Help For East End Farms On Way In Wake Of Pandemic

NORTH FORK, NY — After months of challenges posed by the pandemic, East End farmers could soon see help coming their way from Suffolk County.

On Tuesday, the first day of fall, Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer Rob Calarco and Suffolk County Legislator and farmer Al Krupski will tour farms on the East End to discuss ways the county can support agriculture through farmland projects and environmental initiatives.

The duo is set to tour farms and business operations including Garden of Eve, Alice's Fish Market, Little Ram Oysters, and Sep's Farms, officials said.

“The pandemic has challenged all industries, but few have been so directly impacted as our food and agricultural sectors. Empty shelves stoked fears of scarcity, which only exacerbated the issues that local farmers have been dealing with in recent years," Colarco said.

From labor and distribution disruptions to keeping up with local demand, the East End has endured and preserved despite the challenges, Colarco said. He added that in an effort to further protect vital lands and farms, the Legislature has included funding for the Farmland Preservation Fund in the 2022 capital budget, allocating $100 million over the next 10 years to preserve remaining at-risk farms across the county.

"To recover and come back better than ever, elected officials like myself and Legislator Krupski must continue listening to and supporting our farmers," Colarco said.

In May, at an event to celebrate land preservation at the Wells Homestead farm in Riverhead, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said agriculture is critical to Suffolk, generating more than $226 million in sales annually; Suffolk County is home to over 560 farms that employ more than 4,600 people.

At the event, Krupski, himself a farmer, said many have a romantic notion of agriculture. Instead, agriculture is a business, rife with government regulations, he said. "Your senior partner is the weather," he said. "There are so many challenges to growing a crop."