Ever since a Letter to the Editor by John Lincoln of the New York Farm Bureau that suggested that Vermont farms are better off then New York farms, I have been very interested in their differences. Are Vermont farms wealther and better off then New York farms, or are they just different? Are their cultural differences or other reasons that explain the differences between the farm life in the Green Mountain State and the Empire State.

I have seen a lot of Vermont and New York, particularly taking time to get off the main roads and away from the tourist destinations and big farm stands. While tourism is a major part of the agrian lifestyle, it sometimes drowns out reality in an effort to entertain people passing by and get a few of their bucks.

I've been to most of the small towns around my house in Western Albany County including the Schoharie Valley, many of the areas in the Hudson Valley, all the way north to Rouses Point and the Candian Border. I've been to Malone, Oneonta, Oswego, Ithaca, Madison County, and countless other places in New York—taking rural back roads whenever pratical. At the same time, I've been across much of southern Vermont, including deep into the Green Mountain Forest and north to Rutland. I've also seen the outlying areas around the Route 7 and Route 22A coordiors, getting off those roads whenever pratical. I've also seen most of Grand Isle, and explored several of the raods around quite rural Bristol, VT (near Ticonderoga / Crown Point, NY).

A disclaimer should be made as most of my farm experience comes from reading, and driving or walking past farms, keeping my own observations. I also grew up in a small farming community (and still live in one), but I note I don't know a lot of things about the farm life, and hope to learn more as a grow older. My parents have a dozen chickens, and once had goats, but that's much different from real farms.

The results are interesting. Culturally their appears to be a big difference in the prestidge of being a Vermont farmer over being a New York farmer. Owning and working on a family farm in Vermont seems to more of a vocation rather then a job as it in New York. People see New York farmers as backwards, while people accept farming as the norm in Vermont. This has a lot to do with the more urban nature of our state.

Agri-tourism is very big in Vermont compared to New York, particularly in the North Country. Certainly in the Hudson Valley and the wine country of the Finger Lakes, there is more tourism, but in New York it's not the passion of Vermonters. People think agriculture in Vermont and not New York, despite the fact that us New Yorkers far out produce Vermont in almost any commodity.Vermont farms tend to be more historic and senstive to culture then New York farms. The architecture is nicer, with more old barns and less steel farm buildings that seem to be the norm in New York state. It seems that there is a greater priority to the past there then New York. Still, to saw that Vermont is free of confined animal feeding units is a bit of exgeration. Vermont may actually have more mega farms in the Champlain Valley then New York, where flat square fields make mass-farming more pratical with less labor.

Vermont is less urban then New York. Far more farmers in New York farm as a hobby then as a career. There are a lot of realtively large cities in Upstate New York, compared to Vermont. Burlington, the biggest city in Vermont is 40,000 people, compared to Western New York's Buffalo at 350,000 thousand with thousands more living in suburbs. That has a dramatic effect on farming it would seem.Not only are New York farmers far more under pressure for development, there are more jobs outside of agriculture.

Many farms in New York are realtively small hobby farms where people work regular or part-time jobs in the day to help pay beyond what the farm nets in sale of goods. We have far more beef farms in New York then Vermont, as beef cattle require relatively little labor. You don't have to spend hours milking steers. This obviously varies from region to region of the state.

Vermont has a lot tougher environmental regulations, that we can debate the virtues until the cows come home. Manure can't be applied to wet fields much less frozen fields in the Green Mountain State in fear of run-off in Lake Champlain and a variety of smaller streams. With the newest nutrient-runoff law being proposed by Vermont house, things might even get toughter. No burn barrels in Vermont either. Every farm in Vermont has several big dumpsters by it, because you can't (legally!) burn trash in the Green Mountain State.

All of those unfunded mandates are noticable just by drinving past farms. They also mean Vermont farmers pay higher costs to do business, which ultimately might just push them over the edge. Yet, they simply do not have the development pressures that New York has. Moreover, Vermont has laws that limit development across the state, not unlike the Adirondack Park on the other side of the lake.I've enjoyed exploring rural Vermont and New York.

Farms in both states are in many ways similiar, yet in many ways very different. As I write this on the shore of Lake Champlain and watch the waves role in on a warm spring day, I think what I great place it is. I enjoy seeing the farms across the lake, and the light odor of manure from some of the farms just north of me.