New York Department of Agriculture partners with Departments of Labor and Health

Aug 24, 2015

Joint initiatives will help agriculture employers

New York’s Departments of Agriculture, Labor and Health are working together to give agriculture employers the tools they need to understand the law when it comes to putting together a workforce.

Handshake

“The work that our state’s farmers do is critical to the health and well-being of all New Yorkers,” said Commissioner of Health Dr. Howard Zucker. “It’s important that we do what we can to ease their workload. In this case, we are streamlining requirements for seasonal housing, which will help them focus on their main task at hand: growing produce for the state of New York.”

There are three main topics being explored:

1. Farm Worker Memorandum of Understanding
After agriculture employers demonstrated confusion about the current government standards for migrant farmworkers and their housing, the Departments of Labor and Health will streamline housing inspections for farmworkers.

2. Wage Deductions
The Department of Labor will assist agriculture employers when it comes to matters of wage deductions, employer rights and responsibilities. These will be done via a series of webinars and in-person presentations.

3. Agriculture Labor Advisory Group
The Departments of Agriculture, Labor and Health will work together to form the Agriculture Labor Advisory Group. The group will be assembled to discuss issues concerning the agricultural community when it comes to labor issues.

The group will be announced before November 1^st and the first order of business will be to reduce the high youth unemployment rate and help employers discover skilled, entry-level workers.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.