Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Kicks Off Statewide Listening Tour to Address Future of Farming in New York State

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul launched a statewide listening tour on the future of farming in New York State. A series of listening sessions will allow the State to hear directly from farmers about their priorities in addressing climate, workforce, and economic challenges, and will help inform the State's federal priorities for critical funding and policy changes in the areas of agriculture, nutrition, and the environment. Kicking off the listening tour, Governor Hochul visited Bruno Farm in Suffolk County and held a roundtable session with stakeholders at Long Island Farm Brewery/Water Drinker Family Farm to hear from farmers about their successes and concerns. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor will be continuing the tours across the State in the coming months, in conjunction with Listening Sessions held by Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball, with several stops scheduled to ensure that the farming community statewide has a chance to make their voices heard.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning. It's great to be at a brewery this early in the morning. Long Island Brewery, and there's over 50 breweries here on Long Island and it's part of our whole ecosystem of creating jobs, but also making it more fun to be on Long Island.

I want to thank Rob for the work he does with the Long Island Farm Bureau. Also, we have Commissioner Richard Ball, who's been our incredible Commissioner of Agriculture, who I see at farms all over the state. And we wanted to make sure we put a special emphasis on farms. As we emerged from the pandemic, I wanted to challenge people across the state and help us define the future of farming going forward. And that's what this is all about.

We know the challenges that exist. We also see incredible opportunities and we think about how we get through the challenges in partnership with the agricultural community because they have been there for us. We need to be there for them. I come from a farming family way back in Ireland. Those are my roots. I have families who have pubs to this day over in Ireland. So, I know coming to a place like the Long Island Brewery here, this is a place I feel comfortable and I want them to know that we can understand what they need from all of us. And that was the purpose of having this forum here today.

I am launching here today, a series of statewide farm conversations where we can listen to the people who are the most affected by what is going on on the globe, but also in our country and also here in the State of New York and get the reaction. What can we be doing better? How do we reimagine farming as we go forward?

We are also going to be culminating in a major summit. We'll be inviting the Secretary of Agriculture from Washington to come up and have a major conversation about really positioning New York State to be the leader as we go forth and venture into this post pandemic world.

I want to make sure we also address their needs with respect to affordable housing. I mean, that's a big issue we hear on Long Island, everybody. But for the workers who come here, some of them seasonally on visas, they need to have a secure place to stay that is affordable. So I have worked very hard to put forth an affordable housing plan, $25 billion. We'd like to build more in these communities to help them meet the needs of the workers and meet the needs of the employers. We heard that today in our conversations. Also making sure that we deal with the high cost of farming overall. Look at the cost of fuel for them. The unprecedented increase in diesel in running their farm equipment.

So we're working on ways to ensure that they have tax credits. We increase the tax credits for them to be able to invest in their infrastructure and have capital investments. We're also helping them with their worker retention costs. We've doubled the tax credit for workers, as well as picking up the increase that will accrue if there is to be an increase in the overtime law or decrease in the overtime hours.

So we're going to be working with them on that as well. So, I wanted to just thank everybody for what they're doing. Let them know that this is really such an important part of our state's economy. It's when people from elsewhere think of New York, they don't always think of agriculture, but that's what we live and breathe in our state from from Montauk up to the North Country, over to the Southern Tier. We are known for agriculture elsewhere, and I want to make sure that we lean into addressing the challenges. That is what we are focused on today.