Local farmers voice concerns with lawmakers
From wildlife management to water runoff, area farmers face myriad issues that impact their ability to get their crops to market.
Every year, representatives from the 54 county farm bureaus that make up the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau take those concerns to Harrisburg.
“We take one day out of the year in the spring and meet with the legislators,” said George Scull, a self-proclaimed “hobby craft farmer” who raises cattle in Waynesburg. “The purpose is to have one vision and one story – to be focused. It’s impactful for us and them.”
Representing Washington County in Harrisburg this year were Jim Lindley, Bill Black and John McConnell; Scull and Harley Gilpin represented Greene, and Darrell Becker and Jason White, Fayette. All serve on their local county farm bureaus’ boards.
They’re working on federal legislators as well. Washington County sheep farmer Lisa Wherry went to Washington, D.C., for the National Women’s Committee and took a second trip there to meet with federal representatives, speaking with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson.
A big concern is wildlife, specifically pertaining to the havoc deer wreak on crops.
“It’s a statewide problem,” said Lindley, who grows soybeans and corn on his Scenery Hill farm. “The (Pennsylvania) Game Commission says Washington and Greene are the highest population in the state right now. Everybody had a terrible amount of damage this year. Personally, we lost about $200,000 on our soybeans and corn crop this year. It’s been building up bad the last few years. We just have to do something.”
Lindley said crop insurance can help, but once a wildlife claim, insurance companies may choose not to insure that farm any longer.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Pennsylvania is one of the top states in the country experiencing crop losses due to wildlife damage. In 2022, the USDA wildlife damage management program called Wildlife Services reported that predators cause an estimated $232 million in losses to livestock producers annually.
A bill has been introduced in the state Legislature to address crop damage. Among the provisions are adding a representative to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Board with agricultural knowledge and experience; increasing trespassing while hunting penalties, and creating a system in which licensed hunters can be connected with farmers who seek individuals to hunt their land for the purpose of crop damage mitigation.
“We’re very optimistic that the farm bureau is doing its job to protect its members from crop damage,” Becker said.
Another issue involves storm water management, which has become a growing financial burden for many communities across the state.
To pay for these increasing costs, at least 27 municipalities have implemented user fees for stormwater management services, and a growing number are considering them.
“They’re trying to make farmers pay for water that runs off a roof,” said Becker, who has 500 acres of land on his farm in Penncraft. “There’s no rhyme, reason or logic to that. They go by impervious surfaces.” Impervious surfaces are pavements covered by water-resistant materials such as asphalt, concrete, brick or stone, as well as rooftops.
Farmers have many such surfaces due to the number of buildings on their land, but they also make use of the water that runs off onto the land.
“Townships are issuing penalties for runoff off your roof,” Scull said. “They are applying the same fee that a parking lot or a shopping mall has, whereas for a farmer it rolls off into their fields. We use that water for our spring developments to capture our water and use our water.”
Wherry, who has a sheep farm in Scenery Hill, said milk is another big issue at the federal level.
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is working to support legislation to allow whole milk and two percent flavored and unflavored milk back in schools.
“We’re trying to get whole milk into schools instead of 1%,” Wherry said. “Kids are complaining, saying the 1% milk tastes like water. We have information that whole milk is better for you.”
In 2010, lawmakers revamped the National School Lunch Program, which led to a whole-milk ban for participating schools two years later. The goal was to reduce childhood obesity.
Farmers also are looking for the process to secure the services of H-2A workers (temporary, nonimmigrant workers) to be a bit smoother. H-2A is a six-month, seasonal visa program for agriculture producers who cannot find domestic labor.
Farmers are looking for Congress to create a year-round agricultural visa program.
“Farmers get these workers, some they have had for years and years and years. That’s who they want,” Wherry said. “It’s a program we use as farmers because a lot of kids don’t want to work. We want them to look at the system and fix it to make sure these workers don’t get held up in the system and we continue to get the same ones. Farmers have certain ones they request who come back every year. We need migrant workers to help us be able to do what we need to do as farmers.”
Other issues mentioned in a summary of priorities released by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau include finding a balance between solar energy development and production agriculture; the push to advance electric vehicles and equipment; the necessity for more clarity concerning the tax code for farmers and landowners who elect to deduct the depletion of natural resources, and the impact of what a minimum hourly wage, overtime and unionization of agricultural workers could have on family farms.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Becker said. “The work is never done.”