Huguenot Street farm CSA for sale for $1.5million - what can we learn from this?
So,
even if true, what business is that of anyones else you might ask?
Surely Ron and Kate are entitled to make as much hay as they can out of
the private land that they own, right? Well, it is probably a little
more complicated than that....
That land has a conservation easement on it, purchased by the Walkill Valley Land Trust, with donors dollars and to an extent taxpayer
dollars. This makes the future of that farmland a topic of public
conversation. How well our public policy and dollars protect farmland
as working farms (or just as "open space") is a matter of public interest, and matters
to more than just the buyers and sellers of a protected property. $1.5
mil is way beyond that lands agricultural carrying capacity, so it is
unlikely that working farmers (like Ron and Kate) could ever pay for
that and make a living.
So the likely buyer is an estate owner, (who may or may not hobby farm.) So, who does this benefit? Does it benefit the community of eaters in New Paltz that thought they were protecting a CSA for their families future food security when they wrote checks to WVLT to preserve that land? On their website WVLT http://www.wallkillvalleylt.org talks about how they are "protecting" farmland, but of course the devil is in the details....
Ok, it is true that "open space" has public benefits, but open space that produces food for the
community is a much greater public benefit.
We can do better. Hopefully this will be an opportunity for the people of New Paltz, and
the supporters of Walkill Valley Land Trust to educate themselves on these
issues and make the appropriate changes to their practices to assure
protected farms stay farms!
for more on this issue check out:
http://www.hvfoodnetwork.com/forum/topics/a-hudson-valley-foodshed
http://www.regenerationcsa.org/1/post/2008/09/post-title-click-and-...
even if true, what business is that of anyones else you might ask?
Surely Ron and Kate are entitled to make as much hay as they can out of
the private land that they own, right? Well, it is probably a little
more complicated than that....
That land has a conservation easement on it, purchased by the Walkill Valley Land Trust, with donors dollars and to an extent taxpayer
dollars. This makes the future of that farmland a topic of public
conversation. How well our public policy and dollars protect farmland
as working farms (or just as "open space") is a matter of public interest, and matters
to more than just the buyers and sellers of a protected property. $1.5
mil is way beyond that lands agricultural carrying capacity, so it is
unlikely that working farmers (like Ron and Kate) could ever pay for
that and make a living.
So the likely buyer is an estate owner, (who may or may not hobby farm.) So, who does this benefit? Does it benefit the community of eaters in New Paltz that thought they were protecting a CSA for their families future food security when they wrote checks to WVLT to preserve that land? On their website WVLT http://www.wallkillvalleylt.org talks about how they are "protecting" farmland, but of course the devil is in the details....
Ok, it is true that "open space" has public benefits, but open space that produces food for the
community is a much greater public benefit.
We can do better. Hopefully this will be an opportunity for the people of New Paltz, and
the supporters of Walkill Valley Land Trust to educate themselves on these
issues and make the appropriate changes to their practices to assure
protected farms stay farms!
for more on this issue check out:
http://www.hvfoodnetwork.com/forum/topics/a-hudson-valley-foodshed
http://www.regenerationcsa.org/1/post/2008/09/post-title-click-and-...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Brannen on -
Wow. Megan, thanks so much for sharing. This is really interesting...if a little disheartening too.
I would add that Andrew Cuomo just release his agricultural plan as part of his campaign, although I have not read it yet. It'll be interesting to see if it has anything in there about this.
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