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At a House Republican Policy Committee hearing in Lancaster County on Wednesday, state lawmakers heard from farmers and agribusiness owners about the challenges they are facing due to high inflation and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I represent a small, family-owned meat processing company in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, and we’ve been in business since 1965,” said Mike Smucker, president of Smucker’s Meats. The packing of the goods for the business, as well as the construction project has been stopped.
“Commodity prices for the services we offer have increased by an average of 15% over the past 12 months,” Smucker said.
To combat rising costs, Smucker said the business had to innovate and find more efficient ways, including reducing the company’s waste and examining market value.
Another obstacle shared with the committee is the difficulty of finding and retaining staff.
In the year As part of the Pennsylvania Farm Bill created in 2019, the commonwealth now has opportunities known as “earning-as-you-learn internships,” which, according to the state Department of Agriculture, provide the skilled workers employers need to work. Increasingly computer-driven equipment, as well as connecting high school students and recent students with training paid for by equipment dealers to learn how to operate high-tech farm equipment.
When asked by state lawmakers if he had any suggestions to help address workforce issues, Smucker suggested creating a better way for people already incarcerated in Pennsylvania to find work in the agriculture industry.
“Our solution to the employment problem is to create better incentives for those who are paroled or paroled,” Smucker said. “Although these suggestions do not seem like a direct cure for inflation, I believe that we can better solve problems by addressing issues that are a few steps removed from the problem and addressing the core issues of the problem. Access to employment in the lower-income sections of our society is a place to address some of the core issues.
He continued: “In the past we have seen some very hard working people get out of prison [they] They have to make a new start with their desire to prove themselves. “I believe the real path to recovery is providing opportunities for work that builds on self-esteem and the simple satisfaction of completing a hard day’s work.
Heather Lewis, a Lancaster County farmer, shares the obstacles her farms face with the House GOP Policy Committee (Pennsylvania Capital-Star).
Heather Lewis, a first-generation farmer in Lancaster County, said the uncertainty of the future is stressful for her and her husband, Mike, who have seen a 25 percent increase in their investment in crop inputs (such as fertilizers and pesticides) before inflation.
“Sometimes it’s hard to sleep, there’s so much uncertainty that comes with farming,” Lewis told the committee.
While Lewis is grateful that her children are learning solid lessons about the realities of agriculture, she often feels stressed about finding a balance between fulfilling their future on the farm and reducing financial risk by tightening wallets.
“I’m glad they’re learning these lessons now and preparing for future opportunities,” Lewis said of her children. “They need to know that tightening things up now will lead to opportunities later.”
For Bill Beam, president and owner of Beam Farms Inc. in Elverson, Chester County, rising equipment costs have made things difficult for his farm.
Beam described the sticker shock he felt when he recently went to a John Deere location to buy a new appliance and the price had gone up by 25 percent.
Similarly, Beam said that ordering parts to repair existing equipment is expensive and less of an option, and due to ongoing supply chain issues, lead times for new parts are up to six months.
A BIM employee shared that while the company has one price increase per year, it will implement three price increases in 2022.
“Unfortunately, inflation is here, it’s real,” Beam told the committee.
The Pennsylvania Capital Star is part of the State News Division, a network of similar news bureaus supported by grants and a consortium of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
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