(NewsNation) — It may be the old steel mills of Pittsburgh or the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia that first come to mind when thinking of Pennsylvania. But between those two huge metro areas is some of the most productive farmland in the U.S. And state lawmakers aim to keep it that way, even as thousands of older farmers retire.
“You’ve got invest in the business,” says Pennsylvania Agriculture Commissioner Russell Redding. “You’ve got to market, You’ve got to ‘people.’ That’s been our strategy for the last number of years and it’s paying off.”
But the main key to the future, says Redding, is the huge challenge of persusading more young people to become farmers.
“You can’t make people love what you love,” Redding says, speaking about his personal dilemma of whether either of his two sons will want to take over the family farm.
“That talent is in demand in a lot of different places. They can put their skills into food, into manufacturing, in robotics, medicine. They can do a lot of things. We hope that they’ll want to be in the food business.”
Still, Pennsylvania is succeeding where other states fall short: the average age of its farmers. The USDA’s Census of Agriculture pegs the average age of farmers in the U.S. at 58.1 years. In Pennsylvania, it’s 55.4 years.
Also contributing to the relative youth movement: those big cities that bookend Pennsylvania. Easy drives to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh offer more opportunities through farmers’ markets and other direct-to-consumer programs.
“You’ve got 50,000,000 people in the neighborhood,” Redding said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert.” “We’ve got wonderful direct market access, a lot of retail. But you’ve got to bring everybody to the table that wants to be in this business.”
Since 1988, The Keystone State has made a farmland preservation a high priority. Among the moves:
- Protecting more than 600,000 acres from commercial development
- Passing the first tax credit for beginning farmers
- Adding agriculture to the list of industries supported by the state’s “economic development machine”
- Adding urban farms, research and transportation to the definition of “agriculture”
- Establishing a loan guarantee program for farmers