Rochester Business Journal Leading source of business news and information in Rochester, N.Y.

Wegmans executive Bill Strassburg likes to think of food and agriculture as the tortoise in the familiar hare and tortoise analogy. “It’s something that is consistent, and it consistently grows a little bit each year. It’s not a big jump ...

Tagged with: Bill Strassburg Center of Excellence Cornell Agritech Cornell University food and agriculture Jan Nyrop Kreher Family Farms Michael Nozzolio wegmans

Attending the state fair every day that it’s open this year might cost you about $100 at the gate. Double that and you could gain entrance for the rest of your life. The NY State Fair is making 200 lifetime ...

Tagged with: NY State Fair

Geneva’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station is being designated a state Center of Excellence, bringing additional funding and attention for research and development aimed at job creation in  agriculture and food production. State Sen. Pam Helming announced on Wednesday ...

Tagged with: Center of Excellence Cornell University Kreher NYS Agricultural Experiment Station wegmans

Finger Lakes area agricultural programs will receive nearly $600,000 in state money to promote research, marketing and development of agriculture, it was announced last week (March 29) by the state Department of Agriculture and Markets. Programs submitted applications for the ...

Tagged with: agriculture Cornell University finger lakes Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority

James Stenger, chief financial officer and senior vice president of the Lewis family of companies, will retire March 23. Stenger was named 2014 Financial Executive of the Year in the large-company category by Financial Executives International, Rochester chapter, and the Rochester ...

Tagged with: James Stenger Lewis companies

With talks about reauthorization of the five-year federal Farm Bill about to begin, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has introduced a bill that would help support the prices dairy farmers are paid for their milk. Gillibrand said on Tuesday that the ...

Tagged with: dairy farmers Kirsten Gillibrand Milk prices

Star Cider started out in the basement of a young couple’s home. But their dream to turn hard cider-making into a family business quickly outgrew that house in Clifton Springs, Ontario County. So Cortni and Adam Stahl traded their house ...

Tagged with: Adam Stahl Cortni Stahl FLCC hard cider Kal Wysokowski Star Cider Start-Up NY

The Meat and Greet Farmer and Chef Fair at Hobart and William Smith Colleges is looking for additional livestock producers to participate in the March 17 event in Geneva. The colleges’ Finger Lakes Institute, Cornell Cooperative Extension and Finger Lakes ...

Tagged with: Cornell farmers Hobart and William Smith livestock Meat

More. That might be the one thing that all growers of grapes, owners of wineries and juice producers can agree upon. More marketing, more sales, more research, more data. But as to how that might look, there are plenty of ...

Tagged with: finger lakes grapes marketing NYWGF vineyards wine wineries

GLK Foods will be closing its plant in Shortsville, Ontario County, by the end of the year, it announced today. The plant processes a variety of pickled or fermented vegetables, including sauerkraut, and employs 48 people. The Wisconsin-based company has ...

Tagged with: GLK Foods Sauerkraut Shortsville

Food that farmers donate to organizations serving the needy will now qualify for a state tax credit worth 25 percent of their donation’s market value. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the new refundable tax credit this week in an effort ...

Tagged with: agriculture Andrew Cuomo farms food banks food donations NY Farm Bureau refundable tax credit

Sales of Taste NY products across New York grew by $3 million in 2017, an increase of nearly 23 percent over the previous year. “Taste NY has put local products on the map, boosting tourism, helping local craft breweries, wineries, distilleries and cideries grow, and increasing ...

Tagged with: Andrew Cuomo farms food production Taste NY

Farmers have until April 2 to help their local public schools earn a grant of $10,000 or $25,000. The grants are provided by the Monsanto Fund, a charitable arm of the agricultural chemical company Monsanto Co., to boost science, technology, ...

Tagged with: farmers grants Monsanto schools

The drink of hobbits will get its own farm license in New York under a proposal in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget for 2018-19. The proposal creates a farm meadery license, the latest craft beverage license to join those already available ...

Tagged with: Andrew Cuomo craft beverage honey Mead

After most of a day hearing about federal, state and municipal laws governing the hiring of foreign workers, Barbara Bauman of Webster felt she learned enough to start asking more questions of the appropriate agencies. Barbara and Daniel Bauman attended ...

Tagged with: Allison DeMarree Barbara Bauman Becker Forum Daniel Bauman farm labor H-2A Melissa Buckley