TOWN OF CHAMPION, New York (WWNY) – Despite some struggles, a recent agricultural report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli shows that farmers have been one of the most resilient groups throughout the pandemic. ‘
“This just reinforced the need that we need to invest in agriculture, support family farms, and ensure that they do business in this state,” said Steve Atterman: Director of Communications of the New York Farm Bureau.
It’s a far cry from the national employment loss of 8.7%, the report states farms lost only 1% of employees in 2020, and wages continued to grow throughout the pandemic.
According to Kitty O’Neil from Cornell Cooperative Extension, a lot of that credit goes to farmers themselves.
“Farmers as a group are a very resilient bunch. You don’t stay farming if you’re not. Ever,” said O’Neil.
According to farmer and Jefferson County Legislator John Peck, one of the main reasons farms were able to fare so well in the pandemic was their status as an essential business because tending to cows is a 24/7 job.
“We still had to milk the cows. You still have to do things. It’s not like an assembly line manufacturing process where you can shut the lights off and stop production. In an agricultural system which is a living system, you can’t do that,” said Peck.
Peck says the report’s numbers don’t tell the full story. On paper, things look good for his farm, but while it survived the pandemic, it didn’t thrive.
“When the shutdown happened, we lost our market completely. My milk check in April was around $7.00 / hundred weight. A number that hadn’t been seen on this farm since my grandfather was running it back in the 1950s.
And those wage increases, they did their job of combatting staffing shortages but introduced new challenges for budgeting.
“Wage growth is just one of those few expenses you can try to have control over on the farm, and you’re just losing control over it right now,” said Peck.
Farms, the backbone of the North Country economy, enduring through adversity.
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