As in many other states, craft beer is on the rise in New York. But new snags have accompanied the brewing boom. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer recently stopped by a brewery in Dutchess County to push for malt barley crop insurance. Farmers and brewers alike say it would help craft brewers increase their locally-sourced ingredients.
Senator Charles Schumer was at North River Hops and Brewing in Wappingers Falls, launching his push to further grow New York’s craft beer industry. Schumer says there is no federally-backed malt barley crop insurance program for farmers, and that’s holding back New York farmers and craft brewers.
“We have local companies and local farmers right here in Dutchess County, right here in the Hudson Valley, who want to increase production. There’s one thing’s standing in the way, the lack of malt barley insurance,” says Schumer. “Here’s the irony. They do it in other states. The federal government insures the malt barley in North Dakota, in Wisconsin and other places with somewhat similar climates as ours. So why don’t they do they do it here? They don’t do it here because we’re relatively new.”
Ken Migliorelli says he would grow more malt barley at his farm in Tivoli if he could insure the crop.
“I would probably produce more acreage knowing that I have some, a cushion if my crop, if we would have a crop failure,” says Migliorelli. “I went from 20 acres; I’ll probably be close to 50 acres this year. And I’ll probably increase that to 100.”
He hopes this year’s crop produces some 100 tons of barley. Schumer says malt barley crop insurance would translate into more jobs.
“More jobs on our farms, more jobs in our breweries and more jobs in general for the tourist and craft-beer industry here in the Hudson Valley,” Schumer says.
Schumer has written to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary and Small Business Association administrator asking them to prioritize and fast-track the insurance.
“Here’s the good news. The secretary of Agriculture can create malt barley crop insurance with the flick of his pen. And so I am pushing the agriculture department and our secretary to do it,” says Schumer. ”It’s already allowed by law. It’s just the USDA has to agree to do it.”
Nicki Stabell is one of the owners of North River Hops and Brewing. She says crop insurance would literally open the local malt barley field for craft brewers like her.
“For us and our size, it could mean the difference between being able to produce 100 percent New York State-grown beer versus nothing right now,” says Stabell. “It’s really hard to get New York malted barley, especially at a good quality.”
Schumer notes a large amount of malt barley is needed to produce beer.
“Malt barley isn’t as well-known as hops, but for every half-keg of beer – that’s 15 ½ gallons – you need about 50 pounds of malt barley, between 35 and 50 pounds. Less than five pounds of hops are used, so it’s seven times as much,” says Schumer. “The malt comes from growing specific strains of barley. This is not ordinary barley that you feed to cows or pigs or whoever.”
Mary Kay Vrba is executive director of tourism for Dutchess County. She says insuring malt barley crops ends up insuring tourism.
“Anything that’s going to help improve the farmers to grow the products that’s then going to turn into the craft beer or the other opportunities that we have in the culinary field is important to me and is important to tourism because tourism and agriculture is economic development,” says Vrba. “And we get over 4 million visitors a year to Dutchess County. They spend over $481 million, so it’s big business.”
Schumer says securing malt barley insurance is especially important because over the next decade, New York is expected to require farm craft brewers and distillers to source 90 percent of ingredients from local farms and malt houses. Currently, 20 percent of all hops and 20 percent of all other ingredients, including malt barley, used by farm brewers licensed by the New York Farm Brewery are required to be grown or produced in the state.
“Cheers to our craft brewing industry. May it succeed and grow and create both happiness and jobs,” toasts Schumer.
