Learn more about Andrew’s agriculture proposals:

We must help our farmers get much-needed access to capital by creating a “Share NY Food” program to expand community supported agriculture, expanding the Linked Deposit Program to assist small businesses with low-rate loans and fight for more federal money for technological development relevant to agriculture-based research and business development.

The State should help to expand small and midsize processing by dedicating a portion of the State’s Manufacturing Assistance Program (MAP) funds to assist New York State manufacturers with investing in capital projects that significantly improve production, productivity and competitiveness. 

Create new markets for New York’s agriculture by expanding farmers markets in urban centers, including the revitalization of the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market which could generate an estimated $866 million annually. A modern Hunts Point market will help bolster the retail food sector and will provide an avenue for local farmers to market and sell their produce directly to wholesale buyers in the New York City metropolitan region.We should also expand access to healthy, local food options in underserved or unserved communities in innovative ways by expanding Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs and mobile markets and expanding acceptance of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits for payment.

We must find ways to make energy more affordable for our agriculture industry, including by creating the “Farm NY Renewable Energy Program” to foster increased energy efficiency on farms.  Under the program, Andrew Cuomo will extend the Biofuel Production Tax Credit, increase funding for the the use of anaerobic digesters and increase renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, by expanding “net metering” and encouraging distributed generation. Finally, we must create the “Connect NY” broadband program to expand high speed internet access to rural unserved areas of New York and strengthen partnerships with colleges and universities to foster and expand agriculture-related research.

We need to provide farms much-needed property tax relief by getting New York’s explosive State and local government spending under control by imposing a State spending cap, vetoing State tax increases, incentivizing the consolidation of our more than 10,500 local governments, and capping local property taxes. We will review and make changes to the current regulatory system in order to implement measures to relieve regulatory burdens on farmers while helping to foster growth in our agriculture industry, including better coordination in food safety, transportation, intergovernmental cooperation and farmland protection. Also, we will create the NYS Business Express single point of contact available online to cut through bureaucratic red tape that increases costs for farmers.  Andrew Cuomo will undertake a comprehensive review of and eliminate or veto unnecessary legislative or regulatory mandates and State laws that limit the ability of school districts and localities to contain costs. In addition, must include agriculture in the Regional Industry “Cluster” approach, increasing cooperation and coordination among agriculture state agencies and local governments to help preserve farmland, protect food safety and examine current agriculture funding for the purchase of local foods.