Rural life forum draws crowd

Farmers and foresters seek sustainability

By FRITZ MAYER

LIBERTY, NY — “Everything I want to do is illegal.” That’s the name of a new book about the challenges of small-scale organic farming.

Local farmer John Gorzynski mentioned the book in making the point that many regulations regarding farming favor agribusinesses over small producers. For instance, he said, a meat grower can’t sell his meat to the public unless it has been processed in a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved facility-and there are none in Sullivan County. And milk can’t be sold to the public unless it has been pasteurized-and there are no pasteurizing facilities in the county.

The regulations keep growing. Because of recent incidents of E. coli-induced illnesses across the country, soon all fresh greens will have to be dipped in a chlorine solution before being sold to the public-regardless of the fact that the greens that caused the sickness had been so dipped.

That was the downside of what Gorzyn-ski had to say. On the upside, he said there is more interest in locally grown, fresh foods than at any time in the past. And, soaring energy prices are having a greater negative impact on large agricultural industries that tend to ship their products thousand of miles, than on local growers who serve local markets, thus making it easier for the little guy to compete.

Gorzynski’s remarks came at a forum called Rural Life in the Catskills held on March 28 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Liberty. The extension, the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, the Sullivan County Department of Planning and Community Development and the Watershed Agricultural Council (WAC) sponsored the event, which drew more than 70 farmers, foresters and other interested residents, business people and local officials.

Also speaking at the event was Will Foster, one of the founders of the Catskills Harvest Market in Liberty, which features products from 38 local producers. Foster stressed the importance of hiring local workers at a living wage, as well as training and promoting them, to maintain a locally sustainable economy. He now employs 12 people full time and intends the hire eight more employees in June.

Another speaker was Challey Comer of WAC, who talked about the Pure Catskills regional buy local campaign. She said there are nearly 60 Sullivan County farms, artisans and businesses listed in the Pure Catskills guide, which covers the six counties that make up the Catskills region.

While much of the discussion was focused on farming, there was also a speaker who addressed the needs of forestry in the region. WAC as an organization is committed to keeping high amounts of farming and forestry land active in the watershed region, because those two activities, according to WAC’s Collin Miller, are the most beneficial to maintaining the purity of the water in the Catskill Watershed, which supplies drinking water to New York City.

The WAC has over 500 private forest landowners active in its forestry program. The organization provides forest management programs and technical grants and advice to people who are in wood-products industries. Collin said forestry and wood operations are facing many of the same challenges of farming operations, such as retaining employees and competing with very large logging and wood-products operations.

Visit www.nycwatershed.org for more information on the WAC forestry and Pure Catskill programs.