Erie County has published Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis summaries from the Farmer Focus Group series held in April 2024.
To initiate the process of updating Erie County’s Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan, a first set of farmer focus groups were held throughout Erie County. At these meetings, attendees shared their thoughts and insights about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing agriculture in the County. A total of five meetings were held, including in the Town of Clarence, the Town of North Collins, the Village of Holland, the City of Buffalo, and virtually. Meetings were well attended with 78 members of the community attending. The North Collins meeting was the most well attended with a total of 38 attendees.
Information gathered from these focus groups was utilized to develop a list of agricultural issues, needs, and opportunities for the Erie County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board (AFPB) to review. Once the AFPB reviews this information, they will identify which items require further investigation. The strategies and actions that will be identified later in the planning process will directly address the issues, needs, and opportunities that were generated through public input identified here and through other community engagement exercises. The complete SWOT chart can be found here along with a summary of the SWOT analyses.