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Vol. 41 No. 5
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JANUARY 29 - FEBRUARY 4, 2015
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Climate change good for Catskills ag? Less water stress than California
By FRITZ MAYER
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ONTICELLO, NY — A visitor to the Sullivan County Legislature showed lawmakers a map of the world at a meeting of the agricultural and sustainability committee on January 15. The map showed which areas are likely to be most negatively affected by climate change. The impact on the Catskills is going to be much less than other areas. Rebecca Morgan, executive director of the Center for Agricultural Development & Entrepreneurship, said, “This is talking about in the future. You can see that our region is one of the more viable places to grow food. In terms of water stress, again, when you’re projecting out into the future and looking for where water stress will be the most significant, we are very fortunate in that that does not impact us as much as it does other places.” She continued, “This is between now and 2050, [in terms of] crop yields we’re sort of seeing the impacts now in Texas and California. There’s drought and increased difficulty in producing the same quality and quantity of crops. That does present an opportunity to the Catskills. Will the Catskills replace California as the largest produce producing region of the world? No, but will New York City source more produce from the Catskills than California as a result of the drought and the competitive prices we’re able to manage as a result of that? Yes.” Morgan said water-stress also is taking place in the Midwest. She said, “I am seeing that play out in terms of large-scale grass-based beef producers, for example, from the Midwest, that are interested in potentially relocating their operations here because there is an abundance of grass.” She said that 2014 was declared the year of the family farm by the United Nations, and the organization was involved in projects that showed that, “family farms are what’s feeding the world more than these big industrial farms.” She said her organization’s mission is to increase the number of viable farms and works especially in Delaware and Otsego counties, but also to some extent in Sullivan, and has a program designed specifically to help new farmers.
TRR photo by Fritz Mayer
More farmers may be eyeing the Catskills in the future. She said, “I’m one of five children who grew up on a dairy farm in Walton, NY. My parents definitely said, ‘Do not enter farming, go to college, get a different job,’ so our farm got sold, and ironically I wanted to go back and farm it.” She also said more of the energy surrounding the growing local food movement needs to be directed to the producers. “When you walk from block to block in Brooklyn, every other store is a farm-to-market store or restaurant. There is all this cachet and national and New York State
attention, but that support isn’t being translated to the support the producers need on the ground to scale up and meet the market.” She said the Catskills needs to attract investment as a region. Morgan said, “There are people willing to invest in sustainable agriculture because they believe in the mission, and they believe in a low, slow return. It’s very patient capital and that’s the kind of capital needed for agriculture.”
3D printing workshop in Callicoon
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SPANNING 2 STATES, 4 COUNTIES, AND A RIVER THAT UNITES US
CURRENTS: 3 Days of 3D
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