SCOTTSVILLE, N.Y. — Last Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which now awaits approval in the Senate.
News10NBC’s Garrett Chan spoke with a local farmer at Stokoe Farms in Scottsville about what permanent daylight saving time could mean for agriculture and daily life. Suzanne Stokoe, the farm’s owner, said she doesn’t see farming practices being impacted in the long run.
“We’re not adding sunlight,” Stokoe said, only shifting the time. But for many people, it will be a major adjustment.
“During the fall, I don’t think it’s going to affect our business that much because it’s still going to be light. But as it goes into winter, I just can’t imagine these kids and especially teenagers getting up pitch black,” Stokoe said.
Stokoe said the only real impact for the farm will be during the Christmas season. “When we are normally the open hours, it would be dark. So we would have to think about definitely shifting hours because obviously, you know, light up a Christmas tree field and things like that. So we have to operate during daylight hours,” she said.
The popular belief that daylight saving time was created to help farmers maximize work during daylight hours isn’t true at all. For farm owners like Stokoe, work will get done no matter the time of day.
“Like I said before the growing season, the sunlight’s the same. The animals are going to act the same. They’re just going to follow the rhythm of the sunrise and sunset. So it is really just us humans that are going to have to just adjust to that time change,” Stokoe said.
Even if the Sunshine Protection Act becomes law, states can still exempt themselves from observing daylight saving time under the federal Uniform Time Act. Another issue that arises with daylight saving becoming permanent is early morning safety.
“I couldn’t imagine the adjustment you’d have to make for school in the safety of, you know, effect of that, you know, people that are going to work in the total dark and coming home in dark. So it just it doesn’t seem like it really sort of makes make sense to me at all,” Stokoe said.
The Senate has not yet set a date to vote on the bill and the odds of it getting passed are slim. President Donald Trump has reiterated he strongly supports the bill.
This isn’t the first time Congress has tried to make daylight saving time permanent. Back in 2022, the Senate voted unanimously in support but the measure failed in the House. Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only states that currently don’t observe daylight saving time.
View the act here on Congress’ website.
For more information on the act, visit NBC’s article here.
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