Farming, economy

TO THE EDITOR: Agriculture is the fundamental occupation. So wrote William Miner nearly a century ago, and it is still true today.

Farming provides the foundation of our region's economic and social infrastructure. A recent study found that counties across the United States with more dairy farms enjoyed better socioeconomic conditions.

The North Country region of New York state remains a hotbed of dairying, with St. Lawrence County ranking 46th nationwide in milk production. Our own Clinton County ranks 101st out of 3,000 U.S. counties as one of the "best places to farm," according to Farm Futures Magazine.

The economic impact of dairy farming in aggregate is substantial, but it is spread over 120 individual farms in Clinton County, and so it becomes easier to overlook its total impact. But, consider this: How valuable would an industry be that produced more than $124 million in annual sales and hired over 900 workers in Clinton County? According to the New York State Department of Ag and Markets, that's what the farms of our county did in 2009. Imagine if this industry were to disappear — the very economic foundation of our region would evaporate.

Each new dairy hire creates an additional 1.24 jobs, while every dollar of farm output generates an additional 83 cents in the local economy. These economic multipliers are not very different from the service sector, manufacturing or retail trade. And we cannot ignore the fact that our local farms support a burgeoning agri-tourism industry in the North Country.

We have an industry that underpins the regional economy, produces healthy food locally and enhances tourism and our cultural identity.

As we rightly strive to attract industries to locate in Clinton County, we must continue to strengthen the fundamental occupation of our region: agriculture.

Dr. Rick Grant

President William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute

In touch with home

TO THE EDITOR: Greetings from the Dominican Republic.

Can it get any better? Sitting on the beach, drinking a margarita, reading the PR mobile.

Tommy Condon

Punta Cana

Sustainable Living

TO THE EDITOR: The Sustainable Living Project and Local Living Festival would like to offer your readers an opportunity to sponsor or volunteer for our year-round Skills-Building Workshops for Resourceful Living or the second-annual Local Living Festival, Sept. 24 and 25 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Learning Farm in Canton.

Twelve hundred people attended the first Local Living Festival, and our year-round programs reach thousands more through extensive media campaigns, bulk e-mailings, website and Facebook coverage. Our 2011 community presence is only growing.

There is a growing constituency for the Sustainable Living Project, the only educational program of its kind in the North Country. We promote environmental impact reduction through practical rural and simple living skills.

Programs include Pumping Water Without Electricity, How We Saved 60 percent on our Energy Bills, Rainwater Catchment, Food Preservation, Raising Livestock and Poultry, Bicycle Repair, Orcharding, Forestry, Solar Greenhouse, Mowing with a Scythe, Beekeeping and hundreds more.

Long-term goals include a Community Resource Center & Agricultural Depot, plus an eventual Homesteading College in the St. Lawrence River Valley, with a core curriculum based on growing, eating and preserving food, renewable-energy systems and "green" building and traditional rural skills. See the Future Plans page of our website for details about these hugely exciting projects.

We sincerely hope you will join the 75-plus volunteers supporting the project and Local Living Festival. Small gifts of your valuable time, in-kind donations, major donations — every bit helps us achieve our goals. The project enjoys oversight by Seedcorn, Inc., a 501(c)3 educational organization.

With your help, we can inspire awareness to reduce our local ecological footprint, one step at a time. Exhibitors and Workshop Presenters are also sought. Please contact SustLivingProject@gmail.com or (315) 347-4223.

Chelle Lindahl and Melinda Ely

Project co-coordinators

Rajiv Narula

Project organizer

Paul Pickens

Major donor coordinator

Jacki DeGraw

Festival exhibit coordinator