U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin the process of giving New York State the Malting Barley Endorsement (M.B.E.), a federal insurance option available only to a specific group of states that grow malt barley. In his press release, Schumer stated “malt barley needs very specific conditions to grow and is susceptible to severe weather and disease, making the M.B.E. insurance option an essential ingredient to further nurturing the growth of this new industry,” also stating that “this will become more important over the next decade, when New York State will require farm craft brewers and distillers to source 90 percent of their ingredients from local farms and malt houses, and the supply of malt barley will need to increase to meet this demand.”