homemade
baked goods will be available for the public
to purchase and enjoy. As in years past,
there will be the very popular Raffle
Baskets. These Raffle Baskets will be chock
full of wonderful items and gift certificates
donated by Warwick merchants and
restaurants.
For more information or to register
for these programs call 986-1047.