On November 7, 2024 at the Union League in Philadelphia more than 40 PSPA members heard three agricultural leaders in the region reflect on the “Changing Agricultural Landscape in the Region. Speakers included…

• Chris Hoffman, President, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, talked about that change and the way the Farm Bureau is responding to the needs of its members.  
• Jeffrey Stoltzfus, Extension Educator, Lancaster County, added his perspective as a consultant to farmers and producers.
• Allen Carter, President, New Jersey Farm Bureau, mentioned top-of-mind issues such as workforce and strengthening in the food supply and distribution net works.

Hoffman who is a pork farmer from Juniata County was recently elected President of the Farm Bureau and started the presentation by acknowledging some of the big picture trends including poultry eclipsing dairy in PA in the last several decades, the biomedical and sanitation challenges of avian influenza, the continued loss of farmland, and continued rises in the cost associated with farming.

Carter who oversees a large regional turf production in Cape May County echoed some of the same issues, adding that the persistent drought in the eastern part of the region was wrecking havoc with crops and woodlands that are a part of the agriculture picture in New Jersey.

Both agreed that workforce has been, is, and will be a problem for the agriculture industry which is demanding increasing skills for its workforce. The supply of workers from guest workers and immigrant resources will be increasingly challenged in the next year as the new administration more closely monitors the status of foreign-born workers.

Stoltzfus is an Extension Educator in Lancaster County. He offered some disturbing statistics that drilled into the changing role of dairy in the ag economy. From 2013 to 2023, PA slipped from fifth to eighth ranked nationally in milk production, from 533,000 to 466,000 cows, and from 7,200 to 4,940 in herds. Poultry now leads production over dairy in PA.

Takeaway for the speakers included a reminder that the consumer drives many changes in agriculture, that climate change continues to show its effects in many ways, and technology changes require more skills at a time when fewer people want to work in the industry.