Orange County apple farmer warns costs, tariffs threaten local farms

Orange County apple farmer Jeff Crist left little room for optimism when dozens of growers gathered at the Regional Food Bank’s Orange County Distribution Center in Montgomery on April 9. As State Agricultural Commissioner Richard Ball laid out rising fertilizer bills, transportation costs, tariff uncertainty and labor strain, Crist’s warning was blunt in effect: not every farm will make it through.

The discussion, which also included Regional Food Bank CEO Tom Nardacci, Mira Miller and Gibson Durnford, centered on how quickly national policy and global prices can land on a local orchard or dairy barn. Ball said farmers are facing pressure from fertilizer prices, shipping costs, import uncertainty, markets and tariffs, along with immigration and labor problems that make it harder to plant, hire, ship and sell at a profit. He called for stronger coordination across the food chain and described the moment as “the decade of collaboration.”

For Orange County growers, that collaboration is not abstract. County planning officials say agricultural districts are meant to protect viable farmland from non-agricultural uses, yet the land itself is only one part of the equation. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County says local dairy operations have long been rooted in the county’s farm economy, but many now depend on diversification, including milk sales and agritourism, to stay afloat. In a county where farm stands, pick-your-own orchards and visitor traffic are part of the business model, higher costs can show up quickly in tighter margins, fewer seasonal hires and higher prices for shoppers.

The numbers behind Ball’s warning show how broad the pressure is. New York has about 30,000 farms operating on 6.4 million acres, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The state also had about 650,000 milk cows and 1.39 million cattle and calves as of January 2026. Yet New York lost 2,788 farms and 363,885 acres of farmland between the 2017 and 2022 Census of Agriculture, underscoring how fragile farm viability has become.

Labor rules add another layer. New York’s 2025 farm-worker minimum wage guidance sets pay at $15.50 an hour in the rest of the state, with overtime after 56 hours at $23.25. At the same time, the Office of the New York State Comptroller reported that nearly 10,000 workers were employed through the H-2A guest worker program in 2023, while as many as half of the state’s farm labor workforce was undocumented in 2018. For labor-intensive operations, that mix means compliance, recruitment and retention are all costly and uncertain.

Albany is already trying to cushion the blow. Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed $30 million in tariff relief for New York farmers in her 2026 budget. But Ball’s message in Montgomery suggested relief alone may not be enough if input costs stay high and markets remain unstable. The Regional Food Bank said it has received more than 500,000 pounds of apples from growers across the Champlain Valley to the Hudson Valley since the start of the 2023-24 apple season, including Crist Bros. Orchards in Walden, a reminder that Orange County farms are already tied into a wider food system that depends on them staying in business.