Justine Heuvel and Mary Jo Dubley came to speak to us tonight and offer their different but complementary perspectives on agriculture, both in New York State and in general. Many interesting facts were brought up that seemed to come as a surprise to many of the students in attendance, thus demonstrating the point that there is a disconnect between the consumers (us and everyone!) and the true producers of food – the farmers. For example, we learned that a quarter of NYS land is farmland, and this land is home to 36,000 farms. Moreover, agriculture is a 5.7 billion dollar sector of our economy and New York is the second largest producer of apples and pumpkins in the country (as well as in the top 10 of many other fruits and vegetables). Although I am accustomed to hearing about apple-picking trips and buying apples straight from the orchard, the greatest percentage of apple farm sales is actually to Wal-Mart, which is the number one buyer of NYS apples.

Another surprisingly large number that was discussed was the percentage of undocumented farm workers, with estimates ranging from 50%-95%. The implications of this are quite far reaching, especially considered in combination with our approaching Presidential election. A stricter policy regarding undocumented workers could create a major farm-labor shortage and thus severely drive up the cost of food. It seems as thought US citizens do not want any jobs in agriculture for many reasons – such as safety concerns, a seeming lack of room to “move up” in the industry, the associated social stigma, and also the hard nature of most jobs on the farm. However, as Mary Jo Dudley pointed out – being (successful) in agriculture also requires business and organizational skills and scientific knowledge. Farmable land is a finite resource and the challenge of increasing efficiency, maintaining quality, and decreasing costs provides the opportunity for a great deal of improvement and advancement. Perhaps this incentive will increase the number of Americans in agriculture and help to increase awareness of the problems farm workers face today.