Open Town Gathering, July 24

Photo courtesy: AMagill

Local resident Joan Turbidy reached out with information about this free, open meeting coming to East Meredith next week. The topic? Let's talk about the Constitution Pipeline. What is it? Why do we care?  What can we do about it?

In true Meredith fashion, residents are invited to the East Meredith Fire Hall on County Route 10. For me, that's on the other side of town. But if Joan suggests I go, I'm thinking I ought to show up. It starts at 7 p.m. and will probably last two hours.

The proposed Constitution Pipeline is a 30-inch high pressure, interstate gas transmission line proposed for New York State, with a portion of it planned to run through Delaware County. It could enable hydrofracking - and a network of other pipelines - once New York State finishes its environmental review. All environmental issues to the side (and there are many), the pipeline is enabling large international energy companies to take private land by eminent domain. This singular issue should have Meredithers, and New Yorkers, in arms. This practice of taking land without a landowner's permission flies in the face of our constitution. How ironic they're calling it the Constitution Pipeline.

Anne Marie Garti, Delhi native and Town of Kortright resident, will present information on this pipeline, 
questioning its need and proposing alternatives. There will also be a question-answer-discussion period to follow. Sponsored by Citizens Energy & Economics Council of Delaware County (CEEC), this informational meeting is about opening the conversation around gas drilling, the appropriateness of it in our town and lives, and what we can collectively and individually do about it. The pipeline is merely a symptom of a larger illness.

Not since the wind debate has there been such a contentious issue in Meredith or Delaware County. Hydro-fracking and the Constitution Pipeline bring with them impacts 10 times more lasting than those we faced as a community at odds over wind.  We owe it ourselves, our neighbors and Meredith's future farmer to gather around this issue now, talk about it, and plan. If we follow Meredith's proposed Farmland Protection Plan with a goal of promoting our town as a "Farming First" community, I'm not sure how industry, like gas drilling or its transmission, falls within that farmland mandate.

What attracts me to Joan's emails, along with the content, is her email signature. "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong we may begin to use it with love and respect." I believe it is this quote, by Aldo Leopold, that captures Meredith and its residents. As a community, our choice to love and respect the land that nurtures us is ours to make. I hope to see you on Tuesday, July 24 at 7 p.m.

Bring a batch of cookies if you like.

Build it and They Will Come on December 8

Meredith residents are invited to a public discussion about what it takes to make a farm-friendly community. The Town is creating a farmland protection plan ensuring the town’s economic success through agriculture and wants community input.
Nan Stolzenburg of Community Planning and Environmental Associates, the town's consultant, will lead the public presentation, answer questions and explain what a farmland protection plan may look like and mean for the Town of Meredith. The Town hired CPEA with a New York State Ag & Markets grant designed to help rural communities identify their agricultural strengths and plan for a future in farming.


The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 8 at 6 p.m. at the Meridale Community Church, County Route 10 across from the Meridale Fire Hall. Light refreshments and snacks will be available.


Bring your ideas and creativity and help Meredith realize its place as a family farm friendly community! If we build it, they will come!

September meetings

The Farmland Protection Plan Working Group will meet at Meredith's Town Hall at 6 p.m. on Monday, September 12 and 26. This month we'll review the farmer survey results; listen to landowners and farmers needs, suggestions and concerns; and devise a survey for residents to complete. Please stop by and share with us your thoughts on Meredith farmland and how we can protect this finite resource within our community.

On a Hot Day in July

Check out this "cool" video from Hanford Mills Museum "Catskills History YouTube Channel on the annual ice harvest, a practice that the whole town used to come out for and help with loading up the ice house.

Be thankful for that cold ice tea today.

June 13, 2011 Agenda

Meredith residents are encouraged to attend and contribute to biweekly meetings of the Farmland Protection Plan working group which meets the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. Below is a draft of tonight's agenda:

6p Agenda Modifications/Additions

6:10p Call in to Nan Stolzenburg
 Dairy Fest update
 Map status
 Survey status
 Online resident survey
 Blog posting
 Other resident outreach/education?

6:30 Review/update Timeline

6:45 New Business
Definition: What is agriculture?
 Identification of farmland – continue ID’ locations on the map
 Brainstorm/Discuss role agriculture plays in Meredith. It is important that we identify the many roles ag plays in town
 Brainstorm/Discuss definition of agriculture. What do you consider agriculture in Town? How do you define it? Is it a commercial farm? By size? By income or commodity? All these come into play. We need to have a definition of agriculture to frame the plan’s treatment of it.
 Brainstorm/Discuss the positives and negatives about farming in Meredith. I’d like to start understanding the opportunities and constraints related to farming in Town.

6:45 Next Steps
 Continue to identify farm types in Meredith on map; due to CPEA by _____
 Continue to post information for upcoming meetings/TOM website/press release
 Other?

7:30 Adjourn

Next meeting: Monday, June 27, 6 p.m. at Town Hall

If you would like to be added to an upcoming meeting agenda, please contact Town Supervisor Keitha Capouya (607) 746-3833

Embarking on a Farmland Protection Plan

Meredith, NY – The Town of Meredith is exploring ways to enhance the role of agriculture in its future, thanks to a $25,000 grant from New York State Agriculture & Markets. The highly competitive award allows smaller rural towns like Meredith to hire a planning consultant to guide the town through the process of data gathering and analysis to the making of a plan that will assist and promote farming within the Town.


Meredith’s consultant, Community Planning & Environmental Associates, led by planner Nan Stolzenburg, is coordinating the process with the five-member working group. Town Supervisor Keitha Capouya sits on the group along with town board members John Janiszewski and Paul Menke, both farmers. Local beef farmer Ken Jaffe and resident Tara Collins round out the working group. “This is an open process,” noted Capouya, “and we rely on our residents to participate, so that we can create the best farmland protection plan possible. The working group, although several of its members are farmers, is primarily administrative—the most important part of the plan is in the observations and ideas that will come from our resident farmers themselves. It is their problems we are here to address, and their ideas that are of primary importance.”

“Farming has been at the center of life here since the founding of the Town, “ says Capouya, “and we want to ensure that Meredith remains an agricultural community. As a town, we want to foster and support farm business activities to serve our resident farmers and to attracted new farmers to the area. In Meredith, close to 25 percent of the town’s parcels have agricultural exemptions, and that’s a good indicator of the strength of farming as a way of life in Meredith. Moreover, the survey we did for the 2006 Comprehensive Plan indicated that the people of Meredith, farmers and non-farmers alike, value immensely the rural character of our town and the farming activities that create that character. The Farmland Protection Plan we’re working on will formalize that commitment, and, we hope, temper the hardships that farmers have to contend with.”

The Farmland Protection Plan will take the Town roughly a year to complete. “First, we collect data,” said Nan Stolzenburg of CPEA. “We have printed out a big map of the town, showing all parcels and soil types, and are in the process of identifying parcels that are actively being farmed or that have a potential for farming. We have also prepared a confidential survey, soon to be mailed to all farmers and farmland owners, so that we might find out from them what they need to help them continue farming. Those maps and surveys can be seen at the Meredith Dairy Fest on June 11 and 12, and we very much hope you will come by and see them. Once the surveys come back, the group will begin drafting a plan, conducting focus groups and participatory public meetings, revising the draft plan for public review and finally presenting the Plan for Town approval.” There will also be presentations by key farming representatives from such agencies as Cornell Cooperative Extension, Delaware County Farmland Protection Board, American Farmland Trust and others. All discussions will be open to the community and announced and reported through the Town’s website, a blog and press releases.

“We urge the community to respond to this farm-parcel map and the mailed survey” said Capouya. “In order to make an accurate assessment of the town’s agricultural assets, I appeal to everyone who receives the survey to return it by June 25. It’s completely confidential, and CPEA will compile the results and data for us. As for the map, you can help us identify farmland either at the Town Hall or at the Meredith Dairy Fest on June 11 and 12. Copies of the survey will also be at the Dairy Fest.”

Working group meetings are open, and we need residents to attend and participate in the informal sessions on the second Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at the Meredith Town Hall. Working sessions will also be held on the fourth Monday of the next few months to deal with such administrative matters as data collection, public meeting scheduling, and research.

The Farmland Protection Plan process will be posted on the Town’s website, www.townofmeredith.org, or the Meredith Farmland blog www.meredithfarmland.blogspot.com. Meetings minutes, agendas and relevant resource materials will also be posted. Residents may also participate by email to meredithfarmland@gmail.com (cc tomsuper@delhitel.net) or in writing to PO Box 116, Meridale, NY 13806. Town Supervisor Keitha Capouya is also available at Town Hall most Thursday mornings, and can meet with you by appointment at other times. Please call her at (607) 746-2431 to arrange a meeting.

Regionalizing a Food System

The Urban Design Lab at Columbia University has a way of putting complex systems into understandable diagram form and then proposing solutions.

In this presentation, UDL (with the help of MIT) began looking at childhood obesity and how the heathcare issues are tied to our food systems. They then found much larger problems existed, and that the key to fixing the healthcare issue was to overhaul the food system.

Take a few minutes to view Regionalizing the Food System for Public Health and Sustainability, a 27 slide presentation with comments at right.

So what's childhood obesity got to do with farming in Meredith? As we build stronger regional food systems, we inherently begin accessing better foods for ourselves, our children and our institutions. As Meredith farms gain capacity, they will be able to provide our local schools, and our kids, with healthy and fresh lunches at affordable prices. The argument that schools can't provide better food to students because they can't afford it has to be overcome at the local level. Food grown locally can arrive at the school cafeteria kitchen the same or next day at a competitive price compared to food trucked in from NYC, Albany or abroad. As we embrace the concepts of regional food systems we build stronger local economies from the bottom up. Collectively, we benefit from the efforts for growing and eating local food. Regionally, it's far easier to tackle the problems of infrastructure, food distribution hubs, and new access models to healthy food at the local level than it is to solve the problems nationwide. Here's a classic case of "Thinking Globally. Acting Locally."