An apple a day
Seward reads to children about orchards, calls for preservation of Empire Zones
The Daily Mail

ATHENS — State Senator James L. Seward, R-Oneonta, took a break from budget meetings in the state Capital Thursday to observe Agriculture Literacy Day at Edward J. Arthur Elementary School in Athens.

He read a new book to a second grade class written by New York State Agriculture in the Classroom staff in conjunction with Cornell Cooperative Extension staff that taught children where apples come from and how they are made into applesauce.

“I think it’s a good way to combine the importance of reading and to help the students to appreciate agriculture more and to know where their food comes from,” Seward said of the awareness effort after completing “Empire State Investigates: The Applesauce Bandit.”

The story follows two second-grade students as they solve a mystery that leads them to an apple orchard and processing plant.

Volunteers began reading books about crops and food production to school children for Agriculture Literacy Week four years ago, said Crystal Lee Skoda of Cornell Cooperative.

After the story ended, she taught the children about the parts of the state fruit with help from apples donated by Boehm Farms in Climax.

Seward told the class, their teacher and principal Paul Snyder that he had to return to the State Capitol to continue fighting for education aid.

Before he left, Seward said that money available through the federal economic recovery package would hold state aid for education at its 2009 budget level.

Seward said he wants to see more funding go to health care and specifically Medicaid. The burden on taxpayers will rise, he said, if funding to local hospitals is cut. He worries about Greene County’s economic recovery should Gov. David A. Paterson decimate Empire Zones, as his budget proposal threatens to do.

Empire Zones, Seward asserted, have been instrumental in bringing new businesses to the county.

Seward said that the Legislature is working hard to complete the budget by April 1, which will help municipalities and schools adjust their budgets.

But the State Senator questioned whether the Governor and legislative leaders’ closed-door approach will yield an agreeable proposal.

“I am disappointed in the process this year,” he said, “it has not been open.”