SENNETT - Dairy farmer Connie Patterson thanked U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer for his support of the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer answers questions in front of a group of local farmers and politicians at the Natural Resource Center Tuesday. afternoon.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer answers questions in front of a group of local farmers and politicians at the Natural Resource Center Tuesday. afternoon.
The measure will grant alien agricultural workers, their spouses and their children temporary resident status and legal permanent resident status upon the fulfillment of agricultural work requirements.
“I want to have access to immigrant labor” for her 900-cow Aurelius dairy, Patterson said during a town-hall style meeting with the senator Tuesday.
“And I don't want to pay for immigrant labor,” said Sjana McClure-Berry, an agricultural activist and a small-scale Genoa crop farmer. McClure-Berry worried that foreign agricultural labor drives out small family farms and worried that taxpayers will pay for some of the health care costs of foreign labor.
Schumer said it was the first time he had heard opposition to the legislation, but he promised to sit down with McClure-Berry to hear her viewpoints.
“There is no American supply of agricultural labor,” said Schumer, after telling an anecdote of a charitable agricultural project that failed to sustain a labor pool from the south Bronx after the workers experienced the hard labor requirement of the project. “You cannot wish that it be so.”
Schumer, a Democrat, answered questions on a variety of issues during the meeting at the Cayuga County Soil and Water District building on County House Road. It was one of Schumer's annual trips to each county in the state.
Schumer's main focus for the visit was the impact of fuel price increase for farmers. In Cayuga County, farmers are paying more than 100 percent more than they paid three years ago, he said. Their bills are expected to increase by $4,720, he said.
Farmers are hit three ways, he said: the increase in the price of gasoline, the increase in the price of diesel fuel, which is used for most farm equipment, and the increase in price of petroleum-based fertilizers.
Schumer said he has asked Congress' General Accountability Office to study the viability of measures like the establishment of a diesel fuel serve to ameliorate price fluctuations and incentives to encourage agricultural equipment manufacturers to make more fuel efficient farm vehicles.
Another measure for the GAO to look into was added by Schumer because of meeting attendee Carol Waterson, who has a flower business in Onondaga County.
Waterson, of LaFayette, said the heating bills for her greenhouse bills have risen from the highest bill ever of $2,400 in a bitterly cold month to a bill of $3,700 during November's relatively temperate weather.
Schumer said he will ask the GAO to examine what options are available for the greenhouse business. The GAO will report back to Schumer by Feb. 1, he said.
There is not a coherent energy policy in the United States, Schumer said, and a compromise needs to be worked out between the production increase instincts of the Republican party and the energy conservation instincts of the Democratic party.
Schumer said that on the production side the United States must drill for oil and natural gas in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as expand wind, sun and biomass energy efforts. On the conservation side, more energy-efficient mileage standards must be established, he said.
Schumer is hopeful that a failed compromise he proffered can be revived in 2006 to get some Democrats to vote for drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge in exchange for some Republicans voting for increasing mileage standards for American motor vehicles.
If the United States does not follow such measures, it will not stay the world's economic leader with the rise of China and other growing economic powers, and the United States' military and cultural heft will also weaken, Schumer warned.
Auburn City Councilor David Dempsey asked Schumer to speak about Iraq, saying that energy issues are tied to the United States' overseas war.
Schumer stands by his vote in support of the war in Iraq. The weaknesses in the war effort, he said, included President George W. Bush and his administration not building a strong-enough coalition in support of the invasion and not thinking through the potential consequences of some its decisions in Iraq.
Schumer does not expect an American-style democracy to flourish in Iraq, and if such democratic efforts do not succeed, he wants to offer semi-autonomous regions within one country to Iraq's three main ethnic groups, the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis.
The biggest applause during Schumer's visit was in response to his opposition to the Cayuga Nation's land in trust application.
Schumer said he believes he is the only New York federal official who has come out against the tribe's land in trust application, and he will push the Department of Interior to understand that land in trust is a different matter for a northeastern state.
“The land in trust process was made for a different era,” Schumer said. “It was made for out west where there were no people and not densely populated, and there was a large Indian population.”
“We have beautiful spaces in New York state, but they're not empty,” Schumer added.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
“I want to have access to immigrant labor” for her 900-cow Aurelius dairy, Patterson said during a town-hall style meeting with the senator Tuesday.
“And I don't want to pay for immigrant labor,” said Sjana McClure-Berry, an agricultural activist and a small-scale Genoa crop farmer. McClure-Berry worried that foreign agricultural labor drives out small family farms and worried that taxpayers will pay for some of the health care costs of foreign labor.
Schumer said it was the first time he had heard opposition to the legislation, but he promised to sit down with McClure-Berry to hear her viewpoints.
“There is no American supply of agricultural labor,” said Schumer, after telling an anecdote of a charitable agricultural project that failed to sustain a labor pool from the south Bronx after the workers experienced the hard labor requirement of the project. “You cannot wish that it be so.”
Schumer, a Democrat, answered questions on a variety of issues during the meeting at the Cayuga County Soil and Water District building on County House Road. It was one of Schumer's annual trips to each county in the state.
Schumer's main focus for the visit was the impact of fuel price increase for farmers. In Cayuga County, farmers are paying more than 100 percent more than they paid three years ago, he said. Their bills are expected to increase by $4,720, he said.
Farmers are hit three ways, he said: the increase in the price of gasoline, the increase in the price of diesel fuel, which is used for most farm equipment, and the increase in price of petroleum-based fertilizers.
Schumer said he has asked Congress' General Accountability Office to study the viability of measures like the establishment of a diesel fuel serve to ameliorate price fluctuations and incentives to encourage agricultural equipment manufacturers to make more fuel efficient farm vehicles.
Another measure for the GAO to look into was added by Schumer because of meeting attendee Carol Waterson, who has a flower business in Onondaga County.
Waterson, of LaFayette, said the heating bills for her greenhouse bills have risen from the highest bill ever of $2,400 in a bitterly cold month to a bill of $3,700 during November's relatively temperate weather.
Schumer said he will ask the GAO to examine what options are available for the greenhouse business. The GAO will report back to Schumer by Feb. 1, he said.
There is not a coherent energy policy in the United States, Schumer said, and a compromise needs to be worked out between the production increase instincts of the Republican party and the energy conservation instincts of the Democratic party.
Schumer said that on the production side the United States must drill for oil and natural gas in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as expand wind, sun and biomass energy efforts. On the conservation side, more energy-efficient mileage standards must be established, he said.
Schumer is hopeful that a failed compromise he proffered can be revived in 2006 to get some Democrats to vote for drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge in exchange for some Republicans voting for increasing mileage standards for American motor vehicles.
If the United States does not follow such measures, it will not stay the world's economic leader with the rise of China and other growing economic powers, and the United States' military and cultural heft will also weaken, Schumer warned.
Auburn City Councilor David Dempsey asked Schumer to speak about Iraq, saying that energy issues are tied to the United States' overseas war.
Schumer stands by his vote in support of the war in Iraq. The weaknesses in the war effort, he said, included President George W. Bush and his administration not building a strong-enough coalition in support of the invasion and not thinking through the potential consequences of some its decisions in Iraq.
Schumer does not expect an American-style democracy to flourish in Iraq, and if such democratic efforts do not succeed, he wants to offer semi-autonomous regions within one country to Iraq's three main ethnic groups, the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis.
The biggest applause during Schumer's visit was in response to his opposition to the Cayuga Nation's land in trust application.
Schumer said he believes he is the only New York federal official who has come out against the tribe's land in trust application, and he will push the Department of Interior to understand that land in trust is a different matter for a northeastern state.
“The land in trust process was made for a different era,” Schumer said. “It was made for out west where there were no people and not densely populated, and there was a large Indian population.”
“We have beautiful spaces in New York state, but they're not empty,” Schumer added.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
