Albany, N.Y. —State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats), Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C,I-Corning) and Assemblyman Chris Friend (R,C,I-Big Flats) will join local New York Farm Bureau representatives from across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions for a news conference followed by a roundtable discussion on Friday, March 18th in Corning. Area Farm Bureaus have scheduled the news conference for 10:30 a.m. on Friday at Three Rivers Development (19 East Market Street, Second Floor Conference Room) in Corning. They will be joined by O’Mara, Palmesano and Friend. In a joint statement, O’Mara, Palmesano and Friend said, “The supporters of raising the state’s minimum wage by nearly 70 percent to $15 an hour have been out in full force all across New York State, and all over the airwaves. But the voices of New York’s hard-working farm families deserve to be heard also. It’s the other side of the story on this minimum wage debate, which is potentially a story about disappearing farms and farmland, job losses and other economic impacts across so many rural communities and Main Street New York. Our farmers and agricultural industry deserve to have a voice in this debate too.” Following Friday’s news conference, Palmesano, joined by O’Mara and Friend, will convene a meeting of Palmesano’s Agriculture Advisory Committee together with additional representatives of the regional agricultural community and farmers for a roundtable discussion to discuss the issue in more detail. The roundtable discussion is scheduled to take place at 11:00 a.m., immediately following the Farm Bureau news conference, and also in the Second Floor Conference Room at Three Rivers Development. The media is invited to attend both the news conference and the roundtable discussion. [see the attached Farm Bureau Media Advisory]