(11/08/2007) Farming is a hard enough business anywhere, but for East End farmers high land values and competing notions of what role farms should have in the area make their livelihood even more difficult. That was the message farmers and their representatives delivered at a forum in Southampton sponsored by the Republican Agriculture, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Task Force of the State Assembly.
Southampton Town Supervisor Patrick A. Heaney, who participated in the forum last Thursday, said part of the problem was "a conflict of the romantic notion of long rows of potato blossoms versus the needs of an industry trying to compete with other industries in the region. View sheds are ancillary to the need to protect farmland."
Winery owners, some of whom have invested their life savings in their businesses, have complained that they cannot sell water or jam in their tasting rooms, have events while the tasting room is open, or build on preserved land even if the buildings are dedicated to the production and marketing of their wine.