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Farmers work long days, often seven days a week.  So how do you get them to participate on a committee?  Hold meetings in the heart of farm country, early Monday morning at a diner.  That is what the newly formed Lansing Agriculture Committee is doing.  Committee Chair Connie Wilcox says the committee has already identified priorities in its first two meetings, based on the Agriculture And Farmland Protection Plan that was accepted by the Town Board last September.  The committee will flesh out the recommendations included in the plan, make recommendations to the Town Board and pursue its own initiatives.  Wilcox says the Town's 'Right To Farm' law and community outreach are the first initiatives the committee will tackle.

"It's been a long time coming," she says. "The Ag Plan was eight years in the making before it was approved last Fall.  Some things have changed since then, so we have to review it. The Right to Farm law has been in effect here since 1997.  It's written very well."

The Town Board has agreed to fund the breakfast meetings, which are held at Linda's Corner Diner in North Lansing.  All local farmers were invited to the first meeting to break the ice and get to know each other.  Wilcox says she wants all farmers to have a voice in what the committee does.  It has 11 official members, as well as liaisons from the Town Board, ZBA, Planning Board and Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Wilcox herself.  She was instrumental in starting the work on the Ag Plan when she was a Councilwoman.

The committee also talked about ways to promote local agriculture, including education and communication.  It is considering bringing agriculture programs to the Lansing schools, and hosting a 'Farm Day'.  A recent initiative to promote local business on the Town of Lansing Web site will soon have a twin section just for Lansing farmers.  The Lansing Farmer's Market will also be revived in Myers Park during the Thursday night summer concerts, which draw large crowds.

"We're definitely planning to do it this summer," Wilcox says.  "The concerts have almost turned into a festival down there.  And we talked about selling prepared foods.  If we have three or four vendors down there, that's great.  If we have more, that's great.  And Lynn Davidson is involved with the Farm Bureau, and he wants to distribute information from the Farm Bureau, and Skip Hardie is involved with the Dairy Council.  They all have information that can be passed out."


Wilcox notes that there are all kinds of farms in the township, large and small.  She says one of the benefits of the breakfast meetings is that farmers who may not have spoken before are learning about each others' operations and agreeing on activities that will promote farming and connect their farms to the community.

Lansing farms generate almost one-third of the $67 million total farm product sales in the Tompkins County.  The town has over 17,000 acres of  farmland that provides over 100 jobs, at least 40 of them full time, with a combined payroll of at least $3 million.  About $17 million of that comes from dairy farms.  8,472 acres in Lansing are farmed by owners, and an additional 8,570 acres are leased. 

"We have Pete Larson's Just A Few Acres... he raises vegetables and meat.  Then we have the 40 or 50 cow smaller dairies," Wilcox says.  "Larry Moore is organic.  The Bensons are organic -- they have a much larger dairy.  Jeannie Kirby has an organic dairy.  Then we have the larger dairies like Walnut Ridge, which was Hardie Farms.  We have a couple of Cayuga County farmers who own or rent land in Lansing, and people who don't farm themselves, but rent their land to farmers.  It's quite a diverse group."

The committee will make recommendations to the Town Board for updating the Right To Farm law of 1997.  But aside from updating, Wilcox says the two-page law won't require much updating.  Lansing Planning consultant Michael Long says that one of the changes will be to add definitions to the law, based on more recent state law.

"Jeannie Kirby was Supervisor at the time that was passed," Wilcox says.  "It is very broad, and it says you have the right to farm and create noise and dust, and do all that.  Real estate agents need to stress this when they sell properties.  There is supposed to be a clause that people buying in the agricultural area are supposed to sign, saying they realize there is going to be noise, smells and animals."

Education is a big part of the committee's agenda.  A few farmers have been contributing to an agricultural scholarship awarded annually at the Lansing High School graduation.  Wilcox says she hopes more farmers will contribute to that to do more to encourage students who want to pursue farming as a profession.  She also plans a newsletter.

"It is a lot of work, but I think in the long run it will certainly be worth it, because it brings the Town and the farmers together," she says.  "That's my goal, so people realize where their food comes from, and it's not just that you go to the store and buy it off the shelf.  It had to get there somehow."


Perhaps the most controversial piece of the Agriculture And Farmland Protection Plan is a recommendation to re-zone most of the northern portion of the Town as an AG district.  The idea drew protest from some farmers and residents as the plan was crafted, and Wilcox says a lot of rumors and false information has been circulating around town.  She says the committee wants to take its time gathering facts before making any recommendations about rezoning.

"There is a lot of ground work to be done yet before we change the Rural Agriculture (RA) zone to an AG zone," she says.  "I think there are a lot of misconceptions about what it really means.  We had one person ask the other day... he had the map and said, 'Well there is this little square here and that isn't part of the Ag Zone, but it's right in the middle of it.'  Well, it's North Lansing.  It's where the fire station is, Linda's Diner, a car repair place -- it's all businesses.  That is something we'll definitely be working on."

"Communication is key," Long adds.  "Creating the Ag Zone is really blending the ag study into the Comprehensive Plan.  So it is something that will be talked about over the next couple of years, but it's not the number one thing that the committee is going to focus on."

Wilcox says the committee will likely meet one more time before prime farming season begins, and will begin meeting again in the Fall.

"Its new, but so far I'm very happy," she says.  "Everybody is getting along and working together and talking to each other."

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