Lopez launches online dairy petition

11/3/2009

By Patsy Nicosia

Pete Lopez is taking his fight for New York’s dairy farmers online.
Friday, the Assemblyman launched an online petition drive that he hopes will help convince Governor David Paterson and legislators to come forward with both emergency assistance and long-term changes for the troubled industry.
The petition is available at www.thepetitionsite.com/2/ save-new-yorks-dairy-farm-families.com.
Assemblyman Lopez launched the petition drive as ranking member of the Food, Farm & Nutrition Task Force as a way to reach out to both the farming community and consumers with a goal of collecting 1,000 signatures.
“We really want this to be consumer-driven,” Assemblyman Lopez said. “It’s time to get more aggressive and we need new partnerships to do that.”
Assemblyman Lopez sees those partnerships as coming from metropolitan areas and consumer groups where buzzwords like carbon food print and food safety and security were unheard of a decade ago.
“What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working,” he continued. “This is a way to reach out across New York State.”
Assemblyman Lopez said he also hopes to be able to use the petition drive as a way to make the dairy industry a poster child for all of the state’s business woes.
“We need to shore up dairy, but also New York’s businesses as a whole,” he said, “and that means change that doesn’t just translate into higher taxes and more regulations.”
Assemblyman Lopez said Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jodie Rutt has begun reaching out to her counterparts across the state—and he’d like to see those organizations sign on to the petition as well.
“I really believe that it’s the non-traditional partnerships that are ultimately going to make this happen, that are going to create a voice that will be heard in Albany.”