Letter to the Editor: The Disaster Assemblyman Barclay Never Mentioned

In Assemblyman Barclay’s most recent Op-Ed, he wants us to celebrate a new USDA loan program.

A program that exists because frost, freezes, hail, and flooding hammered New York’s crops this spring. Fine. Farmers deserve help when nature turns on them. But let’s not pretend this is the whole story. Let’s not pretend this is the only disaster our farmers have endured.

For eighteen months, Oswego County farmers have been hit with something far worse than a cold snap: federal tariff policies that gutted their markets, slashed their income, and shoved them into financial uncertainty long before a single apple blossom froze. Those losses weren’t “acts of God.” They were “acts of Trump.” And they were devastating.  Where was Will Barclay then?

Barclay’s op‑ed somehow manages to glide right past that reality. Not a word. Not a nod. Not even a hint that farmers have been suffering from man‑made economic harm for more than a year and a half. Instead, we’re handed a sunshine‑and‑rainbows announcement about low interest loans?  Really?  Loans farmers must repay as though this is proof of bold leadership.

Let’s call Barclay’s op-ed what it is: selective storytelling. A political sleight of hand. A weak-kneed attempt to offer “good news” while having ignored the bad news that came first from Washington, not the weather.

Assemblyman Barclay says agriculture is “one of New York’s most important industries.” He’s right. But if he truly believed that he would have spoken up when tariff policies were strangling farm revenue. He would have stood with the farmers who were losing markets, as well as the farmers who lost crops. He would have acknowledged the full scope of the damage instead of pretending that spring frost is the beginning and end of the story.

Farmers don’t need leaders who show up only when a federal loan program drops. They need leaders who show up when harmful policies are being written, debated, and enacted. They need leaders who fight for them before disaster strikes.

So yes, let’s help farmers recover from this spring’s weather. But let’s also stop pretending that the real disaster began in April. The real disaster began when tariff policies kneecapped New York agriculture and left farmers to fend for themselves. The real question remains: Where was Assemblyman Barclay then?

Paul McKinney, Indivisible Oswego County