Rep. Anthony Brindisi Brings Secretary of Agriculture to Area

Congressman Anthony Brindisi (NY-22) brought Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to Upstate New York to hear from local producers and tour Chobani Yogurt’s factory.  During the first visit of a Trump cabinet official to NY-22 this Congress, local producers joined Brindisi as his guest for a roundtable discussion about agriculture. Brindisi and Perdue heard from members of the community about trade, the state of agriculture in Upstate New York, and USDA regulations.

“It is an honor to bring Secretary Perdue to Upstate New York,” Brindisi said. “We make the finest agriculture products in the world and we need to make sure these producers can bring those products to market. We had a great discussion today and I think both the Secretary and I have some good ideas on how to improve the situation for our producers.”

“Our communities are at the heart of everything we do,” said Mark Broadhurst with Chobani. “We’re proud to call Central New York home, and continuously do our part to shed light on the needs of dairy farmers and advocate for this important American industry. We applaud the Secretary and Congressman Brindisi’s focus on agricultural communities, and look forward to continued work with our partners in government to make meaningful progress towards supporting dairy in New York, and promoting it across the country.”

The audience consisted of local producers, members of Brindisi’s agriculture advisory council, and members of the community.

Brindisi, a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, has been a longtime champion of Upstate New York’s agriculture industry.  One of the first bills he introduced in Congress, the bipartisan Dairy and Sheep H-2A Visa Enhancement Act, would help fix our broken immigration system and address the dairy workforce crisis. He has also urged Secretary Perdue to recognize the high nutritional value of Greek yogurt in the school lunch program and led a bipartisan effort to crack down on the false labeling of plant-based products. As a member of the Problems Solvers Caucus, Brindisi is fighting for Upstate New York’s priorities in the USMCA. Every day, he brings the concerns of community producers to Washington and fights to protect NY-22’s more than six thousand ag jobs, nearly one million acres of farmland, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact.