- Friday, local farmers met with legislature to discuss needs for the 2024 farm season
- A few items on the list contained right to repair, the country of origin labeling act, implementation of cover crops, and controlled atmospheric storage for apple crops
- Farmers see this opportunity to discuss bills that have affected their season
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
I'm Russell Shellberg here in St. Johns outside of Agro liquid where local farmers spent the morning talking to government leaders about changes that need to be made from the 2023 farming season into 2024.
"Its absolutely vital for our society on multiple scales," said small scale local farmer Nathan Kilpatrick.
Not only is talking to lawmakers about issues vital to society, but local farmer Nathan Kilpatrick says that this conference is an opportunity to bring change. One of those areas farmers put their focus on, was the right to repair.
"Technology and agriculture has advanced to the point where you can't just be a mechanic and work on a farm and repair a tractor, you almost have to be like an IT guy on top of it. And then on top of that is proprietary technology...and so you cant get your equipment repaired without having all of those pieces together," said Kilpatrick.
In other words, the legislation allows tractor manufacturers to withhold small town farmers from repairing their own machinery. Which leads to higher costs on the farm and can put pressure on them financially.
This is just one example of the many that were shared today, but others include, the country of origin labeling act, implementation of cover crops, and controlled atmospheric storage for apple crops. These are issues that farmers were happy to bring to light in hopes of some change.
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