Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
is a major component of the
New York economy.
[ As of the 2012 ]census of agriculture
A census of agriculture is a statistical operation for collecting, processing and disseminating data on the structure of agriculture, covering the whole or a significant part of a country. Typical structural data collected in a census of agricultur ...
, there were over 35,000 farms covering an area of which contributed $5.4 billion in gross sales value and $1.2 billion in net farm income to the national economy. Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or ...
alone accounted for $2.5 billion or 45% of sales. The Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...
region is the center of state agriculture, and the state is a top-ten national producer of cow milk, apples, grapes, onions, sweet corn, tomatoes, and maple syrup.[
]
Major agricultural products
Of the $5.4 billion in sales value reported the 2012 census of agriculture, 58% was from the value of livestock, poultry, and their products, and 42% was from crops, including nursery and greenhouse crops.[ Cow dairy alone accounted for 44.6% of sales value and ranked third nationally, and in 1998 the state was ranked second in apple production, third in corn ]silage
Silage () is a type of fodder made from green foliage crops which have been preserved by fermentation to the point of acidification. It can be fed to cattle, sheep and other such ruminants (cud-chewing animals). The fermentation and storage p ...
, fourth in tart cherries, seventh in strawberries, and tenth in potatoes, and is also a top-ten national producer of grapes, onions, sweet corn, tomatoes, and maple syrup.[
]
Livestock, poultry, and their products
The New York cow dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or ...
industry created over $2.5 billion in milk sales value in 2015 and $2.4 billion in 2012, accounting for 44.6% of all agricultural sales value and making New York the 3rd largest cow milk producer in the country by sales.[ Dairy products make up the majority of the state's foreign agricultural exports.]
Crops
New York is a top-ten national producer of apples, grapes, onions, sweet corn, tomatoes, and maple syrup. In 1998, the state ranked second in apples, third in corn silage
Silage () is a type of fodder made from green foliage crops which have been preserved by fermentation to the point of acidification. It can be fed to cattle, sheep and other such ruminants (cud-chewing animals). The fermentation and storage p ...
, fourth in tart cherries, seventh in strawberries, and tenth in potatoes.[ Crops accounted for $2.25 billion in sales in 2012.][
Some sources rank ]potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es as number one in economic value among vegetables. New York is also top-two or -three nationwide in cabbage
Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of ''Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.&nb ...
acreage and production, and it's also been claimed that cabbage is the highest earning vegetable in the state. There are over fifty thousand acres of apple orchards and approximately 694 commercial apple growers, concentrated in the Champlain Valley
The Champlain Valley is a region of the United States around Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York extending north slightly into Quebec, Canada. It is part of the St. Lawrence River drainage basin, drained northward by the Richelieu River into ...
, Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
, Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...
and Niagara Frontier
The Niagara Frontier refers to the stretch of land in the United States that is south of Lake Ontario and north of Lake Erie, and extends westward to Cleveland, Ohio. The term dates to the War of 1812, when the northern border was in contention b ...
regions.
Regions
The top five counties by sales value in 2012 were Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
, Cayuga Cayuga often refers to:
* Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy
* Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga
Cayuga may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Cayuga, Ontario
United States
* Cayuga, Illinois ...
, Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, Genesee
Genesee, derived from the Seneca word for "pleasant valley", may refer to:
Geographic features Canada
*Genesee, Alberta, an unincorporated community
United States
*Genesee, California
*Genesee, Colorado
*Genesee County, Michigan
*Genesee Co ...
, and St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...
counties.[ In the ]Western New York
Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all sources agree WNY in ...
region, Chautauqua County is the state's top producer of grapes while Allegany County is the state's top producer of hogs and pigs.[
]
Honeoye soil, located mainly on the low plateau in the northern part of the Appalachian Plateau
The Appalachian Plateau is a series of rugged dissected plateaus located on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains are a mountain range that run down the Eastern United States.
The Appalachian Plateau is the nort ...
, in the southern part of the Ontario Lowland
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Cana ...
, and Mohawk Valley
The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains, northwest of the Capital District. As of the 2010 United States Census, th ...
, is recognized as one of the most productive agricultural soils and as the quasi-official New York state soil.[
The Black Dirt Region is a super-fertile region of ]muck
Muck most often refers to:
*Muck (soil), a soil made up primarily of humus from drained swampland
Muck may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Muck, Scotland, an island
* Isle of Muck, County Antrim, a small island connected by sand spit to Portmu ...
located in southern Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
within the Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
region, northwest of New York City. Muck soils are defined by the USDA as made up of relatively deep organic deposits of partially or almost completely decomposed plant material.[
]
Government
The NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets (Ag Department) enforces laws relating to agriculture, weights and measures
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multip ...
, and the production, processing, transportation, storage, marketing and distributing of food.[ The Soil and Water Conservation Committee (SWCC) is an independent agency within the department that supports natural resources management through the support of ]water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
and soil conservation
Soil conservation is the prevention of loss of the topmost layer of the soil from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination.
Slash-and-burn and other unsust ...
districts.
In 2012, New York received $6.01 billion in agricultural subsidies
An agricultural subsidy (also called an agricultural incentive) is a government incentive paid to agribusinesses, agricultural organizations and farms to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and influence the ...
, ranking second with 10% of the total nationwide. The SWCC administers the Nonpoint Source Abatement and Control Grant Program which can share up to 75% of costs for controlling agricultural nonpoint source pollution
Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution refers to diffuse contamination (or pollution) of water or air that does not originate from a single discrete source. This type of pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered ...
, and the Climate Resilient Farming Program for reducing agricultural impacts on climate change (e.g., agricultural waste storage cover and flare systems; on-farm riparian, floodplain, and upland water management systems; and soil health
Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong ...
systems). The Dairy Acceleration Program assists dairy farms, and is administered by the Ag Department and NYS Environmental Conservation Department and coordinated by the Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY program.[ The Excelsior Jobs Program is administered by the NYS Economic Development Department and encourages creation of jobs and investments in industries such as agriculture.][ The Ag Department also administers the ]Good Agricultural Practices
Good agricultural practice (GAP) is a certification system for agriculture, specifying procedures (and attendant documentation) that must be implemented to create food for consumers or further processing that is safe and wholesome, using sustaina ...
(GAP)/Good Handling Practices (GHP) Certification Assistance Program is a cost sharing and reimbursement program assisting with the cost of a GAP/GHP food safety audit.[
The US ]Natural Resources Conservation Service
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners an ...
continues to set standards for water conservation best management practices
Best or The Best may refer to:
People
* Best (surname), people with the surname Best
* Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer
Companies and organizations
* Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain
* Best Lock Corporation, ...
(BMP) and administers farm bill
In the United States, the farm bill is the primary agricultural and food policy instrument of the federal government. Every five years, Congress deals with the renewal and revision of the comprehensive omnibus bill. Johnson, R. and Monke, J. (8 ...
conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a United States government program designed to assist farmers in improving environmental quality, particularly water quality and soil conservation. Congress established the program in the 1996 ...
(EQIP), Agricultural Management Assistance Program
In United States federal agriculture legislation, the Agricultural Management Assistance Program was authorized in the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-224, Sec. 133) and permanently authorized and amended in the 2002 farm bill ( ...
(AMA), Conservation Stewardship Program
The Conservation Security Program (CSP) was a voluntary conservation program in the United States that supported stewardship of private agricultural lands by providing payments and technical assistance for maintaining and enhancing natural resou ...
(CSP), Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) — The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) renamed the Farmland Protection Program (FPP) to the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program in 2003 to accurately reflect the resources eligible to ...
(FRPP), Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program is a program established by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (the Farm Bill) to promote voluntary implementation of on-farm management practices to develop habitat for wetland and up ...
(WHIP), and the Wetlands Reserve Program
The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) was a voluntary program offering landowners the opportunity to protect, restore, and enhance wetlands on their property. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers the program with fundin ...
(WRP).[
]
Employment
In 2012, there were 61,000 agricultural jobs resulting in $731 million in payroll expenses, from 10,000 farms (29% of all farms).[ There were also an additional 56,000 farm operators, with 75% being over 45 years old and the average age being 55 years old.][ In 2015, the dairy industry alone hired almost 20,000 people.]
Farm Credit East has reported that among those farmers that use the H-2A Visa
An H-2A visa allows a foreign national worker into the United States for temporary agricultural work. There are several requirements of the employer in regard to this visa. The H-2A temporary agricultural program establishes a means for agricu ...
program, which is already heavily regulated and burdensome, many have reported it's becoming increasingly unworkable due to significant and unexpected delays, and reiterated longstanding concerns with an inadequate labor supply. The cow dairy industry uses permanent employees who are ineligible for H-2A Visa
An H-2A visa allows a foreign national worker into the United States for temporary agricultural work. There are several requirements of the employer in regard to this visa. The H-2A temporary agricultural program establishes a means for agricu ...
s, causing problems with labor supply and making it a target for immigration enforcement
Immigration Enforcement (IE) is a law enforcement command within the Home Office, responsible for enforcing immigration law across United Kingdom. The force was part of the now defunct UK Border Agency from its establishment in 2008 until Hom ...
. Responding to the 2016 proposed $15 minimum wage increase, Farm Credit East argued that it would reduce farm net income
In business and accounting, net income (also total comprehensive income, net earnings, net profit, bottom line, sales profit, or credit sales) is an entity's income minus cost of goods sold, expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest, a ...
by 31–51% due to farm's general inability to pass-on costs in a global market.
Education
Both 4-H and FFA are national youth organizations
The following is a list of youth organizations. A youth organization is a type of organization with a focus upon providing activities and socialization for minors. In this list, most organizations are international unless noted otherwise.
...
traditionally focused on agriculture and farming. Farm Credit East maintains a scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
program for those pursuing a post-high school education (including colleges and technical schools) who can demonstrate an intention for a career in agriculture, forestry or commercial fishing. Farm Credit East also maintains a scholarship program for teachers attending an institute of the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education
In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
(CASE).
Pathways in Technology Early College High School (PTECH) is an early college high school
The Early College High School Initiative in the United States allows students to receive a high school diploma and an associate degree, or up to two years of college credit, by taking a mixture of high school and college classes. This differs from ...
partnership between SUNY Cobleskill
The State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill (SUNY Cobleskill) is a public college in Cobleskill, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It began as the Schoharie State S ...
, Fulton–Montgomery Community College, Hamilton–Fulton–Montgomery BOCES
The Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES //) is a program of shared educational services provided to school districts by the New York State Legislature.
History
BOCES owes its origin to a state legislative enactment authorizing the f ...
, and other businesses focusing on agriculture and other pathways. The Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
The New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University (CALS or Ag School) is a statutory college and one of the four New York State contract colleges on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. With enrollmen ...
(CALS or Ag School) in Ithaca
Ithaca most commonly refers to:
*Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey''
*Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca
*Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College
Ithaca, Ithaka ...
is New York's land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
and statutory college
In American higher education, particular to the state of New York, a statutory college or contract college is a college or school that is a component of an independent, private university that has been designated by the state legislature to rece ...
of agriculture supervised by the State University of New York
The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...
(SUNY) system.[ The CALS PRO-DAIRY program focuses on educational programming and applied research for the New York dairy industry.
]
History
The majority of the New York soils were formed from glacial till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
and outwash
An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and ca ...
deposits. Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
agriculture from the 1300s onwards centered on the " Three Sisters"—beans, corn, and squash.
By the 1840s and 1850s, the New York and Erie Rail Road
The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...
was shipping fresh milk from the Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
to New York City, helping alleviate the city's scourge of swill milk
The swill milk scandal was a major adulterated food scandal in New York (state), New York in the 1850s. ''The New York Times'' reported an estimate that in one year 8,000 infants died from swill milk.
Name
''Swill milk'' referred to milk from co ...
, and New York state became the largest national dairy producer when dairy farming was becoming increasingly professional and industrialized. Dairy producers have historically been widely distributed, weakening their bargaining power, and beginning in the 1870s became increasingly dominated by dealers.[ After an 1883 milk strike, dealers became increasingly consolidated, and after a failed milk strike in 1902, producer cooperatives became increasing consolidated; the 1907 ]Dairymen's League
Dairylea Cooperative Inc. was a dairy cooperative which was founded in 1907 as The Dairymen's League when group of dairy farmers in Orange County, New York united to increase their bargaining power. In the 1920s, the Cooperative's membership had i ...
formed an alliance with the Borden Condensed Milk Company in 1922, who along with Sheffield Farms
The Sheffield Farms–Slawson–Decker Company, known as Sheffield Farms, was a dairy that pasteurized, bottled, and delivered milk in New York City in the first half of the 20th century. It became one of the largest dairy companies in the world, ...
would become the "Big 3".[ The ]interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
saw the establishment then disestablishment of the state Milk Control Board, producers' bargaining agencies and dealers' bargaining agencies, and the establishment (still in use) of the New York–New Jersey federal–state milk marketing order Marketing orders and agreements in Agricultural policy of the United States, United States agricultural policy allow producers to promote orderly marketing through collectively influencing the supply, demand, or price of a particular commodity. Rese ...
and the system of milk pooling, classification Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood.
Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes.
It may also refer to:
Business, organizat ...
and blended pricing.[ (August 9, 1938); (August 27, 1938); (August 27, 1938); (July 2, 1957).]
References
External links
New York State 4-H
New York FFA
AgLab
from the USDA Agricultural Research Service
PTECH
from the HFM BOCES
Cornell Cooperative Extension
New York State Agricultural Experiment Station
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets
{{New York