Pennsylvania's state farm bill could serve as a blueprint for other states

Streams flow through farmland on their way to the Susquehanna River, in Union County, Pennsylvania. 
(Photo by Will Parson, Chesapeake Bay Program)

Pennsylvania hasn't been waiting for Washington lawmakers to move the stalled federal farm bill forward. In 2019, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a state farm bill that "provides farm-to-school grants, business development for farms looking to produce higher-value products, and farm workforce development," reports Lisa Held of Civil Eats. "It has been continually funded with bipartisan support — and it could serve as a model for other states."

Instead of passing a new farm bill in 2023, U.S. lawmakers have only reached agreement on repeated extensions of the expired 2018 Farm Bill; then punting, delaying, or otherwise putting the more contentious parts of a new Farm Bill on hold.

Additionally, under the Trump administration, the Department of Agriculture "has also proven willing to cancel contracts with farmers enrolled in programs funded by the federal bill," Held explains. In some cases, farmers enrolled in USDA programs were left on the hook to pay for improvements or farming changes that the USDA committed to covering through grants.

Because of its independent farm bill, Pennsylvania "is building stronger agricultural economies and communities, the kind of work a federal farm bill was designed for," Held reports. "Several other states are considering similar packages or are investing in agriculture one small bill at a time."

Even when a new federal Farm Bill is passed, it may not be what many farmers need. Pennsylvania is a state with highly diversified crops that are often left out of the national farm bill. Pennsylvania's farm bill goes further to address the unique needs of its farming communities.

“Pennsylvania has been trying really hard to create policies that broaden the reach of ag policy and include producers that have traditionally been ignored or left out," Lindsey Shapiro, a vegetable farmer and federal policy organizer for a sustainable farming company, told Held.

Many Pennsylvanians "attribute a good portion of that focus to the state’s secretary of Agriculture, Russell Redding, who has had the job for 13 (non-contiguous) years under three different governors," Held reports. "In Redding’s mind, states should start to think about their own laws as the central tool for agricultural policies, with complementary federal laws— not the other way around."