Calone, Throne-Holst Agree on Suffolk's Farming Future

Former head of the Suffolk County Planning Commission Dave Calone and Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst may disagree over who has a better environmental record, but the two democratic congressional candidates have similar views on how best to help Suffolk County’s agricultural community.

During their times in office, both candidates created governmental programs to help young farmers. As the head of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, Dave Calone created the Farmers for the Future Initiative, which provides young farmers with funding from the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council for agricultural equipment, such as tractors and irrigation systems.

“The grant program provides financial assistance to farmers at all stages of their operations – from new farmers with assistance for start-up capital expenditures; to established farmers who are transitioning to a new commodity or business plan, expanding their business or to help in adopting best management practices and technologies,” said John v.H. Halsey, the president of the Peconic Land Trust, in an email.

Calone believes this program helps young farmers because it enables young farmers to purchase equipment.

“We need the next generation of farmers. Our farm population is getting older and it’s not easy to just start becoming a farmer because you need to buy a tractor, you need to buy irrigation equipment, all those kinds of things,” said Calone.

As a congressman, Calone would want to expand this program to the national level; but, he is not the only candidate with a program to help young farmers. As the Southampton town supervisor, Anna Throne-Holst also worked with the Peconic Land Trust to expand on The County Purchase of Development Program, enacted in the 1970s, to give farmers the ability to sell their land to government agencies. This would prevent developers from buying the land, while keeping estate taxes low.

“Since the 1970s, there’s about 20,000 acres of land preserved out of the 40,000 in production,” said Robert Carpenter, the office manager of the Long Island Farm Bureau, which supports the program.

Under Throne-Holst’s program, the land that is preserved must remain fertile.

“It basically strips the land for anything other than food cropping,” said Throne-Holst.

She also wants to enact this program on a federal level.

Despite these programs, neither the Peconic Land Trust nor the Long Island Farm Bureau is endorsing a candidate for the democratic primary on June 28.

Check out what percentage of New York's crops are grown in Suffolk County.