We are proud to support ANCA, local small family farms, and local small businesses.
Earl Butz - yeah right - was dead wrong. He was assistant Secretary of Agriculture under Eisenhower and Secretary of Agriculture under Nixon and Ford.
His mantra to farmers was "get big or get out,” and he urged farmers to plant commodity crops such as corn "from fencerow to fencerow." These policy shifts coincided with the rise of major agribusiness corporations, and the declining financial stability of the small family farm.
Fifty years later, we gotta lotta big Butz. This trend has rendered untold damage on rural communities, food quality, human health, farm labor, and animal welfare. The pursuit of "cheap food" with wrongheaded policies, practices and processes has left America fat and sick with healthcare costs as one of the major socio-economic challenges of our time. "Cheap food" comes with massive externalities that far outweigh the costs of affordable, clean, healthy food - and sound food policy.
Our rural economies should drive agricultural diversification and environmentally restorative farms that make clean and organic food in economically vibrant communities. Upstate New York can and should become the cornucopia for the Manhattan Metropolitan / Tri-State Area.
We applaud ANCA’s work to pursue this path in Northern New York.