March Agricultural Forum
Earlier this month, I was happy to attend an Agricultural Forum that was organized for our farmers from the towns of Griswold, North Stonington, Preston, Sterling, and Voluntown. This was an excellent opportunity for them to share ideas with their counterparts along with local leaders and state representatives. The focus of this forum was to discuss funding and grant opportunities, subsidies for rising costs of material fees, and other challenges that farmers are facing. My colleagues and I pointed out the burdensome Highway Use Tax (HUT), that has put a financial strain on farmers and other members of the transportation community that was supported and passed by the legislative Democrats back in 2021. The governor signed this bill into law and the tax that has been levied on our farmers is directly impacting the goods and services that our residents use daily. We explained that House Republicans are looking to repeal this legislation that is greatly impacting our agricultural community.
Additionally, I discussed a few issues this session that I have championed that would help farmers in our district and throughout Connecticut. This includes advocating that in Senate Bill 100 PFAS be included in soil testing samples. This would add the PFAS chemical to be part of the soil testing program at the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Experiment Station. PFAS is a forever chemical that was put into fertilizers over the years, and farmers would like to know if there are any traces of it remaining in their soil. If this concept is added, it will be of assistance to farmers as it will be to town owned properties and other impacted homeowners.
I also introduced legislation that would benefit farmers locally by giving them the ability to process rabbits on their farms. The legislation was passed out of the Environment Committee. With the help of DoAg Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt and many local farmers, this has been an initiative that I have fought for over the past three years. I was happy to deliver the good news to the forum that this legislation finally passed out of committee.
I will continue to keep everyone up to date at the session progresses.
