New York’s agriculture industry is changing, according to the state’s agriculture commissioner, with the dairy industry going through a right-sizing and other new types of farms coming online.

Richard Ball, state agriculture commissioner, discussed what he sees happening in the state’s agriculture industry with members of a Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Environmental Conservation earlier month. Among the topics Ball discussed is what he termed as a right-sizing of the state’s dairy industry. Statistics, such as the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Census of Agriculture, didn’t provide much shocking information to Ball. Chautauqua County, over a five-year period, has seen the number of farms decrease by 19% – a rate much higher than the state decrease of 6%, according to a Cornell Cooperative Extension report released earlier this month of the 2017 Ag Census Data.

The county’s two largest industries, dairy and grape, continue to remain the driving forces of the county’s agricultural industry. The most recent Census of Agriculture was released last spring and showed 159 dairy farms produced $74,993,000 in market value of milk. About 342 fruit farms produced $42,556,000 in market value of products. Both industries saw a reduction in the number of farms by 21%, but an increase in the market value of products by 2.5% for dairy and 12% for fruit. Direct to consumer sales are increasing, and showed a value of $3,501,000, an increase of 63% from 2012 for the county.

“I think dairy is in a right-sizing,” Ball said of the statewide agriculture industry. “We’re seeing a lot of farmers exit because of the impact of four very difficult years for them. Perhaps there’s not another generation there. But there is still optimism in dairy. There are still young people starting out in dairy. I think the largest growth we’ve seen is in small farms, in vegetables and fruits, the Farm to Table movement, the growth of CSAs and farmers markets and those types of things. It’s a sober market. It’s a mature market, but there is optimism there. We’re seeing innovating niche marketing happening in a lot of places.”

Ball spoke of a renewed interest in farming during discussions he has had in high schools and at groups at the State Universities at Cobleskill and Morrisville as well as at Cornell University. Much as there has been a discussion of the pending shortage of skilled labor positions in manufacturing as one generation of workers retires, Ball said it is important to draw young people into agriculture as a career. Twenty-three percent of farms in New York do not have a next generation of ownership identified on the farm, a statistic Ball identified as a problem because 1% of the state’s population grows 99% of its food supply. The economic impact of agriculture extends beyond the simple farm-buyer relationship, he said.

“If you think about the food system you think a little bigger,” Ball said. “You think about logistics, transportation, food safety, Blockchain technology, drone technology. Suddenly we’re talking about 23% of the jobs in the country. Suddenly you’re talking about 43 million people that work in the food system. Suddenly we’re not a minority. Suddenly we’re thinking a little bit differently. So I think identifying in my mind as I get around farms in the state, is we don’t have enough workers on the farms. I see we don’t have enough middle management, enough senior management, enough young ownership, and in food and beverage industries, dairy plants, we need more skills. I think our challenge really then is to connect career paths in the food systems not just to our college kids, where we do a great job of educating them when we get them to Cornell or to our land grant system, but in junior high school or grade school connecting the dots toward the farm career path that will bring you to an opportunity.”

The legislature’s Farm Labor Fair Practices Act created headlines last year and lobbying opposition from the state’s agriculture industry, though Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Binghamton and Assembly Agriculture Committee chairperson, said the state Legislature has worked hard to raise the importance of the agriculture industry. She expressed disappointment in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s veto of legislation to create an Agricultural Investment Task Force. While the bill was vetoed, Lupardo said it is important for agriculture’s issues to be discussed in the context of the state economy.

“I think what we were trying to say there, even though the bill was vetoed, what we were trying to say is that a discussion of agriculture should be intertwined with some of the other departments where we are typically siloed – the state Education Department, Empire State Development, the DOT, even the DEC. Some of the topics we would have gotten into with that, I think, is where we are now, at a turning point.”

Lupardo asked Ball to explain to legislators the role farms play in reaching the state’s climate goals as outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires the state to reach a net-zero for greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It would accomplish that goal by cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, offsetting the remaining 15% of greenhouse gas emissions with reforestation projects, wetland restoration or other environmentally friendly projects and requiring 70% of the state’s electricity to be produced by renewable sources like wind or hydropower by 2030.

“I am particularly excited about climate because every day for farming, since I was 18 years old, I have seen the changes and the evolution, the way we take care of our soils, the way we manage issues around climate,” Ball said. “We’ve had unfortunately in the last few years the worst drought in the history of New York state, the worst wet years in the history of New York state, flooding in various parts of our state. So I think our opportunity is to make sure as we move forward with climate resiliency that agriculture is at the table and we manage our farms.”