The importance of supporting Pennsylvania businesses, the potential for rising costs to dampen spending by consumers on extras and the need for migrant labor in the agriculture industry were a few of the ideas the minds of Pennsylvania farmers and entrepreneurs at the “agriculture summit” U.S. Representative Glenn "GT" Thompson held at the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology in Centre County.
The focus of this year’s summit was “Farm, Food and National Security.” Before and after the panel discussion, attendees got to walk around and talk with Pennsylvania producers of yogurt, potato chips, salad dressings and maple syrup and sample their wares.
“So we're featuring some of our fresh produce, which this is peach season and the beginning of apples. And then of course, warm doughnuts from the bakery. You can never go wrong at a morning meeting having some warm doughnuts," said Megan Coopey, who owns Way Fruit Farm in Centre County with her husband, Jason.
The farm also has a market, with a bakery and cafe. Jason Coopey shared donuts, apples and information with Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding while she spoke about the message she would like to get across: The importance and value of local, sustainable farming.
“Keeping things within the community because those are the things that support the community," she said. "Making sure that we are supporting small family farms or at least local entities, not just large conglomerate organizations. You always lose sort of the heart and soul that supports the community. And so keeping things local and seasonal and fresh and supporting those people in your community is really sort of what what we're always looking for.”
I asked her and a few producers and farmers about why they’re at the event, what message they have for lawmakers and if they have any concerns about the potential impact of President Trump’s tariffs, and rising costs.
For Coopey, one concern is the possibility of rising costs having a ripple effect — leaving people with less money in their wallets.
“So then how much money do they have to spend on the general goods, whether it's fruits and vegetables or a little splurge of doughnuts and going out to eat in our cafe for lunch or dinner. When you have to sort of tighten the belt a little bit due to the rising cost of, say the car that you really need because your old one broke down and things like that, we do see some sort of repercussions to our retail, not just all the inputs into our farming area. So we sort of see it from both angles, if you will,” Coopey said.
The event included a panel discussion, and one of the speakers was Michael Kovach, a regenerative livestock farmer in Mercer County, who's also president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union.
Kovach said he hasn’t seen immigration raids at the processing plants he uses. But he is concerned about migrant workers being afraid to go to work because of President Trump’s immigration crackdown and the impact that’s starting to have on the agriculture industry.
“We’ve got to strike a balance. I mean, because there's not a workforce in America willing to jump in there and do those jobs," he said.
“This afternoon I'm going to drive down to Baltic, Ohio, with a load of broilers (chickens) that we've been raising. That plant had about 2/3 of its staff was Guatemalan migrant labor, and in March they all just quit coming, which I completely understand. I mean, you got a family to take care of. You got to feed them. But you also got to be there for them and not like in some detention center somewhere.
“I'm very hopeful that we can find some way to accommodate everybody. It's an all-boats type thing. If we can figure out a way around the wholesale extraction of this population of folks who have given of their labor — for compensation of course — then everybody's going to win. We're going to be able to keep our prices down for all the foods that they're part of getting to market, whether it be picking tomatoes or produce or processing meat. We've built this fast, cheap and easy food system on the backs of migrant labor and to turn our backs on them now seems terribly ill advised for not just the humanitarian part of it, but for our own interests. I mean, those $1.99 boneless, skinless (chicken) breasts are not going to stick around if you've got to start paying a much higher wage and/or processing a lot fewer birds."
Nick Stello’s family business, Stello Foods, makes pasta sauces, salsas and dressings. It's headquartered in Punxsutawney.
“Punxsutawney, home of the groundhog," noted Stello, who was giving out samples of tomato sauce.
Stello would like to see a state program set up that facilitates Pennsylvania food banks buying food — like spaghetti sauce — from Pennsylvania food producers.
“Say we get tomatoes in from some local growers and we make spaghetti sauce and then it would be like ‘Pennsylvania Marinara,’ and it would go to all the food banks," he said. "You know, they would buy it from us. Of course, we try to give them the best price we can, but everything's Pennsylvania then.”
Stello said his company is not really affected by tariffs. But more people may want to eat spaghetti sauce at home than at a restaurant if prices go up.
