Agriculture

A union representing about a dozen farm workers and their supporters protested outside of Pindar Vineyards’s outlet store in Port Jefferson over the weekend. They want to pressure winery owners to negotiate a contract with their union.

State officials are warning residents about the Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive species from Asia that represents a threat to New York’s agriculture, and especially the wine and grape industry.

On Monday, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that more than $38 million is being awarded to New York’s agricultural industry to protect farmland across the state.

Volunteers planted New England Blazing Star at Bamford Preserve, a rare sandplain grassland on Martha's Vineyard. Sandplain grasslands are biodiversity hotspots found only along the northeast Atlantic Coast.

The $400 million federal program is being funded through the American Rescue Plan. The goal is for local food businesses to help those that are food insecure. Connecticut is the second state to strike a deal with USDA.

As capacity shortages in slaughterhouses complicate business for livestock farmers, two specialty sausage makers are starting their own animal processing facility.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that she hasn’t decided if she’ll accept a recommendation from a state wage board to lower the number of hours farm workers have to work to earn overtime in New York.

With hundreds of farm owners, farmworkers and independent researchers attending the hearings, over 60% of those who testified wanted the wage board to keep the threshold at 60 hours.

The state’s Farm Laborers Wage Board bypassed a legal deadline of Dec. 15 to decide whether farmworkers should receive overtime pay after working 40 hours a week.

A state wage board is set to consider lowering the overtime threshold from 60 hours.