Register Now for the NEAFA Annual Meeting

Join the 2023 NEAFA Annual Meeting, taking place February 7th and 8th in Albany, NY

Charlie Elrod, Ph.D., President & CEO, Natural Biologics, Inc. and NEAFA Board Member

Plan now to attend the 2023 NEAFA Annual Meeting, to be held in Albany NY on February 7 and 8.  This marks a return to Albany since our last meeting there in 2020 and a unique collaboration with the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA).  The theme of this year’s meeting is “Tackling Today’s Disruptions” and will address several strategies to make all of our businesses more resilient in the future.  

The afternoon of the 7th will be a joint meeting with NEDPA members, kicking off with a discussion of today’s dairy economy followed by some of the challenges and opportunities faced by dairy producers.  Such topics as labor challenges, policy and legislative initiatives and broader macroeconomic trends will be explored.  Also in collaboration with NEDPA, we will then move into a Transportation Summit and drill down into this critical aspect of our industry.  Driver availability, training and licensing will be followed by discussions of the bottlenecks present in our industry whether we’re hauling milk, commodities or finished feed.  With insight from leaders of farms, processors, government and feedmills, we’ll discuss the challenges and potential solutions to preventing our industry being derailed by transportation issues.

On Wednesday, in addition to our usual business meeting and election of officers, we’ll hear again from Dr. Chris Wolf on the economic issues we are all facing in our lives and businesses.  The ever-popular producer panel will be facilitated by Eileen Jensen of the NY Animal Agriculture Alliance discussing various ways that dairy producers engage with social media to proactively portray their operations.  This is an increasingly important role that we can all play to offset many of the misleading and negative stereotypes of the dairy industry as antibiotic- and animal-abusing, water- and air-polluting factory farms. 

Lastly, we’ll wrap up with the Annual Awards Lunch in which we’ll recognize the tremendous contributions of the awardee of our Distinguished Service Award and our retiring board members.  Todd Thurman will be our keynote speaker and share with us his perspective on China’s Future and the Impact on American Agriculture. For more information, click here. Registration is also open, and you can sign up now by clicking here.  We look forward to seeing you in Albany!

NEAFA Member Highlight: Kreher Family Farms

Kreher Family Farms location. Photo provided

By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA

Kreher Family Farms, which sells a wide variety of products including eggs, grain, composted manure, fertilizer, produce, and flowers, is based out of Clarence, NY, and is entering its 99th year of business in 2023. Started by Henry and Wilhelmina Kreher in 1924, the farm is currently in the middle of transitioning between the third and fourth generations. “We have nine family member owners in the business right now,” said Brian Kreher. “Two are retiring at the end of this year, and two have already retired as well. Making a transition like this is a complicated process, and we are fortunate to have the right people helping us through it. It will be quite some time that the 3rd generation is involved along side the 4th generation. My youngest uncle for example is closer in age to my generation than he is to his oldest sibling.”

Having a business with such a long history to it also means that Kreher Family Farms has had the chance to diversify the portfolio of products it can offer. “Each of the family owners has their own responsibilities on the farm,” said Kreher. “My brother Mike focuses on growing crops, and I focus on eggs for example. We’ve got egg farms in Clarence, Basom, and Wolcott, which means that we can supply anything from conventional white eggs to pasture raised organic.  We’re the Eggland’s Best franchise for upstate NY. We also have a conventional grain operation based out of our Wolcott farm, and we have organic crop farms for our animal feed needs throughout Western NY - Brockport, Clarence, Basom, for example. We also recently partnered with W. D. Henry and Son’s in Eden, NY for their vegetable, flower, and greenhouse operation, so that we can offer those products as well.

While Kreher, took time away from the family business, the plan was always in place if he wanted to return. “Farming has been in my dna since I was a kid,” said Kreher. “The bus dropped me off at the farm after school, and I worked here on the weekends. I’ve been caring for chickens since I was old enough to do so. The farm has always been something that I’ve thought of as home. Part of the succession planning for the family business meant that I had to get off the farm for a while and do my own thing,” said Kreher. I graduated with my Bachelor’s from Cornell in 2004, where I majored in food industry management. After that, I was very fortunate to work for Daymon Worldwide for a decade, before returning to the farm in 2015. That year was the perfect opportunity for me. I felt like I needed to change, and the farm was at spot in its business cycle where there was a spot for me. It has been a tremendous experience working with, for, and for the benefit of the family. That feeling isn’t something that I got working elsewhere, as great as those businesses are. I have to thank Daymon Worldwide though for the experience that they gave me. That job gave me the opportunity to work with a variety of different super market chains; Winn Dixie, Safeway, and Wegman’s primarily. It gave me the experience to know what they’re looking for in their suppliers, which is huge for the farm, to know what they need. My cousin Natalie has a similar background. The egg industry is very different from some other agricultural businesses. We don’t sell to a co-operative or a consortium; we deal directly with supermarket chains to get our products out to consumers.”

For Kreher, the largest industry concern currently is continued vigilance with bio-security. “We’ve always been forward thinking with bio security and protecting our hens from avian diseases,” said Kreher. “The entire industry is very concerned about avian influenza. The shortage of eggs that the outbreak has put on the country is hard on everyone involved. We would all prefer the price of eggs to be where it is because consumers are eating more eggs, and not because we’re dealing with a challenge in the industry. While feed prices have gone up dramatically, price increases are really due to the worldwide shortage of eggs. It’s also made things more complicated with getting the next generation involved. It’s not like when I was a kid, because of safety and bio-security measures. They all enjoy their time on the farm though, and we get them out and involved as much as possible.”

Looking towards the future, Kreher is working towards converting more of their production to cage free, to better match consumer’s needs. “Our organic farms and pasture eggs are already cage free obviously, but within the next year the plan is to convert a significant portion of our conventional production to cage free as well,” said Kreher. “That is exciting for our family and we’re looking forward to that conversion as that expansion occurs. The good thing about it is our family already has experience with cage free. There are animal welfare changes in how you manage the birds, which is not going to be difficult for our business to do, since we’ve done it for 10 years with our organic farm.”

Kreher also values NEAFA’s impact on agriculture. “The efforts that NEAFA has put in to working on behalf of the ag community is very much appreciated by our family. The educational aspects of NEAFA has directly enriched our family’s business through the newsletter and their outreach. We’re proud to be long time members of such a great organization.”

For more information on Kreher Family Farms, https://www.krehereggs.com/ 

December 2022 President's Pen

Congratulations to Sue VanAmburgh for her new role as the Executive Administrator for NEAFA!

By Danielle Penney-Stroop, NEAFA President

Happy Holidays Everyone! Wishing you, your families, and your employees a safe, healthy, and blessed holiday season!   

As 2022 closes, I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Mitchell for coming out of retirement and serving as our Interim Executive Director this past year. We appreciate the time, service, and effort John put forth supporting the Alliance, recruiting new members, and assisting with our meetings and summits. He provided us with regular insight on the evolution of the membership and industry. Thank you John!   

A huge thank you to Rick Zimmerman, who will officially be retiring December 31. Rick has served for over 15 years as NEAFA’s lobbyist and lead advocate, in addition to his role of Executive Director. We cannot thank Rick enough for all his years of service and dedication to NEAFA, collaborative partners, and the entire agricultural industry.  His years of service have been invaluable and critical for many of our legislative successes in New York and New England agriculture. We wish Rick all the best as he pursues this next exciting chapter with his ever-growing family.  

The NEAFA board would like to express our sincere gratitude to the backbone of our organization - Sue VanAmburgh. We would not have made it through this transitional year without the support, determination, and endurance from Sue. Sue’s official title was Executive Assistant, although she has lovingly been referred to as our Chaos Coordinator. We are excited to announce that this upcoming year Sue will transition to the role of Executive Administrator for NEAFA.    

I would like to commend and thank the NEAFA Executive team and entire Board of Directors for their input and discussions regarding the evolving and dynamic future of our organization. We have been faced with declining membership, mostly due to industry consolidation, budgetary shortfalls, leadership challenges and changes (just to name a few). The decisions have not always been clear or easily navigated, but I commend the board for taking the time to weigh all our options and make the decisions that we are confident are in our members’ best interests moving forward. We continue to recognize that advocacy and lobbying are the largest value proposition to our membership, and will continue to be our key pillar of NEAFA.

The NEAFA board of Directors met Monday December 5th, for our virtual board meeting.  During this meeting the board voted on several organizational initiatives for the 2023 calendar year and we are very excited to announce the following:

• For our legislative and advocacy efforts, we have hired Hinman Straub Associates to represent us.   The month of November the executive team exacted our due diligence as we interviewed 4 various legislative and advocacy firms and presented the proposals and feedback to the Board of Directors. Ultimately the board unanimously selected Hinman Straub, capitalizing on the synergistic relationship with Corning Place Communications (CPP). We will have an increased efficiency on our communications and messaging from both Hinman and CPP, that will elevate our advocacy efforts for our membership.    We have an exciting and unique opportunity ahead of us this next year, with the input and leadership of the entire executive team. We are most excited for this collaborative team effort and capitalizing on their expertise! Hinman Straub will be present and introduce themselves to all of you at our annual meeting in February and we are tentatively planning for our lobby day in March. I encourage everyone to come out and attend.    

• The board of directors also voted that for the 2023 year, we will be operating without an Executive Director. In an effort to be fiscally responsible to our membership, and cover the increased costs of our legislative and advocacy work – the NEAFA Executive team & board of directors have committed their time and effort to cover the various roles assumed by an Executive Director. With the assistance of Sue VanAmburgh and the executive team, I have the utmost confidence that we will continue to Advocate, Collaborate and Educate and bring each of our members the continued value of a healthy, viable, evolving organization. 

• In regards to our advocacy and lobbying efforts in VT, and the New England states we have started conversations with the VT Dairy Producers Association on collaborative legislative fronts and potential partnerships to maximize the efforts and representation of all our members. More details to come at our annual meeting in February.   

In closing, I would like to bring everyone’s attention to this year’s annual meeting, being held February 7-8th in Albany NY, at the Marriott Hotel on Wolf Road. In an effort to get back on our normal schedule for our meeting and networking opportunities – we are happy to announce a collaborative meeting effort with the Northeast Dairy Producer’s Association, New York Dairy Foods Association and other dairy allied partners on Tuesday, February 7 (the day before our annual meeting.) 

We invite our membership to this transportation summit as we discuss the Supply Chain and Processing issues we face in the dairy industry with focus on the transportation sector. We will have industry panels highlighting our challenges and solutions / recommendations for tackling our disruptions with government and state agencies presenting as well. This is an amazing opportunity for networking and being a part of collaborative history as we reduce the bottlenecks in our industry and lay the ground work for viable dairy and agriculture sector in NY and New England.    

Happy Holidays and we hope to see you at our upcoming Transportation Summit and Annual Meeting February 7-8, 2023 in Albany!

Rail Contract Can Kicked Down the Road… Again

By Charlie Elrod, Ph.D.. President & CEO, Natural Biologics, Inc. Member of the Board of Directors, Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance

Once again, the country waits in anticipation as the ongoing negotiations between rail worker unions and the railroads eke their way to a finale.  Whether the discussions will result in a contract or a strike is still up in the air.  Earlier this week two of the larger unions, of the twelve covered in the negotiations, voted; one to approve the contract, the other to reject it.  Three other smaller unions have also voted to reject the contract and are back at the negotiating table.  We have all heard before how a rail strike would disrupt many aspects of our lives, especially here at the onset of winter and the holiday season.  Jenny Mills recently calculated that a rail strike which reduced feed availability for dairy cattle in the Northeast could lead to about $9M in lost milk revenue per day.

While the Presidential Emergency Board framework, agreed to back in September, gave railworkers a 25% pay increase and improved flexibility in time off, there are many who believe that the quality of life issues at the core of these negotiations have not been adequately addressed.  At the moment, the strike deadline is set for December 8th, though should a strike appear imminent, the railroads could lock workers out at midnight on October 5th.  Even if most of the twelve unions approved the contract but a strike was called by any of them, it is likely that all union railworkers would join the strike in solidarity.

For the NEAFA members and our communities, the impacts would be substantial and felt very quickly.  NEAFA member Bruce Habberfield, Special Projects Manager of the Fingerlakes Railway, suggested that one day of a strike would lead to a week of delays, with the delays increasing rapidly the longer the strike goes on.  While not a union shop, the Fingerlakes Railway and others within our region, would not have work-stoppages, but depend on rail cars coming in off the main lines.  At this point, they are trying to accumulate cars to help mitigate those delays for their customers who ship forty-nine different commodities through the Fingerlakes Railway. He suggests that other NEAFA members, reliant on rail transport, try to stock up in the next couple of weeks to ease some of the pressure should a rail strike ensue.  The bright spot in this situation is that Congress and the President are poised to sign an emergency bill, under authority of the Railway Labor Act of 1926, to impose a contract on the railways to avoid a strike and keep the railways in operation.

Election Results Amplify Ag Industry’s Challenges

By Rick Zimmerman

New York voters have spoken, and Kathy Hochul was elected Governor of New York for the next four years.  Even though the gubernatorial contest proved to be closer than expected, the state’s metro regions demonstrated support for Hochul, elected to the position for the first time.  In the meantime, NY voters had to figure out the new Senate and Assembly election districts to determine who their state representatives would be.  When the votes were finalized, the State Senate Democratic majority declined by one seat, from 42 to 41, and the Assembly Democratic majority declined by six seats, from 107 to 101.  Nevertheless, Democrats in both houses will maintain their super majority status and can override a Governor’s veto.  These facts reflect the challenges agriculture faces in the effort to effectuate public policy.  

Since 2018, when Democrats became the State Senate majority party, the ag lobby has been all hands-on deck defending bedrock programs and policies that create an environment essential for New York farmers to remain competitive with other agricultural regions in the U.S. and throughout the world.  Fundamental policies that authorize or protect our ability to employ and support a skilled workforce, to utilize the latest technologies, to maintain and nurture our prime agricultural soils, and to limit our ability to maximize the production and use of low carbon biofuels, are examples of challenges significantly influenced by an imbalance in an urban / rural political power dynamic.  

The farmworker overtime saga is the best example of what we are facing.  New York farmers undertook a good faith effort in 2019 to find a compromise to the long-standing debate over collective bargaining and mandatory overtime.  Given the new political dynamic of a Democratic majority in the Senate, we knew our best option was to find a compromise that could appropriately address the issues.  The 60-hour overtime threshold was a huge concession by New York farmers and would have been the win-win for both sides.  But the urban dominated legislative leadership undermined the effort at the last minute of negotiations.  The Labor union supported legislative leaders ignored the good faith compromise by New York farmers and forced a 40-hour mandatory overtime standard. The Farm Laborers Wage Board “process” proved to be a convenient way to get the job done.

Climate change policies are another example of the imbalance.  Rather than recognizing and celebrating the significant contributions New York agriculture offers to address climate change, the ag lobby is fighting against proposals that would restrict low carbon biofuels, such as biodiesel, renewable diesel and renewable natural gas, from being part of the climate change solution.  Other states, such as California, are demonstrating the critical role low carbon biofuels play in their climate action solutions.  Unfortunately, legislative leaders are unduly influenced by extreme environmental groups that have abandoned reasonable solutions for their ultimate goal: 100% electricity generated from renewable sources.  It is clear to most climate science experts that carbon reduction goals cannot be reasonably obtained through 100% electricity and that agriculture brings many assets to address climate change.  We must continue to push agriculture to the forefront with practical solutions to address our carbon reduction goals.  

Pesticide policies represent another example of the rural / urban political imbalance.  Banning pesticide use via legislative fiat has become politically popular despite the fact New York enjoys some of the toughest pesticide use regulations in the country and the program is managed by well trained professionals at DEC.  These facts go by the wayside when majority legislators, representing urban districts, are convinced that their political future hangs in the balance over legislation banning agricultural pesticides.  This scenario provides little room for reasoning and common sense to generate a rational solution.

Before 2018, the agriculture community could count on rural legislative leaders to assert balance to state policy proposals that threatened serious economic or social harm on New York’s agriculture community.  If push came to shove, we knew that reasoned perspectives would prevail because rural legislative leaders understood and respected the agriculture community’s perspectives and could effectively intervene.  This is not our reality anymore, and we must alter our tactics and approaches to the issues that promise to make it more difficult to farm in New York.   

Here are some thoughts about successfully operating in the current political reality:

1. Build and strengthen our urban legislative connections.  Obviously, this is not a new recommendation.  But we need to take the effort to a new level that cements the connection of upstate food sources to downstate prosperity.  The COVID 19 pandemic demonstrated the fragility of our food system and New York farmers stepped up in major ways to supply the food banks during this emergency.   We must build off this good will, through ongoing relationship development efforts with downstate law makers, to strengthen the connection between feeding people nutritious, locally sourced food and the survival of NY’s family farms.  Nurturing and maintaining a local food supply must be a high priority for all New York lawmakers.  

2. Curate and elect rural legislative leaders that understand and will fight for the issues of critical importance to NY’s farm community.  The cultivation of state lawmakers has not been at the top of our “to do” list, but we must be more intentional about this effort if we expect to see policies that support and nurture the agriculture industry.  

3. Establish and support an active agricultural PAC.  A PAC or political action committee is the legal instrument that would allow the agriculture community and its supporters to generate funds that could be contributed to local, state and national candidates willing to step up for New York’s agriculture community.  Supporting political campaigns through a PAC sends a message to candidates that the ag community is serious about electing lawmakers who will actively support the industry.  PACs don’t require a boat load of funds to be effective.  Moreover, the act of establishing a PAC’s presence, and actively fundraising for the purpose of advancing New York’s agriculture industry sends a strong message that agriculture is present and engaged in the political process.

4. Continue to break down silos and build coalitions between the production, processing, marketing and retail sectors of the food and agriculture system.  We all must be pulling together on the policy front to best serve New York and its 19 million consumers.

5. Continue to position the agriculture lobby as problem solvers for the challenges plaguing our state.  The agriculture industry maintains a strong presence in our State’s capital, but times have changed, and new approaches are required to be effective in this advocacy business.  By nature, farmers are problem solvers and, with a qualified team of professional and volunteer advocates, can be renown for the best public policy solutions.  Together we can impress our urban based legislative leaders with policies that will assure a local food supply for their urban constituents. 

President's Pen

By Danielle Penney-Stroop, NEAFA President

Here’s hoping everyone had a safe, healthy, Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you to all of you – whether you drive trucks, operate feed mills, manage logistics, purchase ingredients, provide consulting, sell equipment, farm supplies, fertilizer, or are in academia/extension. Each and every one of you play a vital role in the agricultural supply chain and feeding the 8 billion occupants of this world.   

As 2022 winds down, the agricultural sector has been faced with continued supply chain shortages and bottlenecks, inflation and interest rates, severe weather, trade, and legislative policies and issues that have not exactly been in our favor.      

The board continues to be busy since our last board meeting in September. To give you some updates on the legislative front, here is where we have been involved:

• We were one of the nearly 200 agri-chain stakeholders providing letters calling on Congress to honor the federal pesticide registration authority by taking action to limit states and local municipalities from requiring modifications to pesticide product labels inconsistent to pesticide labels approved by the EPA under their authority of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). We also collaborated with VT Feed Dealers on this initiative.

• NEAFA drafted comments for submission to the FDA concerning policy change for review of non-drug feed ingredients. These comments are intended to encourage the FDA to modify their policies and shift non-drug feed ingredients from being reviewed as a drug to being reviewed and authorized for use as a feed ingredient. This shift, as promoted by AFIA, NGFA, feed ingredient manufacturers, and animal scientists, is necessary to provide quicker access to industry desired products that address animal wellbeing, environmental, and other issues.

• We joined AFIA in providing letters of support for agriculture trade nominees Alexis Taylor (USDA Under Secretary for Trade) and Doug McKalip (USTR Chief Agricultural Negotiator). They have both had their nomination voted out of committee, but multiple Senators have placed holds on their confirmations for unrelated matters and that is stopping a vote by the full Senate for confirmation. Farmers for Free Trade is coordinating a food and agriculture coalition letter advocating for the removal of these holds, and calling for a vote on their respective Senate confirmations before the end of the year. Farmers for Free Trade invites you to join industry groups and businesses in calling on Senators Schumer and McConnell to bring Doug McKalip and Alexis Taylor’s nominations to the floor for a vote.

• We continue to join national, regional, and state food and ag associations urging swift action to avert a rail strike or lockout that would lead to shutdowns or slowdowns of rail-dependent facilities. These shutdowns would result in devastating consequences to our national and global food security. With two unions having voted to not ratify the rail labor agreement and a December 4th deadline for when a strike/lockout could occur, we went on record with what we’d like from Congress.

• We collaborated and supported the Truck and Engine Manufacturing Association on their letter to the NY DEC. NY DEC is seriously considering proposing regulations that would adopt the California low NOx regulations for trucks. This proposed action could impose unobtainable engine emissions performance levels as current technology is unable to meet these proposed regulatory demands.

• We continue to put pressure on Governor’s office regarding the overtime threshold ruling and keeping 60 hours at 60!

The elections are now over, and we have a stronger picture of House and Senate seats and their positions. Thankfully in New York State, we still have some strong democratic support for agriculture. All facets of agricultural have their work cut out for them. We (NEAFA and our ag partners – NEDPA, VTDPA, Corn and SB, VT Feed Dealers) collectively have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure we have a progressive and viable industry ahead. In Vermont, there are 51 new legislative seats after this midterm. That is a lot of new faces to educate. NEAFA is having conversations with VT Feed Dealers and VT Dairy Producers Association on ways to collaborate and have a unified voice at the table.

The NEAFA board recognizes that advocacy, lobbying, and legislative policy / priorities are our key value propositions for you, our members. Rick Zimmerman has announced his retirement plans and started the transition for his clients. While we are saddened by the news, we wish him the absolute best and hope for an adventurous next phase enjoying grandchildren, family, friends, and travel. We are eternally grateful and committed to continuing the critical and necessary work that Rick started for our organization 15+ years ago. The board has been meeting with various lobbying organizations this past month and are committed to finding the right representation in Albany and VT for our membership. Our next board meeting is Dec 5th and I look forward to reviewing our options and giving the board the opportunity on selecting the right fit for our membership to represent us. In December’s newsletter, we will announce our new partners and plan for our leadership for 2023 and beyond.   

In closing, the NEAFA board is having continued talks with NEDPA on ways we can collaborate. One of our collaborative initiatives is that the very successful Dairy Round Summit from Nov 2021, hosted and planned by NEDPA, will once again take place.   Our annual meeting is being held February 7-8th, in Albany NY, at the Marriott. This year’s meeting will be very unique in that Feb 7th is the Dairy and Transportation Summit, engaging our industry legislators and leaders for conversations highlighting many of the issues facing our supply chains, with potential solutions and areas of opportunity or focus. Thank you to NEDPA and our partners for this opportunity. We will have a reception the evening of the 7th to engage with our politicians and industry leaders, and on the 8th will be our annual meeting with engaging panels and speakers.   

NEAFA / NEDPA Co-Host Summit on Dairy Industry/Transportation February 7th, 2023

The Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association are proud to announce a collaborative effort to bring focus to issues challenging the dairy industry.

Beginning at Noon on February 7th NEDPA will hold a Dairy Summit to discuss the dairy economy, labor challenges and policy changes in the current political landscape.  The program will feature key industry speakers and include panel discussions to explore opportunities to address the challenges ahead.

The second portion of the summit will feature transportation related topics impacting dairy farmers and the agribusiness community. NEAFA and NEDPA will focus on issues relating to driver availability, training, and licensing as well as dairy industry specific milk hauling challenges.  Present will be a panel of milk haulers, feed companies, commodity trucking companies, and trucking associations from New York and Vermont.  State legislators from New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont will be invited along with officials from the departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Labor, and Economic Development.   

The Dairy Industry/ Transportation Summit will be held February 7th at  the Albany Marriot Hotel in conjunction with NEAFA’s Annual Meeting beginning the evening of February 7th.  The joint meeting will start at Noon and a box lunch will be provided for those in attendance. 

 The intended outcome of the Summit is to find viable solutions to the challenges we  face in the dairy and feed industries.  You are encouraged to attend this important meeting and information on the NEDPA/NEAFA Dairy/Transportation Summit will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.  Registration information for NEAFA’s Annual Meeting, beginning 5:30 pm February 7th with the Opening Reception, will be available very soon

NEAFA Member Highlight: Howlett Farms

By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA

Howlett Farms, currently in its fifth generation, is a cornerstone agribusiness for western New York. “We’ve been farming and in agriculture since 1880,” said Michael Howlett, Vice President of Howlett Farms and chair of the agronomy committee at NEAFA. “We’ve touched almost every part of the agriculture; cows way back when, potatoes, vegetables, row crops, and we’ve continued to vertically integrate throughout the ag sector to get closer to both producers and end-users. We raise and combine our own crops. Growing from there, we saw the need for more drying and storage capacity for our regions grain producers. We built a storage facility in Avon about 20 years ago. It started by serving mostly dairy farmers and handling their excess grain corn, where we would buy it from them or store for them for later in the year when they would be changing their rations. That kind of shaped our modus operandi to focus on dairy farms and that industry.

That initial facility led to Howlett Farms establishing others to better serve their customers and process more ingredients. “Today, we have nine facilities that we receive grain out of the field for drying and storing,” said Howlett. “We also have three feed mills that we operate, to process those ingredients. We also handle a variety of other commodities that  either go through our mills or direct to farms. The feed business grew out of the need to get closer to the end user. We take the raw product, grind or steam flake it, and then add it to their commodity mixes that we make.”

For Howlett, this is a lifelong passion. “I grew up on the family farm always wanting to be a farmer, we were raising vegetables at the time,” said Howlett. “I always wanted to work and be on the farm. At eighteen, we realized that I wasn’t a great operator, I wasn’t equipped to be out in the field all day. I went out to college at The University of Illinois, studied agricultural economics. When I was getting ready to graduate, my dad and I discussed I needed to bring something back to the operation, I couldn’t just come back to the operation. We decided to change the operation a bit, and I was going to go off on my own for a bit and bring something back to the farm to benefit it. I started out working in Chicago trading on the futures market, learning risk management and how to offset risk. I brought that skillset back to the family farm. Since then, we have evolved into a commodity brokerage firm, working with producers and farmers to source their needs or give them access to a broader and better marketplace. We not only trade the ingredients, but we also  have a fleet of 30 trucks hauling bulk commodities and feed ingredients to ensure timely delivery of ingredients or feed as is needed on today’s large scale dairy operations. We are also on rail, and bring in and ship commodities out from there as needed.”

Howlett Farms joined NEAFA in 2019, and joined NEAFA’s Board of Directors in 2020. “We’re relatively new to the feed part of agriculture,” said Howlett. “We’ve been working with grain for 20 years, but we’re new to the feed processing. We joined NEAFA when we started making feed at our own facility. The level of engagement that the board and its members have throughout the industry is wonderful. They’re not focused on just one segment; they’re fighting for dairy, cash crops, feed manufacturing, hauler and freight transportation, you name it. NEAFA puts the picture all together. They know that it's not multiple segments that operate independently, we’re all in this together. If one part doesn’t work, then it affects us all. That’s the most refreshing thing about NEAFA to me - their scope and their impact. The board is active, engaged, and full of intelligent and dedicated individuals that come together as a group to make agriculture in the northeast better for everyone.

Like many others recently, Howlett Farms has been affected by the railroad staffing issues. “There’s not much we can do about it,” said Howlett. “We have cars on order that should be moving. It’s been frustrating because CSX isn’t going to listen to just one farmer in Avon, NY. It’s a challenge to be heard and explain the urgency of what we need done and the pace that it needs to be done. We do our best to leverage our network ties to get things moving. We try and elevate the problem so that we can have some of the bigger players call and make an impact. When you’re dealing with a company of that size, it can be easily  ignored. Because of that, we’ve been moving on truck more and multiple times to accommodate our customers. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of immediate resolution until someone bigger objects. 

As many others in agribusiness can attest, issues with rail can be compounded by driver shortages in trucking. “The dairy industry in the northeast is very reliant on truck freight,” said Howlett. “When you look at the livestock industry in the Midwest for example, they’re usually very closely located to feed mills and production houses. In the northeast though, being mostly smaller family farms, it’s much more of fragmented customer base with farther to go to processing centers. The incremental cost has doubled in the last two years. It’s tough maintaining a strong and dedicated fleet of drivers. No matter what part of agriculture you’re in, you have to be passionate about it. If the driver doesn’t want to come into work or is sick, each driver needs to know that responsibility and have passion to pick up the extra work. We’ve been lucky to build a team that has that passion and serves our customers and keeps them on time. It’s challenging when you see sign-on bonuses from personal freight. It’s a battle to keep them in our trucks instead of going with another freight company. We understand the hard work it takes to do that trucking job, and we work extremely hard to recognize them for that effort.”

For Howlett, dedication is key to their business growth. “Our organization drives on passion,” said Howlett. “I was brought up on a farm, and I love being on the farm, and have wanted to be in agriculture ever since I could walk. You must have that passion and commitment to support the farm and the community around us. I realized very early on in my career that if the ag community doesn’t succeed around us, then there’s no place for us in this market. Their success drives our success. Increasing the viability and profitability of the ag market in the northeast is our goal. I look at my children as my horizon, and I want to know that I’ve set up the organization to be successful for the next 50 years so that they can grow and continue to run a successful business as well. I know that our neighbors up the road, and all over the northeast for that matter, are what drives our success and enables us to do what we’re doing. We look at what each engagement needs to maximize their success, which guarantees our success.”

NEAFA Member Highlight: Morrison’s Custom Feeds

By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA

This month, NEAFA sat down with NEAFA Board Member Mike Thresher from Morrison’s Custom Feeds to talk about the history of this wonderful Vermont company.  Founded in 1983 by Leslie Morrison and  based in Barnet, VT, Morrison’s serves Northern New England and eastern parts of New York. “We do bulk and direct feeds for the dairy, poultry, and swine industries,” said Thresher, a Dairy Feed Specialist, as well as the Director of Sales, and Director of Nutrition and Certification for Morrison’s Custom Feeds. “Certified organic feeds is the majority of our business, and we’re also certified with non-gmos, and of course do standard feeds as well. I handle all of the registrations for feed tag compliance in the states that we’re registered in.”

Morrison’s also has a retail store in St. Johnsbury, VT. “It’s a full farm supply store,” said Thresher. “From pet food to agricultural feeds. We feed them large and small, and we added a clothing line this past year. We’re also members of the Co-operative Feed Dealers, so if we don’t have it, they can special order it for us.

A long time member of NEAFA, Thresher joined the board in 2020. “NEAFA is a wonderful partnership to be in for us,” said Thresher. “It’s all about being able to bring better representation of New England Agriculture to the public and government agencies. That’s been lacking in the past. It’s a great and powerful lobbying force if we need to get something emphasized locally or nationally, and that’s truly great to have.”

Thresher joined Morrison’s in late 2000, with a background in dairy on his grandfather’s farm. “As a dairy feed specialist, it’s my job to help educate farmers that it’s more than just feed,” said Thresher. “It’s about overall farm consulting. You need to educate on forage and forage quality, and how to improve forage quality. That improvement makes my life easier from a nutrition stand point, and their life more profitable. It means that they have less reliance on purchased feed. That forage can either be for storage or fresh grazing. I work mainly with organic farms; I’ve been involved with grazing for over 3 decades.”

Morrison’s got involved with the organic market in 1999 at the request of a local poultry farm. “Being a custom farm, it was an easy fit to bring in,” said Thresher. “When I joined in 2000, I had grazing experience and really enjoyed it and became passionate about the organic side of things. It grew rapidly and I chased it. There was a 3 county area we were currently servicing, and that’s where we were going to stay. But then I’d hear about a farm in the next county over, and I’d stay late and go over and help them get started becoming an organic farm, and then we’d have them as a customer. Soon we were covering the whole state, and after that started to spread into other states as well. I said to Les, I never asked if you wanted to get this big, and Les said with a laugh that ‘well I would have asked you to stop if I wanted to.’ We handle about 45,000-50,000 tons per year, mostly by truck. We’re also setup on rail, which is handy with our proximity to Canada. We’re very fortunate to have a great staff working in the mill and driving our trucks. They’re dedicated employees that we thank daily.”

While agriculture has faced challenges over the past several decades, those challenges have also brought about positive change for the northeast. “Overall in the industry, I’d say that there’s been an improvement in forage quality management and animal husbandry,” said Thresher. “The challenges that the dairy industry has faced in the past 2 decades have lead to better management practices in our area. We work with a huge amount of farms, the average herd size is around 60 to 70 cows. Looking to the future, we want to encourage and keep the younger generation involved. We’re also committed to keeping our customers resilient and profitable to any changes that may come down the line. We encompass organic, non gmo and full conventional, and work with our farms on the needs that each of those lines encompass.”

For more on Morrison’s Custom Feeds, you can visit their website, https://morrisonsfeeds.com/ 

Cornell Nutrition Conference Summary

The following is a summary of the Cornell Nutrition Conference posted by first-time attendee, Ashley Sweeting.  Ash is VP North America of ProAgni, an Australian biotech startup and finalist in this year’s GrowNY innovation competition. (CCE)

Methane emissions are a huge issue, and they are not going away. Many people across the industry are looking for effective tools to address livestock methane. Most people want to take steps to reduce methane but very few want to pay for it themselves. 

On the positive side, the methane issue is creating unusual bedfellows. Collaborative partnerships are emerging between what many people would have thought of as traditional rivals. Environmentalists are teaming up with farmers, big food, scientists, government, and multinational corporations to search for creative solutions to livestock methane mitigation. 

On the less positive sides, what many people had hoped would be effective solutions are not living up to expectations. Issues remain around food safety, animal welfare, availability, long term efficacy, and impact on farm productivity. 

There is no escape. The methane issue is just as relevant for the North American, European, Australian, and New Zealand farmers as it is for the 1.25 million farmers in India with 1 -5 cows and elsewhere across the developing world. 

The microbiome and how it can be managed to produce more desirable outcomes and fewer undesirable outcomes is a rapidly growing area of interest, research, investment, and product development. Genomic science has unlocked a window into improving our understanding of the microbiome. As Todd Callaway of UGA said, “Thirty years ago the rumen microbiome was a black box. Now it’s just a very, very dark box.“ 

Across livestock production, soils, and human health we are constantly being surprised about just how much our microbiomes impact everything we do. We are intricately interconnected and ultimately reliant on the microbiome for survival. 

Personally, I am super excited about the potential of a better understanding of the rumen microbiome to revolutionize the way we manage livestock productivity and sustainability across the developed and the developing worlds.   

The microbiome is the source of livestock methane. At the end of the day the methane issue is all about hydrogen. I see efforts to better understand how hydrogen is metabolised in the rumen, and the competition between methane producing microbes and other hydrogen utilizing microbes, as key to identifying increasingly effective and practically applicable solutions to livestock sustainability. 

It was wonderful to hear the presentations from all the Cornell Graduate Students. Thank you all for the great work you are doing to advance our understanding of dairy production and its impact on our society and environment. 

From my perspective, for new innovations to be successful they need to be focused on fostering symbiosis. By this I mean they need to be focused on addressing multiple issues simultaneously. Unfortunately, I think that solutions that only address one issue are no longer sufficient to meet our current food production and sustainability challenges. Be that addressing heat stress, methane production, nitrogen cycling, early lactation metabolic disease, food safety, or human nutrition. 

A special thanks to Joe McFadden, Mike Van Amburgh, Ananda Fontoura, Tom Overton, and Derek Simmonds from Cornell University for a great conference.    

To hear more about the great work Joe McFadden is doing to develop solutions to livestock methane emissions at Cornell list to his conversation with me here:  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2043813/11368072 

NEAFA Active at the Cornell Nutrition Conference

By Jenny Mills and Charlie Elrod

Several NEAFA board and staff members attended the Cornell Nutrition Conference October 18-20, 2022 in Syracuse, NY to connect with members, recruit new members and share accomplishments with attendees.  Approximately 425 attendees heard from us during the conference.

NEAFA set up a booth and shared messages at a breakfast and during the general session.  Charlie Elrod, Jenny Mills and Rick Zimmerman put out a call to action around signing up for membership and the need for engaged members to help preserve agricultural production in the Northeast.  The group also highlighted NEAFA’s accomplishments, including:

• Organizing and completing a campaign that raised $1 million of industry funds to seed two faculty positions in the Department of Animal Science at Cornell University. Today, Dr. Joe McFadden and Dr. Kristan Reed are making significant contributions to animal science and the dairy industry.

• Providing excellent educational programming for our members and the dairy industry through annual meeting presentations and seminars and partnering with PRO-DAIRY on the Herd Health and Nutrition Conference.

• Actively working with agriculture commissioners in New York and all New England states.

• Successfully supporting state budget appropriations for key agriculture programs including PRO-DAIRY, Integrated Pest Management, Agriculture Environmental Management, and NY FarmNet.

• Maintaining a working coalition of agricultural stakeholders such as NEDPA, AFIA, NGFA, NYFB to strengthen our advocacy on budget and policy issues impacting the agriculture industry.

• Actively working as a member of the Animal Ag Alliance: a national association focused on promoting science-based animal welfare practices

• Member of the Grow NY Coalition and actively engaged in the overtime threshold issue and fight to keep 60 hours at 60.

• Supporting and administering a Good Works Program that has donated over $100,000 to worthy programs which complement the growth and development of the northeast agriculture industry.

The NEAFA board would like to thank all the members who recruited new members, cajoled lapsed members to renew and promoted participation in NEAFA activities. Also, thank you to John Mitchell, who was there during the entire conference and engaged with many participants at the booth.

President's Pen

By Danielle Penney-Stroop

Happy Fall & Happy Harvest Everyone!    

On September 12th, we welcomed our new board members Dr Eric Reid, of Co-operative Feed Dealers, Dr. Sarah LaCount, of Mercer Milling, and Matt Sheffer of Cargill Animal Nutrition.  On September 13th, the board met and conducted our board meeting at the Miner Institute.   Thank you to Dr Rick Grant, Wanda Emerich, and all the staff at Miner for welcoming us and being such amazing hosts. We conducted business from 9am until 2:30 pm, and during our delicious lunch provided by the Miner Staff, we were presented the opportunity to hear student presentations on their current areas of research and future impacts on the dairy industry. Following our meeting, Grant & Emerich were gracious enough to give us a tour of the Minter Institute and dairy facilities.  It was a fabulous day and great experience for all of us.    

Our board agenda focused on the following - 

• NEAFA Budget for next year – Like many other organizations and businesses, we have increased event costs and increased costs for professional and administrative services. We are working diligently to be fiscally responsible and provide all our members exceptional value propositions for advocating on your behalf. We continue to collaborate with other organizations in order to make a greater impact and have a larger voice within our industry, and to offer educational events for our members to challenge themselves, network, and take advantage of opportunities for industry good works.

• NEAFA Membership – Membership greatly impacts our budget, and is equally as important as the fiscal portion… we need increased numbers for our voice and input on legislative issues and matters. Strength in numbers continues to be part of our initiative and focus for the upcoming year! We want to hear from you on what we can do to increase our numbers?

• Executive Director Position – Thank you to John Mitchell, who has been serving as our interim Executive Director and for Rick Zimmerman’s continued input and support as we go through these transitions. We also want to give a huge shout out to our backbone, Sue VanAmburgh. She keeps all of us in line, and that is not an easy feat. We discussed the goals and objectives of our next Executive Director, and the areas of focus and opportunities as it ties back to our Strategic Plan from last summer. Mitchell and the executive team shared that the key areas of focus need to be increasing membership, evaluating the needs of our members, being the liaison with the legislative group, and promoting the numerous accomplishments and value proposition of being a part of NEAFA.

• NEAFA Education Forums – We are seeking a co-chair with Dr. Kristan Reed for the education committee. While the committee will continue to bring us quality programs, such as Herd Health and Nutrition Conference, what other programs can we bring to New York and New England that will benefit our members? How can we improve the New England portion of our educational platforms and increase attendance and value? If you have ideas, please send them in to Sue VanAmburgh, John Mitchell, myself, or any board member. We welcome the additional thoughts and want to hear your needs!

• NEAFA Transportation Committee & Supply Chain Issues – This is an area we have identified of significant importance that our members and legislation need to come together to have conversations and share ideas. We have developed a Transportation Summit Task Force to identify our industry bottlenecks and create areas of opportunity. We need to present the issues but also offer solutions! Given the current political climate and legislative races for mid-term elections, we will be holding off on our Transportation Summit until after the first of the year, when we have a clear picture of who the legislators are and what their overall positions are in the seats they hold.

Additionally, I have had discussions with VT Feed Dealers President Matt Saville, on legislative issues and how our organizations can collaborate further and increase our voice for the issues we are all facing.    

We continue to be a vital partner in the GROW NY Farms coalition. As most of you know, Commissioner Reardon issued her acceptance of the wage board report and its recommendation to lower the overtime threshold. Grow NY Farms and their partner organizations quickly responded in condemnation for the action. We remain steadfast in our opposition. Despite it being a Friday, there was widespread press pick up of the announcement. This action sets the rulemaking of the new regulation in motion that will include a 60-day public comment period.

And in closing, I would like to thank Cornell University for giving NEAFA the opportunity to engage with its audience and to tout our accomplishments, as well as to openly recruit for new members! NEAFA's Vice-President, Jenny Mills, and Rick Zimmerman did an outstanding job highlighting our goals and priorities. Thank you to Charlie Elrod for hitting the breakfast audience and highlighting many of the same initiatives!

NEAFA Request for Internship Opportunities

The Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance (NEAFA) Membership Committee would like to thank all NEAFA members for your continued support and dedication to our organization. As you know, NEAFA’s mission is to support and grow a sustainable agribusiness industry in the Northeast and to serve our agribusiness community through Advocacy, Collaboration, and Education.

As we are entering the new school year, we would like to take our education goals one step further and put a focus on college and graduate students who will be the future members of our agribusiness community. As a member of the NEAFA organization, if you or your company offer internship opportunities and you would like to advertise the position on the NEAFA website, please send the information found below to Sue VanAmburgh at sue@nysta.mobi.

• Company

• Internship name

• Internship description

• Qualifications/ prerequisites

• Deadline to apply for internship

• Contact representative name and email

Thank you again for your consideration and please let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

The NEAFA Membership Committee

NEAFA Statement Regarding the Action of the Farm Laborers Wage Board

The Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance (NEAFA), a charter member of the Grow NY Farms Coalition, joins other Coalition members in condemning the Farm Laborers Wage Board action to recommend lowering of the overtime threshold for farmworkers in New York from 60 to 40 hours per week.

Despite hundreds of hours of testimony from farmers and farmworkers, supporting and justifying the 60-hour overtime threshold, the report erroneously presents an argument, based on opinion rather than fact, that farmers and farmworkers will be better off with a lower overtime threshold. The 60-hour overtime threshold was a hard-fought compromise in the 2019 law and the farm community made tough adjustments to make it work. New York farmers have never been given recognition for this compromise and have not been given time to determine if a 40-hour overtime threshold can work for NY agriculture.

The Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance calls on DOL Commissioner Reardon to reject the Wage Board’s recommendation and keep the 60-hour threshold.

Contact: John Mitchell, Executive Director; jmitchell50@gmail.com; 315 725 2843

Find the Submitted Letter to Commissioner Reardon here: https://northeastalliance.com/s/Farm-Laborers-Wage-Board-Comments-9-26-22.pdf

FDA Will Hold a Listening Session on the Regulation of Claims on Animal Feed on October 18th

Charlie Elrod, Ph.D.
NEAFA Board Member
Natural Biologics, Inc. President & CEO

Among developed nations, the United States has one of the most restrictive regulatory regimes surrounding the claims that can be made for animal feed, ingredients or supplements.  Without approval from the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) feed ingredients cannot claim to affect methane emissions, animal well-being or pre-harvest food safety.  To gain such approval is an arduous process that requires months or years and tens of thousands of dollars, not counting funding the research to support the claim.  Two years ago, we began applying for a health claim for one of our products, on which we had a lot of data, but we abandoned the process when CVM wanted data which was experimentally impossible to collect.  I’m sure other NEAFA members have had similar experiences.

At this time no claims about altering the microbiome, reducing toxin loads, or improving gut function, immunity, welfare or physiology of the animal are allowed in the U.S. without CVM approval.  In fact, there is no regulatory pathway for a feed or ingredient to claim an improvement in production or efficiency!  The upcoming listening session is designed to allow for public comment on the proposal to update FDA policy to reflect evolving scientific knowledge and promote innovation.  This could allow for a shift from regulating products as drugs to simply regulating them as animal feed.  

The deadline for registering to present oral comments has passed, but written comments can be submitted through November 17.  More information on the listening session can be found here and information on submitting electronic or written comments can be found here.  More context about this topic can be found in this article written by our friend Louise Calderwood at AFIA. Here is a PDF on the subject as well. 

NEAFA/NEDPA to hold a Transportation Summit this Fall

Driver shortages, driver licensing regulations, training, delivery logistics and supply chain disruptions are all part of a commercial transportation crisis impacting all industries but is particularly challenging for our feed and dairy businesses.  Northeast agriculture, blessed in many ways, is challenged by aging infrastructure, including bottlenecks at receiving facilities causing hours of wait time and adding to a long day for truck drivers. To address this overall issue the Alliance, in collaboration with the Northeast Dairy Producers Association, is planning a Transportation Summit later this fall.  

The Summit will address the trucking crisis, on the farm and within the agribusiness sector, serving the northeast dairy industry. At issue are the shortage of trained drivers and inefficiencies in the handling of agricultural commodities.  The one-day event will seek input from feed suppliers, dairy producers, milk processors, grain producers, trucking companies, railroads, government officials and legislators from New York and Vermont and others who are directly involved in the issue. The intended outcomes are practical, reasonable solutions that can be implemented by individual companies and supported by state governments.

The date and agenda for the summit are being finalized and will be announced soon. 

Proposed VT EV Rules Pose Risk for Dairy & Ag Enterprises

In September 2020, the Vermont General Assembly enacted the Global Warming Solutions Act and created a Climate Council charged with adopting an Initial Climate Action Plan.  The Initial Climate Action Plan directed the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) to adopt California’s Greenhouse Gas emission standards for trucks and trailers, arguing that these rules are critical to meet Vermont’s required reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. ANR must adopt these regulatory amendments before the end of 2022 to meet the deadlines   

If  approved, the Vermont Low and Zero Emission Vehicle Regulation  will require a rapid phase out of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. If adopted, 35% of all new cars and light duty vehicles sold in Vermont will need to be electric by 2026. All new cars must have ‘zero emissions' by 2035.  And 30% of all new trucks and buses sold in Vermont must have ‘zero emissions’ by the end of the decade  

 (ANR) draft rules would incorporate by reference California’s motor vehicle emission standard regulations and mandate.  This proposal promises to restrict consumer choice, and essentially force the use of heavy-duty electric vehicles onto the commercial truck industry before the technology has proven to be available, effective, economically competitive, and practically appropriate. 

Feed trucks serving Vermont’s dairy industry travel the length of the state and often reach west to New York, south into Massachusetts and Connecticut and east into New Hampshire and Maine.  Vermont’s feed manufacturing industry is essential to feeding dairy cattle and other essential livestock throughout New England and New York.  Currently it is not uncommon for a feed delivery vehicle to travel 300 miles or more per day to pick up and deliver feed to dairy farms.  Rural roads with many challenging hills require substantial horsepower from over the road tractors to accomplish the job.  Further, engine power is required at the delivery site to operate the truck’s unloading equipment. 

State of the art heavy duty electric vehicle technology does not come close to performing the daily requirements of a feed truck, particularly in Vermont.  Cold temperatures, hilly roads and onsite delivery demands will quickly reduce heavy duty truck performance to well below required performance rates.  Further, recharging times, even if recharging infrastructure is available, would require hours per day to recharge in contrast to minutes per day for diesel refueling.  Vehicle cost is another significant factor. Current heavy-duty EV over the road tractors are running around $400,000 each. A conventional diesel engine truck sells for about $180,000.   One Vermont feed business estimated that they would have to significantly increase the size of their fleet to accommodate the lower daily mileage performance and extensive recharge times.  Charging takes between 8-10 hours and charging stations require expensive 3-phase power sources that cost as much as $50,000.  Further, even if it was possible for a fleet of heavy duty EVs to deliver feed commodities, the significant additional cost per vehicle cannot be absorbed by feed mills and dairy farms as farmers are price takers and cannot pass along additional expenses up the food chain.  

The technology for large EV vehicles to replace diesel is still in the development stage, particularly regarding battery capacity.  Currently, there are serious safety concerns relating to batteries in passenger cars. A large EV truck with tons of batteries poses a more serious threat that needs to be understood before mandating them onto the highway.  EV passenger vehicles are not the same as large delivery trucks especially in the agricultural businesses.  

Draft rules are out for public review and were reviewed last week by NEAFA members Kevin Kouri, Mike Thresher, Rick Zimmerman and John Mitchell.  The conclusion is that they pose serious threat to the agribusiness community, particularly the feed industry, to undertake basic functions required to deliver feed to Vermont’s dairy farms.   NEAFA will be signing on a letter from other stakeholders voicing our objections and implore the Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources to consider the consequences to Vermont’s agriculture if these rules are adopted. 

Vice-President's Pen

By Jenny Mills

The humming of corn silage trucks passing by is in full swing here in Central New York as I write this and there is a definite feeling that fall is here – cooler temperatures, children back in school and shorter daylight.  

Reflecting back, the past month has been busy for many of our members and collaborators.  I was blessed to work with many at the New York State Fair birthing center.  It was rewarding to answer questions about our industry and learn how many people come to visit or tune in online to see a live bovine birth.  Additionally, it is inspiring to connect with representatives from many organizations and farms to have a unified voice for agriculture.  Our mission to “educate, collaborate and advocate” always comes to life at this exhibit.  My hats off to those involved with similar exhibits all over the Northeast – your time and effort does make a difference!  

Dairy promotion, along with other forms of agriculture’s bounty, is a year-round effort.  We all make a difference – whether it is serving chocolate milk after a football game, supporting our local dairy promotion “fun on the farm” or doing a display about your feed mill at the county fair, promotion matters.  A recent article from NMPF (Dairy Defined: Say it Loud, Say it Clear: The Plant-Based Beverage Bust is Here) shares that retail sales volume of plant-based beverages year-over-year has been negative since February and has been flat to declining since mid-2021.  Perhaps all the dairy alternatives aren’t making as big of a splash as originally thought.  It has been reassuring to hear each of my children’s coaches tout chocolate milk as the preferred recovery beverage (unaided from me!).  Promotion matters locally – thank you for all you do to help keep our ag products on top of consumers’ minds!

Looking ahead, while we have a lot to be proud of, there are some major issues that NEAFA continues to lobby on your behalf for, including:

• Grow NY Farms – Keep Overtime Threshold at 60 hours: hopefully you received an email and took action to comment on the wage board recommendation report that had major flaws in it. NEAFA continues to work with several ag organizations to not only provide us with talking points, but to educate lawmakers and state stakeholders on the ripple effect that lowering the overtime threshold will have on agribusiness and our communities. More information: facebook.com/GrowNYFarms

• Potential Rail Strike –With already tightening supply chain and longer lead times with the rail system, a strike would have been determinantal to all agriculture in the Northeast. The NY Ag Commissioner’s office reached out to NEAFA to gather information on the economic impact of a strike. Some quick napkin math was completed to capture the milk loss value to the economy of the Northeast if there were a rail strike impacting soybean meal supply (milk loss value alone is $9.1M per day!). Fortunately, a strike was averted for at least 30 days. NEAFA continues to monitor this situation and we may be reaching out to you with an Action Request via email.

• Farm Bill input - The Farm Bill Listening Tour provided an opportunity to engage with and hear from constituents about the importance of the 2023 Farm Bill to New York State. What we learned during the tour will be provided to Governor Hochul to help develop the State’s Farm Bill priorities for critical funding and policy changes in the areas of agriculture, nutrition, and the environment. We also encourage written comments, all of which can be submitted to FarmBill@agriculture.ny.gov. The deadline to submit written comments is December 19, 2022.

As the leaves start to change, NEAFA continues to evolve to meet the needs of change from our membership.  It has been humbling to hear that several members don’t know exactly what NEAFA is doing, or how it “adds value” to members.  Our board of directors has taken that feedback very seriously and are working to make sure our value proposition is reflective of what our membership needs.  We represent a unique membership, from feed manufacturers to organizations that provide agronomy inputs to educators and suppliers along the entire input side of agribusiness.  NEAFA continues to represent our unique group of members in agribusiness and collaborate with groups that represent our dairy producers, grain producers, educators, processors to keep our voices strong in our state governments throughout the Northeast and provide educational opportunities to all facets of agriculture.  We need to continue to collect voices throughout agriculture to continue to be heard throughout state governments.  Our board is looking for your feedback to ensure we are meeting your needs.  YOUR voice and input matters.  Please reach out to any member of the board or John Mitchell, our Executive Director with your thoughts.

Lastly, as the seasons change, be on the look out for changes in our calendar.  Our annual meeting will be separate from the Golf for Good Works event.  The annual meeting will be held February 7-8, 2023 in Albany while the golf tournament will be August 21-22 at Turning Stone.  We hope this change will be more friendly to your calendars!  Stay tuned for details.

Until next time, stay safe, and best wishes for a successful harvest! 

Agriculture Policy Outlook for ‘23: Buckle Up: Time to Get Started

By Rick Zimmerman

We are in the midst of the election season for state and federal races. Our elected leaders are very focused on the messaging required for election or reelection, and getting in the weeds on substantive policy issues impacting the agriculture industry may have to wait until after November 4th.  This gives us time however to reflect on the substantive issues impacting our industry, and to get prepared for the next legislative session at state capitols or in Washington D.C.  

On the public policy front, much of what we do is react to the agendas of other special interest groups. Unfortunately, environmentalists, animal rights activists, organized labor interests, anti-science organizations and others don’t always see eye to eye with the agriculture community.  Even though our democratic process allows us to engage and voice our concerns, the challenge for success is greater today than ever before, given the political realities of today’s urbanized society. Therefore, we must be better prepared to not only react to the agenda of others, but to lead forward with our own agenda.  This is a good time of year to set our agenda for 2023.  Here’s a list of issues that will guide our discussions.

Climate Change: This issue permeates the halls of Congress and most state capitols.  The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act authorizes billions of dollars for programs and incentives to reduce fossil fuel use and destroy and sequester carbon.  State laws, including New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), recognize agriculture as a contributing source of carbon to our atmosphere as well as an opportunity to reduce, capture and store carbon.  In fact, according to UC Davis Professor Frank Mitloehner, the dairy industry can be a net carbon sink if the right technologies and practices are employed.  Watch Frank’s 5-minute video: “Rethinking Methane” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOPrF8oyDYw It is our challenge to advocate at the federal and state levels for programs and incentives to maximize animal agriculture’s contributions to reducing carbon.  If done correctly, climate policy can be a win-win for the dairy industry and the environment.

Package Recycling:  This issue is also cropping up in state capitols throughout the country.  The traditional recycling paradigm of municipal waste stream recycling is being challenged by the notion that product manufacturers should be held responsible for determining how to recycle the packaging material used to put their products in the marketplace.  Food, including dairy products, are included within this new recycling approach.  Numerous states are considering this Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme and New York is one of them.  

The current proposals lend much to be desired in context to understanding the realities of dairy foods.  Specifically, federal and state food safety laws and regulations dictate packaging standards, including labeling requirements, that do not synch with the basic EPR concepts.  Much thought and research need to be invested before we march forward on this front.  Therefore, the dairy industry, specifically the dairy foods industry, must continue to engage with policy makers in attempt to instill the right ideas and timeframes. The greater agriculture community must join with dairy food manufacturers to impress lawmakers on the gravity of the situation and help with reasonable solutions. In some way, shape, or form, this new recycling approach is likely to move forward.

 Pollinators and Pesticides: The pesticide – pollinator interface continues to be studied and this potential issue deserves focus.  However, NRDC and other environmental organizations have jumped to the conclusion that the only way to solve the issue of pollinator decline is to ban a class of pesticides from use as seed treatments and have convinced law makers in New York and Vermont to introduce such legislation.  Environmental organizations claim seeds treated with neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid and thiamethoxam are the source of the problem. Regardless of who is on the right side of science, corn and soybean growers face a very serious threat from seed corn maggot, among other pests, should these seed treatments be banned.  

Everyone agrees that pollinators need to thrive in our world.  Therefore, we all should be working on addressing threats to pollinators and their habitat. But the real solutions are the ones that minimize the threat without sacrificing agriculture production. There is a win-win here. All it takes is a willingness to work together to find it.   

Labor: Costs, Availability: The labor issues continue to pose the most significant threat to the agriculture industry. The drive to a $15.00 minimum wage, combined with high payroll taxes including an unemployment insurance rate that was not addressed by federal COVID relief funds, is only the beginning of a series of challenges that threaten the ability of northeast agriculture remaining competitive with other regions, other countries. Combined with the threat of a 40-hour overtime threshold, and a tight labor market, the agriculture community will continue to struggle with finding enough workers and staying competitive with other ag producing regions.  

A subset of this picture includes truck drivers. Farmers, milk haulers, feed manufacturers and others are struggling to find skilled, licensed drivers. Our industry is facing a perilous situation of not being able to get crops harvested, milk delivered, or cows fed. Lowering the minimum CDL age in New York to 18 is a good step in the right direction, but we need more training opportunities and testing sites. Further, milk processing infrastructure needs updating to accommodate a quicker turnaround of milk tankers.

There are many factors impacting labor costs and availability. Keeping New York’s farmworker overtime threshold at 60 hours, reforming the federal agricultural guest worker program (H-2A) and increasing the pool of trained and licensed truck drivers would be a good start.  

Farm Bill: We are at the verge of rewriting the massive set of laws known as the U.S. Farm Bill.  The impact from these laws goes far beyond the farm gate, touching the lives of food consumers, particularly those in need of food assistance. In fact, from a spending standpoint, more Farm Bill funds go to food and feeding programs like Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC) and the supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), than get spent on farm related programs. Nevertheless, the massive Farm Bill stands to significantly impact all farmers across the nation and the question will be: how much bigger does it need to get for the next five years?  

Conservation programs, renewable energy incentives, rural development initiatives, crop insurance, production limit incentives are all part of the farm bill. Field hearings have already begun, and New York is leading the way through Commissioner Ball’s Farm bill Listening Sessions. We all must engage in the process to assure that agriculture’s needs are met.  

2023 promises to be another big policy year for agriculture.  Buckle up, because now is the time to get started. 

AFIA addresses NEAFA at 2022 Annual Meeting

By Chandler Hansen, Special to NEAFA

During the NEAFA Annual Meeting this past June at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, NY, Louise Calderwood, Director of Regulatory Affairs at American Feed Industry Association, presented an AFIA update to attendees. 

Calderwood opened by sharing information on the animal feed trade. “U.S. feed exports total $7.5 billion,” said Calderwood. “$5.5 billion of this total are feed & feed ingredients, and the remaining $2 billion are pet food products. The top three export markets are China, Japan, and Singapore. China in particular has seen a large increase in exports, going up 33% since 2020. Alfalfa/hay and other feed products have been the top commodities getting exported to China.” When asked why China and other nations in Southeast Asia have been growing, Calderwood shared that many nations in the area are developed enough now that having pets is more common, which means there are more feed needs in the region.” 

Port/Export container issues have been an ongoing problem that Calderwood spoke about. “Increased cost of Asian-based imports, increased fees, inability to export, lack of containers, and COVID-19 lockdowns in China have all created problems,” said Calderwood. “Some solutions that AFIA has been advocating for are an Infrastructure package that includes funding for port upgrades and the passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act. However, more port infrastructure in general and more collaboration on the intermodal system are still needed.”

FDA and State inspections were the next portion of the address. Calderwood showed statistics of FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practices inspections and FDA Preventive Controls inspections. Both of these showed that the vast majority of inspections deemed that there was “no action indicated,” said Calderwood. “Some observations from CGMP inspections were that feed manufacturers should evaluate the quality of their raw materials and ingredients, and should take precautions to ensure that plant operations don’t contaminate animal food. Issues observed through PC inspections were typically a failure to identify and implement PCs, a lack of a written Food Safety Plan, and a lack of a written hazard analysis or evaluation of each known or foreseeable hazard.”

Calderwood also talked about OSHA and EPA update. “Some of the Department of Labor’s early priorities have been increased budget, more inspections, increased news releases of inspection results, and they are continuing to seek maximum penalties,” said Calderwood. “Some of the items on OSHA’s watchlist have been Powered Industrial Trucks Rule Update, Lockout/Tagout Rule Update, Potential Infectious Disease Standard, Potential Heat Illness Prevention Standard, Potential Emergency Response Preparedness Rule Update, Occupational Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Regulation Update.” 

Some EPA actions that have been affecting the feed industry involve rodenticides, formaldehyde, and chlorpyrifos. Calderwood explained, “Rodenticides are currently undergoing its normal 15-year registration review. AFIA has had conversations with the EPA, USDA, and FDA on this matter. There is a very good chance that bulk forms of these products may become ‘restricted use’ pesticides. In the case of formaldehyde, it is undergoing three risk assessments by the EPA. It is classified as a human carcinogen, and it is used in animal food as an antimicrobial. AFIA is encouraging the EPA to follow the science on this matter. Lastly, the EPA recently ruled on chlorpyrifos and food containing residue of chlorpyrifos would be considered adulterated. The FDA will practice enforcement discretion for products containing the substance.” Calderwood also briefly mentioned PFAS and work being done in various states with that problem. In Maine, there is an observational study for the substance. In Vermont, more focus is on its presence in the soil, while in New York the focus is more on water. 

A portion of Calderwood’s presentation was devoted to the threat of African Swine Fever. AFIA has been working with government agencies and feed industry organizations in devising a response if an outbreak of ASF should occur in the U.S. “In the event of an outbreak, a federal order will input a nationwide 72-hour standstill where no movement of swine or germplasm will be allowed,” said Calderwood. “Infected zones will be identified and depopulation of infected herds will start. After 72-hours, states will take over the response, controlling infected areas and limiting and tracing movement in infected areas. We encourage producers to determine ways to ease the impact of an event like this, and it may involve creative solutions like working with a competitor.” ASF can spread not just through swine to swine transmission, but also through pork products or equipment and clothing, so the importance of biosecurity was greatly stressed to attendees.

Lastly, Calderwood discussed label claims. In September 2020 AFIA made an appeal to the FDA to modify a portion of its CVM Guide. The request asked for the establishment of a policy for products that act in the digestive tract to be regulated as food, and for alignment with the regulation of structure/function and health claims in developed countries. Calderwood explained that any changes that result from the request will be revised by December 2022 and the implementation of the changes will occur in 2023.