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September 29, 2010 in resources

State funded and fighting for survival – the New York Farm Viability Institute

“We’re Still Here!”
September 20th, 2010

“Dead man walking”, that’s what it has felt at times meeting and talking with colleagues in agriculture throughout the State as word spread about the cuts included in the 2010/2011 New York State budget, for both new and previous funding (re-appropriations) for the New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI).

The budget cuts were substantial:

88% cut in new funding for state fiscal year 2010/1155% cut in funding from previous years, funding that was approved in the 2007/08, 08/09 and 09/10 budgets

66% cut in overall funding for NY Farm Viability Institute

These cuts sound deep and they are, but the cuts did not obliterate the Institute. Quite the contrary, one of the clear messages coming out of the financial stress the State has had to deal with this year is that the NY State legislature, in particular the Senate and Assembly Agriculture Committees led by Senator Darrell Aubertine, Senator Cathy Young; and Assemblyman Bill Magee and Assemblyman Cliff Crouch, found the resources to sustain the infrastructure of the NY Farm Viability Institute in the toughest of times so that the Institute can live to fight another day.
That is just what we are doing.

The all-farmer Board of Directors of NYFVI remains deeply concerned about sustaining farm level, applied production research and management programs that make near term, measurable differences for NY farmers. The board had a hard job to do late in the summer (right in sync, mind you, with heavy summer farm workloads for the board directors). The board was faced with a roster of 68 active projects, and less than half the funds needed to see those projects to completion.

Read the full article HERE

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