Murphy, far left, standing, called the conference as part of his "Renew Upstate New York" plan

LAGRANGEVILLE – To further his “Renew Upstate New York” Plan, Congressman Scott Murphy brought agricultural producers and consumers together under one roof Friday at Tymor Park in Lagrangeville where he hosted a buy local agriculture conference for the purpose of bridging the gap that is hindering the Hudson Valley’s local organic food market.

Murphy said he is trying to get people who are involved in the local agriculture community to talk to each other, network and raise the understanding among the public of just how important it is to understand where your food comes from and to be supporting local farmers.

Friday’s conference consisted of an afternoon of product expos and panel discussions with experts in various disciplines within the agricultural community and was attended by as many as 200 farmers, distributors, and consumers.

“As people start to understand what a great plethora of opportunities there are to get local food here, and the ways that they can do that, I think it’s going to be very helpful and increase sales for local farmers,” said the freshman lawmaker.

One topic heavily addressed during the discussion panels was the existence of certain disconnects between those who are interested in buying locally grown products and those who are actually growing them.

The general consensus was that producers have certain marketing and distribution needs that need to be accommodated along with the unique purchasing and procurement needs of the consumers.

“We’ve been using the Community Supported Agriculture model for our vegetable farm for the past seven years and it’s been extremely useful for us,” said Panelist Benjamin Shute of Heartyroots Community Farm noting that this model is what allowed them to develop a broad base of community support and get started without going into debt.

The concept of a farmer’s market or Community Supported Agriculture works well for farmers but, as a  consumer of organic foods on a relatively significant scale, chef and owner of the Terrapin Restaurant in Rhinebeck, Josh Kroner, said that there needs to be a distribution system that caters to those who rely on consistent and efficient delivery. “We just need a middleman that’s not going to gouge,” he said stating that they’re gouging to the extent that delivery is simply not working.