COVID-19 Resources
Funding to Support Emergency Feeding During COVID-19 School Closures
Find the details and applications for various emergency feeding funding opportunities available.
https://harvestny.cce.cornell.edu/submission.php?id=94&crumb=local_foods|3
Food Production, Processing and Safety Questions
Find answers to questions around the risks associated with food production and to your employees to ensure that a safe and robust food supply is maintained for the public. You can find useful links to expert resources to help address your specific questions. Resources are updated frequently as the situation changes and new information becomes available.
https://instituteforfoodsafety.cornell.edu/coronavirus-covid-19/
Employment and Agricultural Workforce Questions
The Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development team has assembled many resources to help you protect your workforce, your business, and your markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find H2A updates and more!
http://agworkforce.cals.cornell.edu/novel-coronavirus-covid-19/
Using Online Marketing to Build Resilience
Cornell Small Farms offers guidance on how to sell online to help build your farm's resilience through this pandemic.
https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2020/04/using-online-marketing-to-build-resilience/
Farmer's Guide to Direct Sales Software Platforms
Created by the National Young Farmers Coalition, this guide compares farm-specific software platforms that support direct-to-consumer sales, and highlights related educational resources.
Farmer's Market Safety Protocols
New York State Agriculture and Market guidance provided for farmers' market operators and vendors in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
https://agriculture.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2020/04/interimguidancefarmersmarkets.pdf
Best Management Practices for U-Pick Farms
Providing recommendations for best management practices and communication strategies for U-Pick operations for the 2020 season.
Coronavirus NYC Neighborhood Food Resource Guides
Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center developed Coronavirus NYC Food Resource Guides for each NYC neighborhood to help connect community members in need with food resources during this challenging time. Each resource guide includes information related to food access within the community, such as meals for students and seniors during this time, delivery services for people with disabilities, and resources for immigrants.
https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org/coronavirus-nyc-food-reports/
Cornell Small Farms Resiliency Resources
Ideas on how to take care of yourself, your farm, and your local community. These resources offer support on the various aspects of farming during a crisis, with a focus on the current COVID-19 pandemic. The content was curated in partnership with educators, researchers and others. It is consistently updated as new information and resources are available.
https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/resources/farm-resilience/
General Questions and Updates: NY Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN)
Find the latest updates on coronavirus impacts in New York. This website is a one-stop source for links to resources for ag, workforce, food industry, food safety, dairy industry, horticulture, H-2A, family, animal care, business relief, and social distancing.
Announcements
New Ag Climate Factsheet Released
The intersection of agricultural production and greenhouse gases is gathering increasing attention. This is an opportune time to consider how vegetable production interacts with carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions, and how using cover crops may alter this picture.The factsheet, Greenhouse Gases and Soil Organic Carbon in Vegetable Production and the Role of Cover Crops, written by Zach Spangler, Ag Climate Resiliency Specialist with CCE Harvest NY, and Elizabeth Buck, Fresh Market Vegetable Specialist, CCE Cornell Vegetable Program, discusses:
- Sequestration of atmospheric carbon in agricultural soils as soil organic carbon (SOC). Is vegetable production impacting SOC?
- Net greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) from the soil.
- Impact of cover crops on soil organic carbon, nitrous oxide emissions, and other GHG emissions.
The NY Food Hub Collaborative Takes Root!
Cornell Cooperative Extension has received a USDA Regional Food Systems Partnership Planning and Development grant for the NY Food Hub Collaborative. This is a 2-year project.The NY Food Hub Collaborative brings together 29 local food system stakeholders representing 21 organizations to realize the long-term goal of improving the economic viability of mid-tier value chain partners targeting local markets by improving efficiencies, maximizing profits, and increasing demand for NY food products. Three objectives guide the project tea toward that goal:
1. Establish a Collaborative of interdependent food hubs designed to work collaboratively to efficiently, affordably, and effectively market NY food products to institutional markets.
2. Identify the potential for small, mid-size, and socially disadvantaged producers to be competitive in state agency and institutional contracts.
3. Develop strategic business relationships between mid-tier value chain partners including food hubs, producers, processors, distributors, and markets that emphasize organizational interdependence, trust, and transparency and equitably distribute responsibilities and rewards.
Objectives will be met through strategic planning amongst Collaborative partners, virtual field trips to learn best practices from national partners, business-to-business development opportunities, producer and market partner training, and a series of outputs. Outputs include an interactive local food system asset map, a procurement guide on selling NY food products to various institutional markets, an analysis of existing procurement policies across institutions and recommendations for improvement, market analyses of key institutional market partners, a NY Collaborative product guide, and an implementation plan that provides a framework to operationalize the NY Food Hub Collaborative.
Project Partners:
- Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY
- Cornell Cooperative Extension Broome, Oneida, Essex, and Saratoga Counties
- Farm Fare
- Syracuse University
- Upstate Growers & Packers
- Eden Valley Growers
- Capital Roots
- Farm Fresh First
- 607CSA
- Hub on the Hill
- Headwater Food Hub
- Syracuse Onondaga Food Systems Alliance
- Hudson Valley Agribusiness Development Corp.
- Center for Agriculture Development and Entrepreneurship
- NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets
- Buffalo City School District
- Syracuse City School District
- NYC Citywide Administrative Services