The Town of Geneva and the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association have announced an important partnership this week to bring an educational opportunity to local farmers.
A Virtual Farming Symposium will be held on Wednesday, March 31 at 3:00 pm via Zoom. The Geneva-based Farming Symposium will focus on the Payment for Ecosystem Services and Carbon Capture programs that pay farmers to sequester carbon, both on a regional and national scale. Presenters include Rebekah Carlson from NORI, a national scale carbon marketplace, and Matt Sheffer of Hudson Carbon, a regional farm organization that works to prove the viability of carbon farming practices.
“Soil health incentive programs are a pretty hot buzz on the national scale, and people are talking more about paying farmers for their ecosystem services and carbon capture. These programs are available now and we want our local farmers to better understand and take advantage of them,” said Jacob Fox, Town of Geneva Climate Smart Coordinator, during a recent radio interview on the Ted Baker Finger Lakes News Radio show. “Farmers are a part of the clean water puzzle. They are a part of the clean air puzzle. If we pay farmers to be proactive and improve their soil health, we might not have some of these larger issues on the back end from flooding and water pollution.”
Farmers from the Seneca-Keuka watershed who attend and fill out a post-symposium questionnaire will be paid $20 for their participation.
Visit www.senecalake.org/events to register for the Virtual Farming Symposium. Space is limited and farmers will be given priority if maximum attendance is met.
Questions? Contact Jacob Fox: Foxjacob@me.com
This piece was produced by the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association, a nonprofit that for more than 20 years has been creating new partnerships and launching new programs to promote and protect Seneca Lake’s water quality for the health and safety of those who live in the watershed. This article was shared with us as part of our community outreach to include a multitude of voices and views about the Finger Lakes foodshed.
