Current Situation: So Blue It’s Purple – Past Critical
Two years ago Governor Eliot Spitzer said that parts of Upstate NY “look like Appalachia”. He went on to say that he had a plan to fix it. Well Gov. Spitzer, the farmers are waiting. I am not a farmer, not yet anyway, but I intend to be one and have been talking with a few and have heard the same thing over and over…I can not afford to just farm, I have to have other avenues of income and the State is not supporting me in those efforts.
Another farm is now up for sale in Joe Bruno’s home town, Bruno and his thugs forced the farmer out by not allowing him to have a second source of income in the winter months on his own property. I asked the farmer what he made per acre of corn that he grew and he just laughed. So it struck me that we have two major issues facing farmers in Upstate NY. One, the price they are being paid, and two, not being allowed to do what it takes to keep the farm going.
I stopped to talk with a Dairy Farmer a little further north of Bruno’s town and was told that between the low price of milk on the farmer’s end and the high price of energy that this could be his final year. He owns the most beautiful property with a stream and waterfall. He invited me, a stranger, to go and take a dip the next time I was up that way as it might be the last time I’d have access to it.