Fracking: New York’s Food, Agriculture and Farms

Fracking is a process that the oil and gas industry uses to extract natural gas and oil from shale rock formations buried deep within the Earth. It requires large quantities of water mixed with sand and toxic chemicals, which are injected underground at high pressure to crack dense rock and release oil and gas.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Revised Draft Supplemental General Environmental Impact Statement recommends opening up large areas of New York to shale gas development, which would permit fracking. However, the DEC did not analyze how fracking would affect New York’s agricultural and farming sector.