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State law gives boost to Eden farmers

photo courtesy Eden Valley Growers

The Town of Eden now has legal protection for its agricultural industry, under a new state law.

Eden has a formal farmland protection plan, part of its continuing efforts to ensure farming and agriculture thrive, especially in this era of the local food movement.

Eden Supervisor Glenn Nellis says farms are thriving. Half the town surface is being farmed. New generations of farming families are moving into leadership positions.

"We think it's important, not only to Eden as a rural community but we believe it's also important to this metropolitan area," Nellis said.

"Having a good food base locally as opposed to relying upon grapes from Chile or from China and so forth seems to us to show it's a healthy local economy."

Legislation signed by Governor Cuomo allows land to be restricted to farming for many years.

Albany has also helped Eden Valley Growers, the co-op which handles food sales for many of the largest of the truck farmers in the town. The co-op has added a $400,000 cooler that is the size of a football field.
 

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.