Issue Position: Agriculture

Issue Position

Agriculture, It is our heritage, it is my passion

We just had the national farm bill passed and signed into law by our president. While it reins in the food stamp program and pulls back on subsidies for leaving farmland out of production, it does little to nothing for northeast Lancaster County communities. The bill is geared toward the large crop and livestock farming operations with an emphasis on farmers purchasing insurance against volatile market price swings and weather uncertainties. Our community is full of small farms with many not choosing to purchase insurance against milk, egg, beef, broiler, grain and produce price swings and potential storms or drought.

One of the biggest threats to our farm community is over regulation and new regulations that threaten to be an economic disaster. Farmers in our community need regulatory relief to survive for the long haul. Along with all the new regulations there are reporting requirements which is forcing some farmers to hire consultants to all the proper paper work. Many farmers have worked hard to meet requirements only to find after spending significant dollars that the requirements have increased and they are no longer in compliance. Clearly our farmers need regulations and some measure of control in place since they produce food. Our farm community is faced with regulations in food inspections (especially milk and produce), building codes, nutrient and manure management, pesticides and herbicides applications, environmental, conservation programs, new storm water management, creek bank restorations, etc. Regulations continue to ratchet up and are ever evolving and the time has come for some easing. Let's relax regulations, add more common sense and work at bringing each farm into reasonable compliance.

Lancaster County has over 5,000 farms averaging 78 acres. We are known as "The Garden Spot" with some of the most fertile soils in the world. We are the most productive nonirrigated county in the United States.

100,000 acres of the 400,000 acres of farmland has now been preserved. Preserving the very best farmland in Lancaster County is the right thing to do for the generations that follow us.

We must consider these numbers when doing land use planning for our communities. The value of services used for every tax dollar paid -- farm $0.07, industrial $0.10, commercial $0.15 and residential $1.30.

Agriculture is good for our community, let's keep it strong. It is our community's largest industry, it accounts for 11 percent of Lancaster Counties economy and almost one fourth of its workforce. Agriculture is responsible for creating one in five jobs here in the County.

The clean and green program which most of our farms are signed up for gives tax breaks to our farmers. This has been a help to our farm community and needs to remain in place.

As your State Representative I will be constant dialog with the farm community. I want to hear what is changing and needed down on the farm, so I can take it back to Harrisburg. With the departure of Mike Brubaker from the 36 the State Senate Seat we lose one of the last County Legislators with a strong agriculture background and interest. While not easy I will be able to fill this role.

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