Friends of Rural New York

We are sad to note the passing of Professor Thomas Lyson of the Rural Soociology Department at Cornell University. Dr. Lyson was courageous enough to publish a policy brief on the utter stupidity of the government, Farm Bureau and Cornell University support of Confined Animal Feeding Operations.
His Policy Brief is still up on Cornell’s website. It is titled: Requiem for Small Dairy Farms.
http://rnyi.cornell.edu/the_changing_structure_of_agriculture_and_food_system/000167.php

Please take the time to read this one and a half page brief. The situation he describes in his last paragraph is the situation which is now characteristic of many counties in rural New York.

Please do not dismiss the farm tragedy as one that does not affect you as an urban dweller. The damage done by mega dairies has already led to the documented impairment of both Cayuga and Owasco Lakes, the destruction of countless wetlands and the contamination of much of our drinking water.
What is occurring in rural New York will have profound consequences on your (and your children’s) food and water supply.

We will miss Dr. Lyson.