June 16, 2026
STATEMENT FROM US SENATE MINORITY LEADER, SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER: “This past April, New York’s farms suffered from a devastating freeze that severely damaged crops, including grape farms in the Southern Tier. Along with Senator Gillibrand, I’ve called on Secretary Rollins to approve a disaster designation to ensure that impacted growers have the resources they need to recover and will continue pushing the administration to support impacted farms across Upstate New York.”
BACKGROUND: Senators Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congressman Langworthy and Congresswoman Tenney, have all asked the USDA to help out the farmers because of crop damage from April of this year, due to frost. Wlea News checked in with Cornell Cooperative Extension about this and their Finger Lakes Grape Specialist Hans Walter Peterson says the following: “The frost that we had on April 20-21 hit some vineyards in Steuben County very hard. We had several days of warm weather just before that which started to push vines out of their final stages of dormancy, and then temperatures around much of Keuka Lake and some other areas dropped to the low 20s… In Steuben, the damage is worst from about Pulteney down to Hammondsport and up the other side as well. As you get closer to Penn Yan, there’s still damage but not quite as bad in general (but still not good). “
