Issue Position: Agriculture

Issue Position

Our Assembly District is blessed to have hundreds of family farms--including our unique Black Dirt Region--providing fresh, nutritious, and locally sourced food to our communities and beyond. In New York's multibillion-dollar agriculture industry, our small farms need to have an even playing field with "big agriculture." I understand the need for our farms to be able to obtain affordable crop insurance, to have easy and legal access to seasonal labor, and to have a partner--not an adversary--in creation and enforcement of environmental and conservation regulations. I understand how devastating the floods have been in the Black Dirt Region in recent years, and I am determined to get the DEC to stop standing in the way of clearing the Wallkill River channel. I've gone toe-to-toe with DEC as Town Supervisor of Deerpark, and I won't back down. New York needs its family farms, and I will be proud to be an advocate for our farmers, so that the generations of work that have gone into this precious resource will be continued for generations to come.

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