Farming

A disagreement between the Town Board and the L.I. Farm Bureau, about allowed uses on preserved land, especially vertical farming, created an impasse, Supervisor Tim Hubbard said. The Town Board decided to shelve the proposal.

Juan Micieli Martinez, a Riverhead winemaker, was elected the new president of the Long Island Farm Bureau during the organization's annual meeting and dinner on Oct. 24.

Workers at Pindar Vineyards in Peconic this fall became the first farm workers to organize and form a union under the 2019 Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act. Workers, the Long Island Farm Bureau and the union weigh in on what this will mean for farm workers and farm owners in the local region.

Lowering the threshold for time-and-a-half overtime pay below 60 hours a week could devastate local farms already reeling from the effects of the COVID pandemic, local farmers told state lawmakers yesterday.

Emil and Kyle Breitenbach, who come from a longtime farming family on the North Fork, have started their own farm and reopened the stand known to generations of locals as "Skelly's"

Local farmers, whose operations rely heavily on an immigrant workforce, told Rep. Lee Zeldin they are worried they won't have the labor they need to sustain their farms, vineyards and greenhouses. They want federal immigration reform to move forward.

One North Fork farmer has grown lettuce hydroponically all winter, supplying restaurants and supermarkets with much-in-demand fresh Long Island greens.