Who are you kidding? ‘Agri-tourism’ resorts on the Sound are a boondoggle for developers

To the Editor:

Is it just me, or does this push for “agri-tourism” seem like a backdoor boondoggle to allow developers to do whatever they want on land that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to build on?

The USDA National Agricultural Library defines agri-tourism as: “A form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining or educating the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch, or [agricultural] business owner.”

It seems that this definition is being bastardized by vested interests to prioritize building “luxury resorts” and then maintaining some minimum agricultural activity near it. Instead of being a supplemental income generator for an existing farmer, we’ll have a blight of hotels supplanting the use of land for actual agriculture.

All the latest changes and amendments being suggested for this legislation point directly at enabling real estate developers, not helping farmers, no matter what officials may claim. Land and water are precious, and we can’t allow greed to keep stealing natural resources away from all of us and further pollute our ecosystem.

If officials wanted to support actual agri-tourism, they would be supporting existing farmers by working to ensure their environs stay pristine, promoting them and their agricultural products, and increasing everyone’s options for public transportation. Where do you suppose all those hotel and luxury resort guests will be parking their cars? You’re literally going to see farmland being paved over instead of “preserved.” Show me the agri-tourism farmer out there today who has a 250 room “luxury resort” where hundreds of cars are always parked on their farmland, spewing exhaust onto their crops! And show me how that farmer handles the massive amount of sewage and greywater generated by the tens of thousands of guests they have each year! Where does this fantasy “agri-tourism resort” exist? (Hint: it doesn’t. No matter what anyone claims, building resorts can only reduce the total amount of arable land.)

By the way, did you know that agri-tourism is already thriving on Long Island without the need for new legislation to build hotels and resorts? What else would you call all the vineyards across Suffolk county, and all the events they host throughout the year? What about the farms that offer community supported agriculture (CSA) memberships? Have you not experienced the glut of traffic that happens when all the tourists arrive in the fall for harvest festivals? Ever heard of a farm-to-table restaurant?

Mark my words: if the town lets any version of this real estate legislation go through, the only folks who will see any benefits are developers and any politician friends in their pocket. The genie won’t go back into the bottle.

Michael Caprio

Brookhaven

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