At La Basse Cour in South Kortright, we believe farming should be in harmony with nature. For more than 150 years, traditional farming practices here have built rich soils that grow vegetables, berries and herbs while supporting healthy pastures and preserving meadow, woodland and wetland habitat.
But a small farm like ours does not exist in isolation. We are one of more than 50 small farms serving people in both upstate and downstate New York through a whole diet CSA (community supported agriculture) project of Catskills Agrarian Alliance. Its sliding-scale pricing helps make locally produced food grown and raised in sustainable ways available and affordable to more families. We also sell our eggs through the Catskills Agrarian Alliance to mutual aid organizations and food pantries serving communities upstate and downstate.
These relationships illustrate something important about agriculture: some of the strongest food systems are built from the ground up. Farmers, consumers and communities working together provide people with fresh food grown by farmers they can know and trust.
That is why we are concerned about the Save Our Bacon Act. This pending proposal in the U.S. Congress would preempt certain state agricultural standards and shift authority away from states over certain agricultural products sold within their borders.
A sweeping federal policy that overrides state standards moves us in precisely the wrong direction. Agriculture varies enormously from one state and region to another. New York should retain the ability to establish agricultural standards that reflect the needs of its farmers, consumers and communities rather than having those decisions dictated by a one-size-fits-all federal rule.
For small farms, local and regional cooperation isn’t an abstract idea. It is how we survive. It is how we get food to our neighbors, support other farmers and build a more resilient food system.
We appreciate that the Save Our Bacon Act was not included in the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Farm Bill draft. We urge Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to oppose this dangerous measure and help keep it out of the final Farm Bill.
Local food systems are strongest when decisions remain close to the farmers and communities they affect.
Diane Frances
La Basse Cour
South Kortright
