Jenny Mills, NEAFA President
Charlie Elrod, NEAFA Vice-president
May 13th saw us heading back to Albany for a “mini-lobby day” which was targeted to discussing with legislators two bills we were advocating for and three which we were advocating against, as well as thanking the legislators for their very ag-positive New York State budget. As has become the norm, Julie Marlette and Jim Carr from Hinman-Straub did a great job setting up appointments with our Senate and Assemblymembers as well as key ag legislators and members of the Senate Counsel’s office. In all, we had eight appointments across the day.
The two bills we were expressing our support for grew out of the transportation summits we have organized with NEDPA and NY Farm Bureau over the last couple of years. The first was a bill introduced by Senator Skoufis and Assemblymember Lupardo which would establish a program whereby farm trucks would be limited to no more than one DOT safety stop per day. We feel this is a valid concern given that trucks hauling perishable products or livestock should not be subjected to multiple stops for safety inspections which will delay their timely delivery or induce unnecessary stress on animals. In general, we received positive feedback on this bill in our meetings. The second bill, sponsored by the same legislators would provide an exemption to the F and G endorsements on a CDL driver’s license for farm employees operating covered farm trucks within 150 miles of the farm. Given the nationwide shortage of CDL drivers, this bill could be helpful in allowing farms to get crops harvested and transported with available labor. In a couple of discussions we did get some pushback on this bill. Concerns raised included relatively inexperienced drivers driving through small rural villages in tractor trailer trucks, or whether 150 miles was the right radius to use for “local” driving. We are waiting to see if these bills will move ahead.
One bill which we really emphasized our opposition to is one which would direct NYS Department of Ag & Markets to establish a regulatory system to independently evaluate applications for feed or foods which are Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS). This function is already in place federally through the Food and Drug Administration, and for feeds the Center for Veterinary Medicine. There are so many concerns with this including: 1) the cost to the state to create a staff of chemists, toxicologists, biologists, etc. to oversee the GRAS application process; 2) the erosion of confidence in the existing FDA/CVM system which provides us with one of the safest food supplies in the world; 3) the financial and resource burden this would put on businesses making or selling food or feed in NY state. We are pretty optimistic that this bill will not move forward, though it will bounce back in some form in the coming years.
Another bill we registered our opposition to was one in which farms, among many other businesses, would have to provide employees with mitigation from “extreme” temperatures in the workplace. In this case for instance extreme cold was defined as being under 60 degrees. Employees would be able to self- diagnose cold or heat stress and take unlimited, paid breaks to escape the temperature extremes. We pointed out the burden this would place on farm operations in either summer or winter to provide cooling or warming sheds for these breaks as well as to add additional staff to cover for those taking breaks.
Lastly, we opposed the Extended Producer Responsibility bill which really seeks to overhaul the entire solid waste recycling system in NY. Admittedly, the system doesn’t work very well now, with highly variable rates of successful recycling across the state. However, this bill would place a fee on any producer who puts a product in its final package to fund whatever new system was dreamed up (and is at this point completely undefined). We will likely see this issue raised again in the future.
Again, our thanks to Hinman-Straub for their great organization and facilitation of this lobby day. Stay tuned to the NEAFA News for further updates to this year’s legislative session.