Dear Governor Paterson and Albany Legislative Leaders:
NYS Dairy Farm Families are experiencing the worst financial crises in decades. Facing 1970's prices for milk while carrying 2009 expenses, they are on the verge of collapse.
Higher costs of doing business in NYS as a result of excessive taxes, regulation and rising energy costs, importation of milk protein concentrate from China and other countries (with little or no tariffs and lower health inspection requirements), as well as federal milk pricing policies that hurt the Northeast must be reversed.
If these threats are unchecked, our state will see the elimination of traditional family farms in NYS, destabilization of upstate and rural economies, loss of agricultural land engaged in sustainable production, decreased food security and food safety as a result of over-dependence on imports, and a larger carbon footprint for the production of food and fiber as consumers pay higher transportation costs to ship food and food products to NYS.
We have lost manufacturing overseas, we are reliant on foreign oil, we are now in debt to many of these outside countries.
We do not want to give up our local food supply!
We desperately urge immediate financial relief and long term changes in public policy to support our family farms before it's too late!
