H. Rose Schneider reports in the Altamont Enterprise that two farmers in Berne, Kevin Crosier and Emily Vincent testified before the State Assembly’s agriculture committee last week, about spotted knapweed and wild poisonous parsnip. The two invasive plants have invaded their Berne farms over the last two years, and across the Hilltowns in southern Albany County. Parsnip is poisonous to humans and livestocks with chemical-like burns. “The need for research is something I’m really pushing for,” said Antonio DiTommaso, a researcher from Cornell University. “We really need to understand this plant a lot more, especially here in New York.” Spotted knapweed flowers 1,000 seeds from from June to October that can lay dormant for up to five years before sprouting. The leaves and roots of the plant produce the toxin cnicin that inhibits the growth of surrounding plants. “You can just see fields and fields that’ve been abandoned,” Crosier said, pointing out hayfields in an area have been lost to spotted knapweed. Crosier recommended to the committee the broadleaf herbicide known as 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, or 2,4-D to kill the plants, while the organic farmer Vincent doesn't like using such chemicals. Read the full story in in the Altamont Enterprise.