Farm bill opponents cheer defeat

Vote reflects Aubertine's work to show colleagues how bill would undercut state's top industry

ALBANY (August 3, 2010)—State Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine said today that the open and public debate on farm worker legislation over the past year has brought to light the damage this legislation would have on New York State's farms. As a result, the bill was defeated on the floor of the Senate today.

“Through open and honest public debate, we have seen that the very population this legislation is intended to benefit would suffer if it were passed into law,” said Sen. Aubertine, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “We've worked across party lines with open and public hearings, roundtables and debate. Time and time again we've seen that well-meaning advocates have pushed this bill without recognizing the negative impact it would have on the farm workers it is intended to benefit. We need legislation that benefits farmers, farm workers and consumers alike, not legislation that will force farms out of business, limit the wages earned by workers, and dry up supplies of local produce for consumers.”

The latest version of the Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act was introduced in June and like previous versions, it would have added onerous new regulations and mandates on the state's dwindling number of farms, large and small, with or without full-time employees, as well as increased payroll expenses. Over the past 30 years, New York State has lost farms at a rate of more than one per day.

“Agriculture remains New York State's number one industry, but our farmers are struggling,” Sen. Aubertine said. “Farmers are price takers and too often those prices are not high enough to cover expenses. We need to find ways to reduce costs and alleviate the regulatory burden. Voting down this bill today is an affirmation of our agriculture industries and our efforts to ensure safe, local food is made available to consumers by workers who in New York are among the best paid and most protected farm workers in this nation. Protecting the bottom line for our farms is the best way to ensure that we have a safe, stable food supply that is produced responsibly here in New York.”

Sen. Aubertine throughout his tenure as Agriculture Committee chair has visited farms and met with agricultural interests across the state to discuss agriculture issues, including this legislation, and held a public hearing in Watertown that included discussion on the issue. The Senate Agriculture Committee held a public hearing on March 1 exclusively on this legislation to gather input from supporters and critics of the bill and on April 20 it was defeated in committee nearly unanimously with just one of nine committee members voting in favor of the legislation.

The Senator has worked with his colleagues, including some who had previously sponsored versions of this bill, to demonstrate the impact the bill would have on New York State's farms, which support hundreds of thousands of jobs on and off the farm across the state. This work ensured that despite one Senator's actions to force a vote on the bill, the bill was in fact defeated.

Job crushing legislation would have caused farmers to close barn doors

ALBANY - Farmers from across New York today applauded another State Senate "No" vote on an Omnibus Farmworker Labor Bill that would have shuttered barn doors across the state.

"By killing this bill once and for all, Albany has shown a commitment to the future of farming and the Upstate rural economy," said Dean Norton, president of New York Farm Bureau.

"Had this bill gone through, it would have seriously damaged the ability of our local farms to produce local food for local people," Norton said.

'We're grateful to Senators Darrel Aubertine and Catherine Young for their hard work to educate their colleagues on the devastating effects this bill would have on agriculture and the rural economy," Norton said.

An earlier version of the bill was soundly defeated April 21 in the Senate Agriculture Committee. Similar legislation in California was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger last month.

The bill defeated in New York today, identical to the bill killed previously, didn't even receive a hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee, even though it was aimed wholly at the farm industry.

"Certain Senate leaders tried to circumvent a review of this bill by the committee that represents the constituency most affected by it," Norton said. "Sneaky parliamentary procedure was no match for the obvious flaws in this legislation and the massive negative impact it would have on family farms if it passed."

New York Farm Bureau was at the forefront of a furious yearlong grassroots lobbying effort to defeat the bill and to educate the public, countering the defaming rhetoric of the self appointed advocacy groups that included well-funded corporate labor groups from New York City.

The farmworker legislation would have driven up production costs and labor regulations to a level that would rank New York second only to California, a state with a much a larger agriculture industry, better growing degree days and significantly larger farms.

New York already is a high cost labor state, recognizing that workers are valuable and critical to the farm's success. For every $100 in food produced, New York farmers paid $13.82 to farm workers on average – compared to the national average of $8.88.

"We are proud of the farmers and Senators who spoke out against this bill and once again sent it to its defeat," Norton said. "Should it reappear again, we will fight with the same vigor and determination to kill it once again."