Farmer Survey: Help Us Build the VISION 2050 of New York’s Ag Future

December 6, 2021/Ryan Maher

We need your help in shaping the future of NYS food and farming. As part of our work on the VISION 2050 project, we are asking New York farmers to put forward their voices in developing this vision for NYS agriculture. 

What do you want to see for the future of New York State’s food system by 2050? We invite you to participate in a statewide Farmer Survey to prioritize investments for the NYS food and farming system as we look towards building an equitable, resilient, profitable, and healthy future.  

Results from this survey will contribute to creating VISION 2050, a project led by the Center for Agricultural Development & Entrepreneurship (CADE). The Cornell Small Farms Program is a project partner working in collaboration with the Dyson School of Applied Economics at Cornell, faculty from Columbia University, Hartwick College, and SUNY Cobleskill.

“We are asking stakeholders, especially farmers, to identify barriers to be overcome and areas of opportunity and growth, so that we can encourage the adoption of a New York State strategic plan to strengthen agricultural development and our food system for the long term, inform policy, resources, and State programs and services,” CADE Executive Director Phoebe Schreiner said.

The survey represents the second phase of the stakeholder engagement process, built on the results of 17 focus groups which brought together a total of 90 stakeholders from all sectors of the NYS food system in a series of roundtable discussions. This project follows a similar course chartered by Food Solutions New England, who released a 2060 Food Vision produced by six partner states in 2014.

This survey will take 15 minutes to complete and will close on December 31, 2021. 

Take the Farmer Survey Now!

Ryan Maher

Ryan began with the SFP in the summer of 2013 and focuses on research and extension in soil health practices for vegetables. He is a Baltimore native with family and educational ties to CNY. After graduating from SUNY-ESF in 2003 he spent two summers training on diversified vegetable farms, first in SW Oregon and then in the Boston metro area. In 2007, he graduated from Iowa State with an MS in Sustainable Agriculture focusing on soils in native grassland restorations. He spent five years with the USDA-ARS in St. Paul MN, coordinating research on nutrient cycling in perennial forage crops. Ryan, his wife Jackie, and daughters Gia and Olive are happy to settle in CNY and enjoy the food, farms, forested hills, and water of the Finger Lakes region.
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