State Assemblyman Jim Brennan

State Assemblyman Jim Brennan’s Park Slope storefront office is bustling. A concerned  citizen (with dog) shares a community complaint with a staffer in the front while Brennan talks with a constituent on the phone about the challenges of getting a speed bump installed. I’m here to talk with him about what the statehouse is doing (or not doing) to improve our food and water systems.

Brennan was the first political representative who contributed discretionary funds to support the big Brooklyn Food Conference in May.  He gets it. His own passion at the moment is to block fracking, the toxic extraction of gas, so it doesn’t destroy upstate lands, including areas not far from NYC’s watershed.  He’ll be talking about that effort at the Brooklyn Food Conference and I will write a separate column about that part of our conversation.

But he is a true policy wonk with wide interests and knowledge, so we also talk about strengthening the link between upstate farms and city markets of all types, including farmers markets and coops.

“Obviously within 50 miles of the NYC metro area there’s been tremendous loss of farmland,” Brennan said “Land trusts, land preservation banks, support for protecting farming is strong.” Local governments have acted on their own by adopting a 2% transaction tax on the sale of land to fund trusts to purchase forest, open space and farmland.  But the state can do more to support the economics of farming by limiting property taxes, provide loans, helping manage pests and developing markets, he argues.

This last item is where NYC comes in.

“I also view this as an important economic development tool throughout the city, giving people better access to good food, bringing in local farmers,” he said. “It’s important for job creation and sustainability for the environment as a whole.”

Brennan isn’t just talking about local farmers markets. He means huge wholesale hubs like Hunts Point where farmers meet retailers. But , he explains, “Hunts Point is a regional and national market.  The food is not necessarily on its way to NYC.”

“NYC needs substantial additional [outlets for local distribution].  Brooklyn has a small number of wholesale markets, [the city-owned Moore St. market in Williamsburg and a small one in Sunset Park. A market in East NY closed down].  So farmers in Long Island, New Jersey, and upstate NY need government to fund additional facilities so you can get produce in at a wholesale level, so more wholesale and retail markets can be developed. Your weekend farmers’ markets are great but you need additional institutions to strengthen the farmer-consumer connection.”

The city and state governments realize this. But sufficient funds and wherewithal have yet to be brought to bear.

“Everyone’s paying lip service these days. Let’s hope in the next year or two we have money to do more.”

But improving distribution isn’t enough to achieve the environmental goal of shortening the journey from farm to table. In NY, NJ and Connecticut, much of the farming is “specialized and probably not sufficient to feed the 30 million people in the tristate area.  Pennsylvania is maybe closer to self sufficiency.”

Brennan had plenty of kind words for Food Coalition activists and their broad vision.

“What the Food Coalition is doing is generating substantial public interest and concern about the direction of society,” he said. “ And state and local policymakers have taken notice.”  – Abby Scher

Abby Scher
abbyscher@mindspring.com
I’m on twitter @abbyscher