October 1, 2020,  The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture presents its Gold Medal Award to Kerry Golden who has made a great and positive impact on Pennsylvania’s agriculture and rural policy for the last 25 years.

As Executive Director of the PA House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, Kerry has researched, analyzed and summarized over 1500 bills.  She has worked with and earned the respect of over a dozen committee chairman, 200 member legislators and 20 staff members during her legislative career.  Below find a few of her accomplishments in bulleted form.

• Farmland Preservation – Kerry has served for 25 years as the committee chairman’s designee to the Commonwealth’s Farmland Preservation Board (She was recognized in 2018 as the longest serving member) and has an encyclopedic knowledge of that law which has been amended 11 times under her watch, each with positive results for agriculture.
• Clean and Green – She sheparded a major re-write and re-organization of the Act in 1998 and has overseen at least six amendments.  Clean and Green is arguably the largest cost-saving program for farmers in the state.
• Right to Farm – This bedrock protection from nuisance suits was amended twice in Kerry’s career and she fought to keep agriculturalists protected and able to farm.
• ACRE –  Kerry’s tireless work over a five year span resulted in this landmark act of 2005 which provided farmers protection from overly restrictive local ordinances.
• Food Safety – In 2014, Kerry oversaw the first major re-write of PA’s Food Safety Law in decades.  Her work brought Pennsylvania into compliance with the FDA Model Food Code.
• Dog Law – By gaining the respect and trust of all interested parties, Kerry was able to help enact two major upgrades to the Commonwealth’s dog law.  This is never an easy topic to address.

Also, Kerry was named as Outstanding Recent Alumni by Penn State University and taught evening courses at a nearby branch campus.

Again, Kerry has made a tremendous impact on Pennsylvania agriculture policy and the resulting agricultural economy.  The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture is proud to present this award to her.