By Susan Campriello
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
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Students at Catskill Elementary School learned Monday the importance of trees to the environment and economy during a special Agricultural Literacy Week story hour. State Sen. James L. Seward, R-Oneonta, was the event’s guest reader.
Agriculture Literacy Week is part of a New York Farm Bureau Agriculture in the Classroom initiative to teach students about agriculture; Seward said the program is one of several agricultural programs that may be terminated due lack of funding in the state budget proposed by Gov. David A. Paterson earlier this year.
Seward said that agricultural programs have seen about a 57 percent cut in state funding during the last two years.
“That is going in the wrong direction,” he said. “We need to help support agriculture as a way to help improve our economy.”
