Steuben Courier (Bath, NY)
By Angela Sutfin, Evening Tribune
Alfred, NY — “It smells country, it smells fresh, it smells organic!”
Eunice Lewin, trustee of the State University of New York spoke with excitement at the groundbreaking ceremony at the College Farm of Alfred State College on Tuesday.
The college hosted its groundbreaking ceremony for the Center for Organic and Sustainable Agriculture, a project to introduce organic farming to the agriculture program.
A total of 225 acres of farmland adjacent to the Alfred campus have been converted to certified organic hay and pasture production for this project.
The dairy farm will now have two herds of cows, one certified organic and the other conventional. A barn with 60 stalls will also be constructed with an robotic milker for the Holstein cows. This will be in use within about a year.
To be certified organic, no chemical fertilizers or pesticides can be used on the fields.
COSA also acquired 300 acres of land in Groveland to be used for crops, promoting sustainable and innovative agricultural techniques, said Dr. Terry Tucker, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Alfred State College. Funding for the project began in 2006 with a $4.9 million grant from New York State with the help of Senator Catharine Young (R,C,I-Olean), and includes other donations from local companies and college alumni.
Young attended the groundbreaking ceremony and said this project will have tremendous economic benefit both locally and nationally because of the efforts to become sustainable and market to popular demand.
Young added the demand for locally and sustainably produced food is bigger than ever.
Food independence and energy independence are two important goals as a nation, and this project marries those two goals, she said.
Tucker stated that the global demand for food will increase about 70 percent by 2050, but to produce that food, farmers will be utilizing roughly the same amount of land and even less water.
This makes sustainable agriculture highly important, especially in New York state where agriculture boosts the economy by billions each year.
“The value is quite obvious for the students,” Tucker said, adding that the college is developing a summer internship program to take advantage of the short growing season in New York.
