Minority Leader Visits Hartwick

Insure Crops Brewers Need,

Senator Schumer Says Here

ONEONTA – At Hartwick College’s Center for Craft Food & Beverage, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, today announced he is asking the USDA to approve a specialized crop insurance to protect farmers growing crops for the state’s expanding farm breweries.

“It is imperative that the USDA takes the necessary steps towards offering the malt barley endorsement (MBE) throughout these (44 Upstate) counties to provide further protection for our growers while continuing to promote the businesses that rely on this important crop,” Schumer said in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that was released here today.

Upstate farmers “want to grow malting barley, and it can be profitable for them, but we also have to provide them with the necessary tools.  We can’t make them take all the risk,” said Aaron Mcleod, director of the Hartwick center.

Alongside water, yeast, and hops, barley is one of the major components of beer, and of many spirits produced by distilleries. Malt consists of barley that is germinated and then dried under highly controlled conditions. These conditions help to release the enzymes needed to convert the barley starches into sugars. These sugars are then fed to yeast through the process of fermentation, which ultimately creates the final product – alcohol.