SAMPLE LETTER TO TOWN SUPERVISOR
Dear Supervisor:
Throughout rural New York, farms are becoming an endangered species. Pressed by technology and global competition, too many farmers have chosen to quit. Worse, they have elected to sell their farms to residential developers. Research clearly shows this creates a larger tax burden than it generates in property taxes.
New York State lost nearly 200,000 farms in the 20th century. In 1900, there were 226,720 farms in New York, today there are 37,500. In Erie County, declining numbers of farms follow the same pattern. From 1969 to 1996, Erie County lost 27% of its farmland.
But farms are more than mere statistics. Farmers are the keepers of our rural heritage and the custodians of our open space. You can take a stand; your town can say to the world, "We want farms in our town. We want to be able to drive by open fields and see horse and cattle grazing. Dozens of counties and towns across the Empire State have done it. How? By taking the simple step of passing a Right to Farm Law.
Right to Farm Laws strive to minimize conflicts between farmers and their non-farming neighbors. They also help farmers who have been following generally accepted "sound" agricultural practices to defend themselves against nuisance lawsuits.
Erie County Farm Bureau stands ready to serve as your resource. We are including a copy of the recently passed Clarence Right to Farm Law, a letter from Clarence Supervisor Kathleen Hallock, a sample news article, and the present Erie County Right to Farm Law. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We are confident that your town will benefit from taking this step to preserve its precious rural heritage and create a positive environment for farming.
Yours truly,
Hans Mobius, President
Erie County Farm Bureau
