Business

Most of the time, Eric Andrus is a beef and rice farmer. But lately, he’s learning to be a boat builder. On this day, he’s in the barn, sanding the hull of a big wooden barge.

“We’re about to apply the second layer of plywood,” Andrus says.

Andrus lives in Ferrisburg, Vt., near Lake Champlain. This fall, he plans to load up the boat with potatoes, grains, honey, apples, beans, and maple syrup, all produced in the Champlain Valley, and sail to markets further south. It’s called the Vermont Sail Freight project.

In quick succession, the State of New York has reached agreements over casino rights with two Native American tribes: the Oneidas in Central New York and the Mohawks in the North Country.  That leaves the Seneca Nation in Western New York as the last remaining tribe whose dispute with the state is still unresolved. 

"We're continuing to talk. We have two out of three," Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Smaller farms in upstate New York are being squeezed by the valuation mechanisms that peg taxation to land values.

One of those challenges is property taxes. Agriculture is a land-intensive industry, so rising property taxes can mean much higher costs for farmers. And taxes have been rising, thanks mostly to increases in the production value of farmland.

Behind John Peck, about 30 barn cats maneuver around – and sometimes under – 60 milk cows in his small barn. The Peck Homestead Farm, in the town of Champion in Jefferson County, has been run by the Peck family for about 200 years.