The Herkimer County Farmland Protection Board is soliciting input from agricultural businesses, individual farmers, landowners, farm market managers, government officials, equipment owners and anyone with an interest in Herkimer County agriculture to comment on what they feel are some of the major concerns and issues facing agriculture both now and in the future.
Possible issues might be production costs, labor, vacant land, feed costs, numbers of farms, land purchasing, equipment and regulations to name only a few. The Farmland Protection Board is newly reformed and consists of farmers, government officials, planners, educators and agricultural leaders within Herkimer County.
The immediate goal of the Board is to revise and update the Herkimer Farmland Protection Plan which was originally adopted in 2002 by the Herkimer County Legislature. The FPP is a document which serves as a guideline for production agriculture and governmental policies related to our local farms and businesses.
Any individuals with input for the Farmland Protection Board may contact Bernie Peplinski, chairman of the Herkimer County Legislature at bpep@ymail.com or call him at (315) 822-6974. You may also contact Bernie Armata, from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Herkimer County, atbma3@cornell.edu or call (315) 866-7920 by Wednesday, Nov. 15.