The New York State Unified Court System offers the services of professional mediators to facilitate the resolution of disputes that may threaten the viability of a farming operation. Having producers and community leaders understand what mediation is, how it works, and its potential to resolve conflict has improved farm-neighbor-community relations in many rural New York communities.

As dairy farms increase in size, they usually transform their manure handling from daily spread to a liquid, stored system. These liquid manure systems can smell and require larger equipment to operate and are generally more visible to neighbors. Mismanagement of some systems has caused polluting spills that have raised suspicions and questions about large dairy farms. At times, such suspicions result in complaints and a breakdown in communication and relations between farms, their neighbors, and their communities.

At regular forums that draw certified farm-environmental planners, professionals from New York Soil & Water Conservation and Cornell Cooperative Extension, and rural community leaders, information about mediation and the New York State Agricultural Mediation Program has been presented. Case studies and roleplays have been demonstrated. Brochures about the program and the availability of its services have been handed out. In cooperation with the director, the program now regularly has a presence at a host of agricultural events.

Requests for New York State Agricultural Mediation Program services in 2006 were triple those in 2004. Approximately one third of the cases mediated by the program involved a farm and its neighbors, with a majority of these cases involving questions about manure handling by the diary farm. Such a rapid increase in caseload has prompted the program to quadruple its request for federal funding to over $250,000 for fiscal year 2007-08.

• Charolette Carter, Director (New York Agriculture Mediation Program)
• David Lee (Cornell University)