Posts by James Dean

SFQ black land Antonios Greene

Outreach Supports Black Rural Landowners in Northeast

By James Dean / April 3, 2023

Black land owners account for just ~1% of private Northeast forestland.  For Sydney Antonio, a love of forests took root during childhood summers visiting upstate New York, where she and her cousins explored family-owned property covered by red oak, white ash, hard maple and other trees.    Today, she and her husband, Evon Antonio, sustainably…

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SFQ ag diversity hearing anu

Cornell Experts Advocate for Ag Diversity, Food Security

By James Dean / July 5, 2021

A recent New York Senate meeting featured Cornell experts speaking on the importance of diversity in farm leadership and emphasizing the numeric discrepancy between minority farm employment and ownership. Only about 1% of New York state’s nearly 58,000 farm owners identify as Hispanic or Latinx, according to the Census of Agriculture, despite more than 80,000…

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SFQ farm outlook richard stup webinar

NYS Farm Outlook for 2021

By James Dean / April 5, 2021

Experts predict scarce labor and higher wages this year.  New York state farm operators can expect a tight labor market and rising wages in the year ahead, in addition to continued pandemic precautions, debate over immigration reform and potential changes to overtime pay, according to a Cornell agriculture expert.  “Ag labor is going to remain scarce due to ……

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SFQ Taste NY CCE Jada Farm

CCE connects local farms, foodies through Taste NY

By James Dean / January 13, 2020

On a recent morning at JADA Hill Farm in Deposit, New York, Ziggy, a 5-month-old Nigerian dwarf goat, playfully head-butted a sister goat from her perch on a sun-drenched slab of rock.   Owners John and Dawn Alfano have fed their 19 dairy goats a breakfast of sweet feed mixed with black sunflower seeds before releasing them to…

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