Farm workers’ advocates are preparing to march 200 miles up to Albany in the name of better labor conditions, and we think lawmakers should listen.

A group called the Rural Migrant Ministry organized the annual March for Farm Worker Justice, which sets off on May 15 this year, as part of its lobbying efforts for better working and living conditions, overtime pay and more for farm workers across the region. One member of that group described farm workers as “living in fear” of the “strongholds” farmers have on them, and the group has accused state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) of failing to address their concerns since becoming majority leader.

But an anonymous website, nyfarmworkerprotectionbill.com provided the farmers’ perspective.

“RMM and others have recruited various celebrities and foodies to support the bill, as well as downstate and New York City legislators, most of whom have never even been to a farm,” the site said. “We believe these individuals have been misled and have not done the proper research to find out the truth about farms, growers, farmworkers and the challenges we face to bring fresh food to as many tables as possible.”

We understand there are different angles to this debate, but we also firmly believe workers of any type, whether they are legally employed or paid off-the-books, should be allotted some basic rights that lawmakers must find ways to put in placew. We are calling on our elected officials to engage stakeholders in this debate and hold a public hearing in which all parties can contribute to the dialogue.

There can be no mutual understanding without communication, and there appears to be a disconnect between farmers and their workers, or even between legislators and the agricultural sector. If everyone sits down together and has a respectful discussion, they may find fertile ground for compromise.

Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) put the county’s red light camera program back under the microscope this week, as he should. We appreciate his watchdog approach when it comes to the county’s finances — he went so far as to call the red light camera program, which photographs and tickets cars that run through red lights or don’t come to a full stop before turning right on red, “taxation by citation.”

This newspaper has been historically critical of the program, and when the county released its 2014 annual report on the matter, it reminded us why.

In 2014 alone, the county collected $27.5 million from about 321,000 citations issued. Most of that was profit — Suffolk paid the camera vendor only $9.5 million to operate the program. And the county’s net revenue that year represented an exponential increase from when the cameras went live in 2010.

We are not ignoring the statistics, though. We recognize that overall crashes decreased by 3 percent, right-angle crashes went down by 21 percent and crashes involving injury decreased 4 percent. Rear-end crashes, however, went up 42 percent.

But Suffolk County has gotten into a dangerous habit. While some lawmakers and residents remain critical of the cameras, our government now has several years of ever-increasing citation dollars going to the county’s general fund. If we were to nix the red light camera program, it would leave a gaping hole in the county’s pocketbook. Rather than cutting equal expenses, we all know where our government would turn to make up the difference: taxpayers’ wallets.

At this point, the best solution would be to go back in time and never allow the program to pass in the first place. Instead, we urge our lawmakers and neighbors to continue to be critical of the red light camera program and keep it honest as it evolves across our county. If there’s no way to dismantle it without passing the buck onto taxpayers, we hope together we can at least find a happier medium.

Suffolk County put out a request for proposals to help redefine what the former Steck-Philbin Landfill brownfield site on Old Northport Road in Kings Park could look like, and this week a Stony Brook group has proposed to build a solar farm there.

We were excited to read some of the details behind the Ecological Engineering of Long Island plan, which the firm’s president Shawn Nuzzo said would deliver significant amounts of solar electricity to Long Island’s power grid without decimating anymore of the area’s land.

This is the kind of development we hope our fellow Long Islanders can get behind.

The solar farm proposal is an example of what can be done with Long Island’s most problematic properties. All we need is for residents and politicians to give it a chance.

Oftentimes we encounter widespread resident opposition across our North Shore communities to development proposals of any sort for various reasons. But by giving projects like this a thorough look, coupled with an open mind, we believe we can address some of the biggest environmental issues facing the Island.

In this case, for example, transforming an industrial area into something that could benefit us all seems almost like a no-brainer. The former landfill site in Kings Park is no doubt an eyesore and a horrific blight on the greater North Shore community, so why not see it transformed by a legal and reputable business? EELI wants to come in and build a 6-megawatt solar farm through crowdfunding dollars, so let’s support the firm.

This quote from Nuzzo, also the president of the Three Village Civic Association, said it all: “Unlike other recent utility solar projects on Long Island — where large developers have proposed to clear-cut forests, raze golf courses and blanket farmable lands — our proposal takes a dangerous, long-blighted and otherwise useless parcel and revives it as a community-owned solar farm,” he said.

We say reputable, by the way, because of the several letters of support Nuzzo and his team received from some of the North Shore’s staunchest environmental advocates, including state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station).

This property is a perfect example of what we could do with so many more of our neglected areas across the North Shore. The landfill is not situated directly next door to someone’s house, so the “not in my backyard” argument holds a little less weight. It’s time we think smart when it comes to repurposing our landscape.

This past Tuesday was International Women’s Day, and the message behind such an occasion is still very important, necessary and timely.

As we come off celebrating the day, time should be taken to reflect on the challenges that women still face today. Unequal compensation and women’s health issues are still hotly debated —  but these subjects can be traced back to much earlier times.

Stories come from all over the country about young female students being taken out of school for outfits deemed too revealing by administrators, even despite the widespread acceptance of boys shedding their shirts to play basketball or in the stands at football games. Girls’ sports teams have a harder time getting necessary funding for new uniforms and equipment, and many young women still get a puzzled look from others if they express interest in certain educational fields.

We heard one story in which a male engineering student told a female classmate that she must be lost as she walked in for the first day, also telling her that she wouldn’t last long.

It’s not only up to women to push back against sexist beliefs, thoughts or stigmas. It is also up to men.

We need to teach our boys at a young age how to view women — as their equals. We need to instill in them the correct way to value women and understand that women can make just as many contributions as females can.

Women can only achieve true equality if men stand by their side as partners. Let’s strive to raise a generation of men who will be proud to be those partners.