SECTION: COMICS, Pg. 9A

LENGTH: 810 words

HEADLINE: UPSTATE, DOWNSTATE

BYLINE: BOB BUYER

BODY:


For most first-day visitors to last week's Empire Farm Days near Seneca Falls, the appearance of Ag Secretary Dan Glickman, recently elected U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-Brooklyn, and Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-Springville, provided a pleasant surprise. An audience of several hundred witnessed an all too rare platform display of bipartisanship and upstate-down-state cooperation -- at least in matters affecting agriculture, the state's top industry, elected leaders repeatedly assert.

Reynolds began the complimentary exchange, saying, "It is exciting to know that a former Brooklyn congressman, now a U.S. senator for New York, is in upstate New York day in and day out fighting that we need to do more to help agriculture, our No. 1 industry. The goals that Chuck Schumer has in the Senate, I share in the House of Representatives." Later Schumer responded, saying, "Downstate should call on upstate when help is needed, and upstate should ask for downstate help when it needs assistance."

Schumer received enthusiastic applause when he pledged to work to protect -- even to the points of blocking judicial appointments and proposing new federal legislation -- the property rights of Grand Island and Central New York farmers, homeowners, and factory owners whose land rights are being challenged by the Seneca Indian and Oneida Indian Nations.

Jim Doan, a central New York beekeeper whose 2,200 colonies puts him in the top rank of the state's honey producers, joins other farmers in expecting that 1999 will be a poor revenue year. "Instead of the usual 100-pound-per-hive honey yield, this year we are looking for 45 pounds," Doan said. "The summer dry weather has deprived our bees of their usual wildflower nectar." Doan added that a springtime application of Chlorphos, an organophosphate that beekeepers do not expect to lose, is controlling the varroa mite that has destroyed many bee colonies. It replaces Aphistan, the strip to which the mites built resistance.

The Environmental Protection Agency decision to ban the use, beginning next year, of Methyl Parathion and Guthion, fruit and vegetable farmers have long have relied on to grow safe and quality food, set off storm of criticism. N.Y. Farm Bureau, the state's strongest farmer lobby, supports the Food Quality Protection Act, but contends that the EPA decisions were based on "political motives rather than on scientific findings. The EPA is taking action before sound scientific data has been gathered. This announcement will unwittingly scare the public."

The twin bans drew First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton , who is touring rural New York before deciding to seek the Democratic nomination for the upcoming vacancy in the U.S. Senate. A Farm Bureau member said that Mrs. Clinton reacted sharply when told that an EPA offocial predicted that in five years fruits and vegetables will no longer be commercially grown in the Northeast and that food will have to be imported. "The goal of Washington-based environmental groups is to move pesticides out of this country. They don't care if we produce any foods in this country or not," said Pat Hooker, a Farm Bureau legislative aide. "That's a national security issue."

Mrs. Clinton's political explorations drew praise from several Farm Bureau leaders who normally favor Republicans. "At least, Mrs. Clinton is listening to farmers and rural residents and learning about their problems and why our Farm Bureau director.

Barnyard Gossip: Class I (drinking) milk prices are moving higher again. In September, dairy farmers will be paid $ 15.89 per hundredweight. That's equivalent to 34.1 cents per quart or 4.6 cents above the August price and five cents higher than July's. ... Jubilee supermarkets are pushing locally grown fruits and vegetables, an Eden Valley Co-op member says. ... Meanwhile, Eden's new vacuum cooler has been used to send two loads of Chinese cabbage to New York City and the season's fist loads of peppers to southern markets. ... A local potato grower says that the early harvested spuds show high quality and low quantity and continue to bring farmers low prices, 10-12 cents a pound. ... Faced a record 850 million bushel carryover and prospects for a record 2.9 billion bushel harvest, the United Soybean Board is charging straight ahead by aiming for record exports hrrough market development. ... Driven from their usual habitats by dry streams, skimpy berries, sunburned grass, hungry bears, raccoons and even rattlesnakes have added summer excitement for full-time and vacationing residents of areas below the Catskill and Shawangunk Mountains of southeastern New York. ... Vendors see Y2K fears of interrupted power service such a stimulant to sales of back-up farm generators. Dairy farmers without back-up generators put dairy cows at risk, one vendor promoted at Empire Farm Days.

LOAD-DATE: August 24, 1999