Well, we’ve gotten past January, a long and cold month (winters are brutal), thank goodness. The days are noticeably longer and the sun a little higher.
January is meeting month, with numerous industry and commodity educational programs. The Long Island Ag Forum at SCCC in Riverhead was fairly well attended. Becky Wiseman did a great job in putting together an informative yet interesting group of presenters. At the Ag Forum dinner an Ag Economic Development lady from Virginia gave a good presentation on marketing. She was right on the mark, that our farmers are really good at growing, but really poor in marketing and in today’s economic times growers need to look at their business plans and put more emphasis on their marketing or lack thereof.
The following week after Ag Forum was the Greenhouse Growers Conference in Islip. Nora Catlin, Ralph Freeman, myself and other presenters updated the growers on new laws, regulations trends, politics and everything relevant to the 2010 growing season.
Last Friday was the Horticulture Conference, again at the Holiday Inn by Islip Airport where a crowd of over 200 attended similar presentations. Alexis Alvey put the program together for nurserymen, flower growers and landscapers. Bob Nolan our past president of LIFB went with me where he signed up a number of new members. In my presentation about legislative priorities I pushed the issue about Farm Bureau’s mission, to accomplish together what individuals cannot – we succeed together or go down together.
Last week I went to Albany for my first lobby trip of 2010. Montauk Boat Captains Association leaders Captains Joe McBride and Stret Whitting and I visited numerous state legislators including the Environmental Committee Chairman, Senator Ken LaValle, Assembly’s Thiele and Alessi and DEC staff to discuss a number of their priority issues. Two of the big issues for the Captains are the new salt water license fees plus others that make NY fishermen uncompetitive with New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, etc. Their license fees are 25% of ours, which is bad for our guys. The second major issue is that we are seeking the same sales tax treatment (exemption) for the Charter Boat Industry that is given to the commercial fishermen. They are able to file an annual refund request to get a tax break on the diesel fuel tax. Senator LaValle and Assemblyman Thiele had gotten legislation passed to exempt the commercial fishermen “at the pump” instead of the burden of paperwork to get the refund, but the legislation was vetoed by the Governor last year – he was concerned other boaters would claim to be fishermen and enforcement would be complicated. The Charter Boat Captains seek the same tax treatment as the commercial fishermen as they are an extension of the commercial fishery. With limits on catch, such as striped bass and fluke, it makes it difficult to make it worthwhile to run a charter boat with the cost of fuel so expensive.
Captains McBride and Whitting interrupted their Florida vacations to come up just to go to Albany to represent their industry as volunteers. They are both fine gentlemen who truly care about the plight of their colleagues. I continue to learn every time we go to the Capitol to learn about all the rules and regulations affecting them.
Next thing you know I woke up the other morning and its February!