By David Tyler

On a warm breezy day at a podium overlooking acres of farmland, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon and Legislature Chairman Dave Knapp had a simple message: our farmers need our help.
On Wednesday at Palladino Farms in Pompey, the two were joined by Cornell Cooperative Extension Director Dave Skeval to kick off the Onondaga Grown campaign, which promotes the local agriculture economy and emphasizes the importance of purchasing locally-grown foods.
“One of the lessons learned about this pandemic is that when it comes to your supply chain … you need to make things locally,” McMahon said. “That lesson doesn’t just apply to the pandemic, it applies to our food sources too.”
“We need to support these communities more than ever,” he added. “We need to buy local with everything we do.”
Skeval told those in attendance that the history of farming in Onondaga County has some sad points, but could have a bright future.
In 1965, Onondaga County had 300,000 acres of tillable land. By 1997, that had been cut in half to 150,000 acres. Since then, through sensible land management, that number has grown to 165,000 acres
“That is worth $32 million a year in economic activity for Onondaga County,” Skeval said. “That sounds pretty big to me.”
A successful farmland protection program doesn’t just involve selling the development rights on a farm to ensure that it remains undeveloped, Skeval said. It also requires working with farmers on smart plans to ensure the farm has a productive future.
He pointed to Palladino Farms, where the event took place, as a perfect example of the creativity necessary to have a successful farmland protection program.
“You have to be smart about what your land can produce, where it can be successful,” Skeval said. “Dan [Palladino], in one year, accounted for about a quarter of malting barley grown in New York State right on this land here.”
Farmers, he said, need to adapt to what the market will bear and what the land will produce to make agriculture succeed long into the future.
Educating the public is also a part of the mission.
“Over the last four years, we’ve had a steady rise in attendance … to the point where we have about 8,000 farm visits a year,” Skeval said. The increased awareness of the challenges faced by local farmers is a step in the right direction, but it takes constant outreach to draw attention to these concerns.
“That’s a cow that doesn’t stay milked,” Skeval said – using an expression that the farmers in attendance appreciated. “The education never stops.”
Both Skeval and Knapp pointed to the challenges faced by dairy farmers as the supply chains have shifted during the pandemic.
Because of increased consumer demand, many area grocers have put limits on the number of gallons of milk consumers can purchase, while at the same time many local dairy farms have been forced to dump milk because they can’t find a buyer. Restaurants and schools – large consumers of milk that is distributed in packaging that doesn’t align with in-store sales – have been shuttered, and the milk processors have been slow to switch to a purely grocery-friendly packaging.
“I’m really blown away by the limits on milk being sold,” Skeval said. “We need consumers to support dairy, especially in regard to fluid milk.”
Knapp encouraged people to get in their cars and head to a local farm stand as a perfect family day trip that would help support the local agriculture economy. A full list of retailers, grocers and farmers that have on-site local agricultural products is available at onondagagrown.com.
And he also encouraged shoppers to opt for the local products available on their weekly trips to Wegmans and Tops.
“Look for those local producers – the Reeves, the Emmis, the Andrews – that are supplying those local foods,” he said.
Knapp and McMahon both alluded to a grant program that will be launched in the next few weeks. The county has received about $500,000 from the federal government that will be converted to grants for area farmers who have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. The details of the program are still being worked out, Knapp said.
Asked whether the pandemic has forced any farmers out of business, Knapp said: “I haven’t heard of any really large ones in Onondaga County yet – I know there are some that are definitely on the edge – but around the state we’ve definitely seen some.”
“The fact that the farm bureau has a suicide prevention line for farmers,” Knapp said. “It shows you that, yeah, it’s serious.”