Starting Monday, the state director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency is a local man:
Jim Barber of Fultonham.
Mr. Barber, 52, has spent his life in agriculture, working both in dairy farming and in growing and selling vegetables on the Barber Family Farm, and for the past two years, he’s worked for state Ag & Markets.
The FSA works to increase opportunities for farmers and others through loans for things like seed, fertilizer, and farm equipment.
It also administers programs like the Milk Income Loss Contract, a safety-net for dairymen in difficult economic times like the ones they’re facing now.
Taking a break from repairing a cultivator Saturday, Mr. Barber, a sixth generation farmer, said he believes his diversified background will be a plus in his new job.
“Something we’ve always been is diversified,” he said. “You need to be able to adapt to change—especially now.
“At the same time, we need to find ways to encourage people to go into farming and help them stay there. That’s something I’m looking forward to working on.”
Mr. Barber’s father, J. Roger Barber, was state Ag & Markets commissioner from 1975-83.
Before and after that time, Barber’s was both a dairy and a vegetable farm; Mr. Barber said they decided to get out of dairying when, for them, the question became: Expand or not?
“It wasn’t because of the economic times,” he said. “We were choosing the option that worked for us. Because farming is always changing.”
Barber’s opened its retail store in the 1950s, Mr. Barber said, and through the years, has expanded into wholesale marketing as well.
“I’m really fortunate in that I’ve worked in most kinds of agriculture,” he said.
“And because I’ve lived it, I don’t think there’s an industry that’s more important. This [Obama] administration is emphasizing the need to get more people into agriculture and that’s something I’m especially looking forward to working on.”
Mr. Barber said he sees a place for both large-scale and smaller farms.
Farms get larger because the economies of scale work, he said.
But on the other hand, the goal shouldn’t be “just one big farm.”
“We also need to make sure food is affordable for all segments of the population,” he added.
“Farmers need to be able to produce food people can afford and make a living while doing it. And of course, around here, farms are the backbone of our economy.”
Mr. Barber, who’ll be working out of Syracuse, said he hopes to be able to put in four 10-hour days so he can still be involved in the family farm, being run now by his wife, Cindy, and nephew Jacob Cooper; son Elias will be studying production agriculture at SUNY Cobleskill in the fall.
Mr. Barber holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Cornell University and is a Middleburgh Central School graduate.
In his Ag & Markets job, he worked on marketing, promotion, and distribution issues; he also co-founded NY Farms!, an organization that developed the Farm-to-School program, and continues to serve on the MCS Board of Education.
“We’ll see how that goes,” he said with a laugh of the school board post. “It’s always been important for us to be involved in the community.”