Farmers and Food Producers Against Fracking

[Sara E Worden]

Hello All!

Hope that you are all having a lovely transition into a new year!

Myself and a few other growers in the Finger Lakes have been organizing in preparation for this upcoming week's anti fracking rally in Albany. We'd like to have a group of gardeners, farmers, and food producers represented at the event. So if you are interested get out your carharts and flannels and join us! Many are traveling to Albany on Wednesday January 9th (from 11 - 3) to rally against fracking.  We will be reading and delivering the following proclamation. Please add your signature to the petition by following the link and consider joining us in Albany! Information about the rally can be found here.

Please forward to others who may be interested and hope to see you there!

Sara

https://www.change.org/petitions/farmers-and-food-producers-against-fracking

We are farmers, bakers, vintners, millers, chefs, and food-makers of all kinds. Every day, we devote ourselves to the care of our communities. We are proud to nourish our neighbors and to bring life to our land. We have examined the evidence, and we are convinced that the exploitation of shale gas in New York will bring our communities to harm. 

We are aware that those who will profit most from shale gas exploitation claim that it is safe, economically and environmentally sound, and a benefit to all. We are not convinced. Not remotely. 

As farmers, we have seen the soils of New York abused and damaged on the bad advice of industry hucksters. We have seen our waterways befouled, our children too young on their deathbeds, and our communities fallen into unnecessary decline—all to boost the profits of distant industries and investors. 

As makers of food and wine, we depend on the purity of our water and the vitality of our soils. These are our foundation, and without them our work is impossible. It is clear to us that shale gas exploitation puts our future at risk.

As chefs and restaurateurs, we bring the bounty of New York soils to our communities, nourishing them in the most intimate ways. The food that we produce becomes the bodies, the cells, and the blood of our neighbors; and so will the poisons produced by fracking.

We know that shale gas promoters promise big money for all. We have heard the easy claim that “fracking is perfectly safe, if done correctly.” But we are not children, and we are not easily swayed by nonsense. 

We have seen evidence that when fracking comes to town, only a few benefit, and even they must count their gains in the short term. We have seen communities fracture, land values become skewed, and agriculture decline. We know, because we have seen it before, that safety regulations will be unevenly applied, and that mishaps and accidents, not to mention deliberate malfeasance, are inevitable. 

Industry spokesmen like to claim that we who oppose them oppose the future. But they are wrong. Any society that survives only by destroying its most precious resources is not a healthy one. We have devoted our lives to the well-being of our land and our people; that, we believe, is a future worth having.

Let us speak plainly: Fracking will bring us no benefit, and only harm. It will put at risk the things we value most—clean water, healthy soils, and vital communities. It will cost us—in blood and treasure—more than we can afford. 

We call on you, Governor Cuomo, and on the New York State Legislature, to support the health and well-being of all New Yorkers: ban fracking in New York State.

Sincerely, 

NY Farmers and Food Producers Against Fracking