Bill Owens

Agriculture

Agriculture is a critical part of New York’s economy and a strong tradition I am committed to helping preserve as a member of the House Committee on Agriculture.  Farmers in New York and across the country work hard every day to provide a safe, affordable and abundant food supply, but many have faced hard times in this tough economy.  Ensuring a strong agricultural community is truly a national security issue.

Dairy farmers in particular faced a historic crisis in 2009, when the bottom fell out of milk prices while middle class families continued to pay the same price at the store.  As New York dairy farms struggle to recover from this crisis, I am working in Congress to end to the price instability that has caused such a large part of our economy to suffer for years.  With farmers facing higher costs to grow their crops, feed their livestock and power their operations, we can do more to help.

For years, New York’s family farms have struggled with an inadequate labor supply.  Even with historically high unemployment, I consistently hear from farmers whose job postings in newspapers across the northeast go unanswered.  The unwillingness of Americans to perform the labor-intensive work required by our region’s dairy farms, apple orchards and other specialty crop operations has forced these businesses to rely on skilled immigrant labor.  Although many of these foreign workers have returned to the U.S. for generations to fill this critical need for our family farms, the broken and unreliable H-2A visa program often makes it difficult to impossible to obtain these workers legally.  It is critical that we address this agricultural labor crisis – if we fail to ensure an adequate labor supply, many of New York’s family farms will not survive.

I am proud to serve on the Agriculture Committee, giving the North Country a voice on the panel for the first time in more than one hundred years.  As a member of this committee, I look forward to having a seat at the table as Congress crafts the 2012 Farm Bill, and I will continue to support initiatives that protect farmers and their families – including meaningful change to federal dairy policy.  I will also work to increase exports of local produce and promote efforts to buy local, expand access to credit for family farmers, and promote rural development initiatives including wastewater treatment infrastructure improvements and broadband development.