The Albany County Legislature on June 11 unanimously approved a Right-to-Farm Law designed to support and protect responsible agricultural operations and foster good relations between farmers and their non-farm neighbors.

“This local law recognizes that as more and more non-farm families move to the country, there is a need to promote a better understanding that farming activities result in noise, dust, odors, chemical sprays and slow-moving farm equipment on the roads,” said 39th District Legislator Alexander E. Gordon, lead sponsor of the local law.

“The law requires disclosure to prospective buyers of property located near farming operations and sets up a dispute resolution process to protect farmers from nuisance law suits so long as they follow sound agricultural practices,” said County Legislature Chairman Charles E. Houghtaling, who cosponsored the law.

The law is the product of several years of work by the Albany County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board, the County Department of Economic Development, Conservation and Planning and Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Gordon, an active farmer, is a legislative representative on the board, while Houghtaling is an ex officio member. Gordon’s 39th Legislative District encompasses the towns of Knox, Berne and Rensselaerville.

Houghtaling represents the 38th District covering Westerlo and portions of New Scotland.

The law augments and extends provisions already available under the State Agricultural District Law to farming operations lying within the county’s three Agricultural Districts, which with 70,766 enrolled acres includes most of the County’s productive farmland.

It also applies to agricultural enterprises outside the county’s Agricultural Districts and to smaller agricultural operations which generate $2,000 or more in annual gross sales.

Gordon said this is an important provision since the majority of the county’s agricultural operations are small farms with annual sales of less than $10,000, the threshold for protection under State law.

The proposed County Right-to-Farm Law also expands the definition of farming operations to cover apiary (bee) products and extends the real estate notification requirement to prospective buyers of land situated within 500 feet of an agricultural district, rather than in an agricultural district as currently required in the state law.