Letter to Acting Director Young - Bringing Your Attention to an Ongoing Problem Affecting Many New York Farmers and Small Businesses

Letter

I write today to bring your attention to an ongoing problem affecting many New York farmers and small businesses. I would like to thank the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for offering crop insurance for malt barley in New York this year for the first time in 4 counties, however it is imperative that this insurance program be expanded across New York State. This crop insurance will allow farmers to scale up New York's malt barley supply chain to provide for the increased demand for this important crop.

As you know, the demand for malt barley is growing across New York in part because of the New York State farm Brewing Law that went into effect on January 1st, 2013. This law requires New York farm brewery licensed brewers to source 60% of their ingredients from New York state farms or producers by 2019 and no less than 90% by 2024. This major increase in demand for locally grown malt barley is a great boon to our New York State producers and agricultural industry. However, without access to malt barley insurance, producers may decide to forgo planting this crop, which will hold back agriculture and craft breweries across the state.

Currently the only barley insurance available in many parts of New York State is for low-value livestock-feed grade barley, which is inadequate to insure the value of much costlier-to-produce high quality barley varieties used for malting. Thus, a true malt barley crop insurance product, like those now offered in 4 New York counties, must be expanded across the state to both help current growers manage their risk of growing higher value barley for malting and to remove a barrier that now discourages more farmers from planting malt barley. Additionally malt barley carries greater risks for loss and lower yields than barley grown for livestock feed because in order to be viable for malting, the grain must meet rigorous quality standards. Particularly in New York, which can endure both heavy rains and long dry spells, entire crops can be rendered unusable if malt barley becomes too moist and prematurely germinates in the field, or conversely dries out and is unable to germinate during the malting process.

Although USDA created a national malt barley crop insurance option beginning in the 2011 growing season, it is currently offered in only a fraction of New York State in part because malt barley has not been historically farmed in New York. However, the same factors that propelled New York State to become the nation's third largest wine producing state over the past thirty years are now driving New York to become a leading producer of beer and craft distilling using New York farmed or produced ingredients such as malt barley Therefore, I urge USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) to continue to expand its malt barley crop insurance program across the state while engaging with the New York State malt barley industry to allow for this crop insurance product to thrive statewide. Additionally, to help expedite this effort, I ask that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) invests resources into their surveys of New York malt barley production to aid in the data driven expansion of this insurance available to New York farmers.

I appreciate your consideration of this request that will help remove obstacles to scaling up New York's malt barley supply chain while providing farmers with the opportunity to farm higher value-added malt barley I look forward to working with you on this important issue.

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