Guests: Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, IPCC/NASA scientist & NY farmers

Location: Legislative Office Bldg., Hearing Rm. C

Sponsors: HWFC, RFFP, NOFA-NY NYS

• Higher temperatures overall, with shorter winters, longer summers
• Increased pest pressure on vegetable crops from insects and weeds
• Livestock stress (heat and disease) will lead to decline in milk production
• More extreme events, as floods and droughts; water management problems
• Traditional fruit crop failures (e.g., apples) due to reduced winter cooling days and to freezing during and after bloom
• Variable winters (with premature leafing out in mid-winter) will damage trees and orchard crops Marginally over-wintering insects such as ticks will thrive
• Loss of maple, beech, birch and other cool climate trees Unsustainable changes in synchrony between plants and pollinators, and between animals and their food sources
• Species migrations to the north and to higher altitudes and species extinctions
• Changes in sea level will create new coastline and move population centers inland and northward

• Support organic/sustainable agriculture--Healthier soils (more organic matter) can sequester carbon and retain water to manage both droughts and floods
• Support small and medium-sized farms; regulate agribusiness/confined animal operations which are carbon intensive (energy and emissions) & polluting
• Support local and low-processed foods to reduce fossil fuel used in transportation, processing, refrigeration.
• Revitalize regional food processing and distribution
• Guarantee contracts for local foods with public programs and public institutions, such as NY’s hospitals & colleges
• Support urban farms, community gardens, school gardens (not lawns); also farm markets, CSA’s Support local non-food biomass for local energy.
• Provide incentives for on-farm solar, methane & wind to improve cooling capacity of livestock facilities, etc.
• Conserve farmland, wildland and open countryside; regulate sprawl; build in existing population centers
• Plan wildlife protection and migration corridors to maintain species diversity and prevent extinctions
• Encourage use of cover crops, rotations, composts, and reduced tillage. Discourage use of energy intensive synthetic fertilizers, which emit nitrous oxide
• Fund programs to improve irrigation and drainage, prevent soil erosion and run-of, and capture rainwater
• Adjust plant selection & planting dates; return to use of hardy, bio-diverse heirloom plants and animals
• Create carbon credits for organic and grazing farmers to honor their role in carbon sequestration