The agricultural industry in Onondaga County produces enough food to feed a quarter of a million people.
On Thursday, the county held an event at Dutch Hill Maple in Tully to celebrate agriculture in the county and kick off its Buy Onondaga Grown promotion and prep for OnFarm Fest, which will feature 10 farms in the county on Sept. 16, including Emmi Farms in Baldwinsville. It’s the ninth annual kick off event for the county’s annual celebration of agriculture.
“We need to continue to recognize our roots, and that is that we are – a strong ag community,” said County Executive Ryan McMahon. “We need to continue to look at ways to support the family farm. We need to continue to educate individuals in the community about how important it is that we make our own food.”
The celebration of agriculture in the county has two focuses, McMahon said. OnFarm Fest is a way to educate people throughout the county about what takes place on a wide variety of family farms in the community. Onondaga Grown is a campaign that encourages local residents to buy food and other products that are produced in Onondaga County.
Shoppers can find Onondaga Grown items by looking for the Onondaga Grown logo at local grocers, convenience stores, farm stands, farmers markets and restaurants – and by visiting www.onondagagrown.com for maps of businesses that produce or sell locally grown products.
“Onondaga Grown is about the best way we can to support these farms,” McMahon said. “We need to spend money supporting out local farms, and that will help the local economy, and that will help these farms continue to grow and be able to produce more food for more people here locally.”
Dave Skeval, the executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, one of the county’s partners in the Onondaga Grown campaign, recently traveled to an agriculture event in Suffolk County on Long Island, which boasts the number one agriculture economy in the state. While Suffolk County has about 35,000 in agricultural production, Skeval said, Onondaga County has more than 170,000 acres in production. Suffolk County producers create a lot of money from things like lavender fields and wineries, Skeval said, “but the question is how many people do they feed?”
“We feed a quarter of million people out of Onondaga County,” Skeval said. “So it’s not just important to our county, it’s important to our region.”
