00:08 - Russell

00:08 - Redding, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Agriculture.

00:12 - The annual Farm Show in Harrisburg always has a theme.

00:15 - What is it this year?

00:18 - Yeah, this year we are in sync with our America 250.

00:23 - It's growing a nation.

00:26 - You know, America was born here,

00:28 - and we're going to celebrate that.

00:30 - And agriculture, of course, was key to,

00:33 - to its founding and development.

00:36 - And we're going to celebrate how it appears today and equally

00:39 - as important to our economy, the people of Pennsylvania.

00:42 - And can you tell us more about the role of farmers,

00:45 - since the founding of our country?

00:47 - In other words,

00:48 - how much have things changed in the last 250 years?

00:52 - Well, I was like the star.

00:54 - You know, I've been doing a little bit of,

00:56 - history work here.

00:57 - And I'm a member

00:58 - of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture.

01:01 - And Ben Franklin was was the founder of that.

01:05 - And it's

01:06 - important because the societies that were developed,

01:11 - primarily in the colonies and around, the northeast,

01:15 - they were the early veterinary schools.

01:18 - They were the early Penn State extensions.

01:21 - They were the researchers

01:23 - and they had all these sort of elaborate systems.

01:24 - So I think about that just from Philadelphia

01:28 - and being the center of science and innovation

01:30 - and how that has carried through 250 years.

01:33 - So we look at, the development of the country from a,

01:37 - economic standpoint, from an infrastructure

01:40 - and energy and, and pharmaceutical,

01:42 - all of those things I think are parallels to allowing

01:46 - agriculture to develop and flourish and, and allow

01:50 - most of us to move away from being subsistence

01:53 - farmers or pioneers in the front land, to really,

01:57 - doing all these other things that we enjoy.

01:59 - So we're going to try to capture that

02:01 - and tell that story in agriculture.

02:02 - But here we are, 250 years on.

02:05 - It's incredibly important to Pennsylvania, $132 billion,

02:09 - 600,000 jobs.

02:11 - So it's important and we're

02:13 - going to try to capture and represent that,

02:15 - but put it in

02:15 - a historical context to say, this is our journey

02:19 - and this is why we're so happy to celebrate it,

02:21 - but honor the past and think about the future.

02:24 - Secretary, try to give us a general idea

02:27 - of just how sophisticated farming practices

02:30 - were when our nation was getting started.

02:34 - I don't think there was any sophistication.

02:36 - Right.

02:36 - I think it was as simple as, individual farmers.

02:40 - Most of the folks listening that were here

02:42 - were also farmers,

02:45 - in the sense that they were providing for themselves.

02:48 - And then it's only through, you know, the, the, the,

02:51 - the 18th century and 19th century and 20th century,

02:55 - you see this sort of progression where you had, education.

02:59 - This is one of the points of the founders

03:01 - is you had to educate farmers,

03:03 - you had to talk about soil health,

03:05 - and they talk about stewardship.

03:06 - They used the word husbandry over and over to demonstrate

03:10 - that there was a care and stewardship of animals.

03:13 - That's an important distinction.

03:14 - And then you look at the interventions of,

03:17 - what's happened through research.

03:19 - And what I say is a lot of these, words that ended

03:22 - I o n right.

03:23 - It's about mechanization, industrialization,

03:27 - refrigeration, electrification.

03:30 - And now we we do the celebration.

03:32 - That's the journey.

03:33 - That's the 250 years of what we're going to do,

03:37 - what we're going to tell.

03:39 - Now, Pennsylvania is one of the original 13 colonies,

03:42 - of course.

03:42 - So how did it help blaze a trail for the other 12?

03:47 - Well, it was, you know, it was the at the center

03:51 - of the market and business world, in America.

03:56 - And we were Philadelphia was,

03:59 - and that sort of development of

04:01 - markets and, and I would argue even standards,

04:05 - because some of the very early laws and, and,

04:09 - parameters that were placed on commerce

04:12 - came out as the weighing and sampling.

04:14 - They were food safety.

04:15 - There were health requirements.

04:17 - There was,

04:18 - you know, all of these sort of marketplace, aspects.

04:22 - So that is one example, the research pieces,

04:26 - you had, the society

04:28 - recommending to the University of Pennsylvania that existed,

04:33 - in the early years, of our founding,

04:36 - they were recommending to the university to,

04:39 - to add a veterinary school to the medical school.

04:43 - Right.

04:43 - You think about that, that became

04:45 - this veterinary school for the region of the northeast.

04:48 - So many, many stories like that that were really here.

04:52 - We now sort of assume that everybody, had the same

04:56 - level of access to education and research and, and markets,

05:01 - and even that basic educational piece of helping

05:04 - farmers learn and, know what to do,

05:08 - that that is not true.

05:09 - That came out of Pennsylvania, came out of Philadelphia.

05:13 - You had the single most important horticulturalists,

05:17 - and then the, John Bartram scarred,

05:21 - in 1632, had the world's best,

05:27 - and that was in Pennsylvania and Berkshire's

05:29 - gardens, of course, in Philadelphia.

05:30 - So examples like that, that I think are really great,

05:33 - great indicators of Pennsylvania's leadership

05:36 - and why it's important to both talk about it now

05:39 - and connect people back to what we had,

05:43 - because it gives context, the context of why we celebrate it.

05:46 - It really honored that work today.

05:48 - Well, then let's flash forward 250 years to 2026.

05:53 - What are the forms of farming in Pennsylvania that really

05:56 - are thriving today?

05:59 - Yeah, it's, I'll just say that the diversity of agriculture

06:02 - generally, helps the, the state and the ag economy thrive.

06:08 - I would say all of our,

06:11 - animal agriculture or an analog state.

06:14 - So that's the hogs and chickens and dairy and horses,

06:18 - pigs.

06:19 - All of that is really important to Pennsylvania's economy,

06:22 - to the, importance of our specialty

06:26 - crops, as we term that that's the fruits and vegetables.

06:29 - Right.

06:29 - And the way that's developed, it's allowed us to be number two

06:33 - in direct farm sales in the nation.

06:35 - Birthright.

06:36 - We're second only to California, by the way.

06:38 - So people like what we have.

06:40 - I think the forest products industry here is challenged

06:44 - at the moment by by tariffs and some of the struggles there.

06:47 - But it's 16 million acres of our commonwealth

06:50 - is under forest land.

06:51 - That's important to innovators that we've seen throughout

06:54 - AG Innovation Fund over the last year.

06:56 - Tell us that, you know, the dairy industry, the forest

06:59 - products, the the greenhouse industry, horticulture,

07:04 - and particularly anything that has a value added,

07:07 - fruits, is thriving.

07:09 - Let's explore our plans now for the 2026,

07:13 - Farm Show in Harrisburg. And

07:15 - how would you describe the show for our brand new visitor?

07:19 - Try to be brief.

07:20 - Yeah, well, I would just say that.

07:22 - That you're walking into 1,000,000ft² of classroom.

07:25 - All right, you're coming in the doors and any door you come

07:28 - in, regardless of direction you turn.

07:30 - There is a story.

07:31 - There is a piece of, you know, agriculture,

07:35 - as we describe it broadly.

07:37 - But you come here

07:38 - and you've got access to food, you're going to be entertained,

07:42 - you're going to be educated,

07:43 - you're going to see the competitive spirit

07:45 - in agriculture.

07:46 - You're going to

07:46 - see these communities that have been built

07:48 - around the industry of 110, 250 years.

07:52 - I think there's community aspects.

07:53 - I would say pay close attention to the people

07:57 - that are in that complex, particularly those who are in

08:00 - show rigs, those who are exhibitors,

08:04 - and those who are entrusted with, a lot of the,

08:08 - exhibition side of, of this, since it is

08:11 - the largest exposition under one roof in America.

08:14 - Now, I understand you're going to take the news media

08:16 - on a tour of the Farm Show, and no doubt you have some

08:19 - highlights in mind.

08:20 - Can you give us a sneak peek, a preview of some of those things

08:23 - you expect to show off to the media?

08:27 - Yeah, well, we're going to do that, media,

08:30 - tour with, one of our close

08:33 - historical friends, who's going to help lead that?

08:37 - We'll take a look at, Penns Woods, pay

08:40 - a little bit of attention to why we're,

08:44 - called Pennsylvania.

08:46 - We'll visit our apple wall and do some of the historical

08:50 - aspects of, Johnny Appleseed and making

08:54 - some connections to Pennsylvania that may not have been,

08:58 - common knowledge necessarily.

09:00 - We'll go over, visit our Pennsylvania,

09:01 - prefer culinary, stage and talk to one of our chefs

09:05 - and look at the, great products that Pennsylvania produces,

09:09 - but also things we enjoy, eating.

09:12 - And, we'll visit some of our fiber friends,

09:17 - the flax and, hemp and,

09:21 - rabbits and such that were important

09:23 - to developing a nation.

09:25 - And so our, it's more of a go spend some time with the America

09:30 - 250, mobile

09:31 - unit and Cassandra and her team just to look at the,

09:35 - the, the bigger arc of history and of course, to,

09:39 - cap all that off with a little bit of food.

09:40 - The food court.

09:42 - And, let's consider an unusual attraction at the Farm Show.

09:45 - Unusual, maybe, to someone who's never been there before.

09:48 - What I'm talking about is the butter sculpture.

09:51 - This isn't something you see every day anyway.

09:53 - So, give our viewers an idea of the technique

09:56 - behind the creation of the butter sculpture.

09:59 - It's not a solid block of butter, is it?

10:02 - It's not.

10:02 - It comes in as a

10:04 - solid block of butter that gets built onto a frame.

10:08 - Right. So the, the artists, husband and wife team

10:13 - very skilled at just the exact temperature

10:17 - that butter needs to be to, to, to be formed.

10:21 - But it's built around a structure. Right.

10:23 - So there's a concept that's developed, early in the year.

10:26 - They build that structure, they, they build it out with butter.

10:30 - So when they viewer looks at it, it looks like a solid,

10:36 - piece of butter, but just know behind it, there is a structure.

10:40 - So it starts as 1,000 pounds of butter, by the way.

10:43 - And then takes form through the artist eye and hands.

10:47 - Now, I understand after the farm show is over,

10:50 - that butter sculpture goes to some use, doesn't it?

10:54 - It does.

10:54 - And it has for some years.

10:55 - So it does not go to waste at this, not to the landfill.

10:59 - It goes to actually to a digester,

11:02 - where the butter is loaded in, at the river farm up here

11:05 - in the county to run a form farm digester for their,

11:09 - energy production.

11:11 - This butter gets loaded in, so it becomes,

11:14 - it becomes energy,

11:15 - in sort of a full circle moment because obviously he is a dairy

11:18 - farm.

11:20 - And butter is a product of dairy.

11:21 - So the butter goes back to be energy on a dairy farm.

11:24 - I think it's a great story.

11:26 - Let's get back to the, culinary connection, stage.

11:30 - Mr. Secretary, you mentioned that you can go

11:32 - there and visitors can see chefs preparing dishes there,

11:36 - but that's not to be confused

11:37 - with the food court you have there.

11:39 - And it occurs to me that there's a great variety of food there.

11:42 - And how do you decide who gets to participate

11:44 - in the food court anyway?

11:45 - Is there an emphasis on, Pennsylvania origin?

11:50 - Well, there are clearly,

11:53 - routes to agricultural production,

11:57 - and particularly the primary commodities that we produce.

12:01 - That's why you have a potato and dairy and poultry

12:05 - and mushrooms.

12:06 - That is all fairly well orchestrated in the sense

12:10 - that, the folks who are there are directly producing,

12:15 - Pennsylvania commodities.

12:17 - They are historical in the sense of what we produce, but

12:20 - they also have ties to the work that they do to research

12:24 - and furtherance of that particular commodities needs.

12:27 - Right? Marketing research, and so forth.

12:30 - So we're very particular about how that gets done.

12:32 - But yes, very different though, from, culinary,

12:36 - for a culinary stage.

12:39 - Just because of what one is sort of satisfying,

12:44 - visually satisfy the other is that,

12:47 - by by, culinary appetite, satisfy.

12:50 - So it's, it's important part food

12:53 - obviously is the theme here a big, big part of what,

12:57 - folks come to see and taste, at Farm Show,

13:00 - technology is rapidly evolving.

13:04 - What are the latest advances?

13:05 - Visitors can expect to see at the farm show that help farmers

13:09 - do their jobs?

13:11 - Yeah.

13:12 - So, I mentioned earlier,

13:14 - just the innovation and the innovative spirit over

13:17 - the, over history.

13:18 - And I think that is a hallmark of Pennsylvania agriculture.

13:22 - Obviously it looks different today.

13:24 - And, we've tried to highlight this through

13:27 - the AG Innovation Fund.

13:29 - We had, 88 projects, that we ended up funding.

13:33 - And they're the range of the dairy robotics.

13:36 - It's the, the drones, they're going to be

13:40 - elements of this that may not be the actual,

13:43 - equipment as an example, because of drones,

13:45 - you can't fly inside robot Milkers,

13:48 - but they're going to be represented

13:49 - through our centers of dairy excellence,

13:51 - through our centers of plant excellence.

13:53 - The individual exhibitors who will talk

13:55 - about these different aspects.

13:57 - But there are things like food safety, the woods,

14:03 - hardware development area.

14:04 - We'll talk about some of their

14:05 - techniques of harvesting their technology related

14:09 - to the things you don't see.

14:10 - I often say to folks that the greatest developments

14:13 - have been in the genetics, right.

14:14 - The innovation has come by way of production and, and,

14:19 - and genetics and there things that we see in the physical form

14:22 - but hard to put, put your someone per se in terms of,

14:27 - knowing that

14:27 - that is an innovative, aspect or a trait or something.

14:31 - There's a big departure from the usual schedule

14:34 - at the Farm Show. As you know, Mr.

14:36 - Secretary, PCD has been covering the Farm Show in Harrisburg

14:39 - for well over 30 years.

14:40 - And traditionally, there's been high school rodeo

14:43 - on the first Saturday of the show.

14:45 - But that event has been canceled.

14:47 - Can you tell us what happened?

14:49 - Yeah.

14:50 - So we I mentioned we're we're an animal agriculture state.

14:52 - And with that being comes, you know, challenges of disease

14:57 - management and we've had that experience recently

15:01 - with our high pass avian influenza in poultry.

15:04 - We experienced this fall, in equine,

15:08 - NHP as it's termed, as a virus transmissible virus.

15:12 - And the equine industry, that got carried back here

15:16 - to Pennsylvania from horses that had been in other states,

15:20 - out of an abundance of caution, in working with the,

15:24 - the High School

15:24 - Rodeo Association, they did not feel comfortable

15:27 - putting all of those horses back into one place.

15:30 - So we we took a pass.

15:32 - So we've got that issue.

15:34 - It happened,

15:37 - and we I think we found a good solution, though.

15:39 - There's a reigning, cow at horse racing,

15:43 - which is basically think about

15:44 - the cowboys and, and cattle and cutting and roping,

15:48 - that kind of stuff that's going to take its place,

15:50 - I think could be just as entertaining.

15:51 - We do have the professional rodeo

15:53 - at the end of the week, however,

15:55 - just a couple more questions about this horse virus.

15:58 - Mr. Secretary, just how potentially,

16:01 - how sick could an animal get if it gets the virus?

16:06 - Yeah, it's a virus.

16:06 - So we as humans get viruses, right?

16:09 - And we see the the, the, the total, you know, arc of

16:13 - of what virus is not this virus, but viruses in general.

16:17 - And the impacts

16:18 - they have on individuals and some folks that withstand,

16:22 - maybe a little more of an intense virus than others.

16:26 - Horses are the same way.

16:27 - So we've had, reports across,

16:31 - the country of everything from,

16:34 - you know, them being sick to losing some horses

16:37 - as a result because of, temperature spikes and stuff.

16:40 - So that's why we've set back and really didn't feel like

16:44 - it was necessary to put at risk any, equine,

16:48 - not just those competing, but also, equine in the, complex.

16:53 - Now, as you point out, pointed out a moment ago,

16:56 - the professional rodeo is still on the schedule.

16:58 - Not to be confused with the high school rodeo.

17:00 - That's the rodeo that's been canceled due to concerns,

17:04 - about the horse virus.

17:05 - So PCN is going to cover the event

17:07 - that replaces the high school rodeo on Saturday.

17:11 - So can you tell us briefly what that, event is about?

17:17 - Yeah.

17:17 - So it's, it'll take place in the same, the larger arena,

17:21 - as the high school rodeo used to,

17:24 - it'll be free and open to, to the public.

17:29 - This is a little different in that it's.

17:32 - I would be considered more skill based.

17:34 - Right?

17:35 - You think of it as you've got cattle in a larger arena.

17:38 - You've got men and women on horseback,

17:40 - who are demonstrating how to handle

17:43 - livestock, in an open setting like that.

17:46 - And I think that's going to be the instruction.

17:48 - So, you get a chance to go see horses, riders,

17:52 - skill cattle with a narration,

17:56 - that will accompany that, presentation.

17:58 - So more educational, but I think really, really nicely,

18:03 - fills the void of having lots of entertainment,

18:05 - having some horses, but also living true to,

18:09 - an opportunity for the public to participate in a free event,

18:13 - that first weekend.

18:14 - And we look forward to covering that event for our viewers.

18:16 - You can go to TV.com

18:18 - and get some details on other events

18:20 - that are taking place at the Farm Show

18:22 - that we will be covering.

18:24 - Last question, Mr.

18:25 - Secretary, again, I like to consider

18:28 - the perspective of a first time visitor to the Farm Show.

18:31 - Can you map out a strategy?

18:33 - Farm show complex is a big, labyrinthine place.

18:38 - It is.

18:38 - So, it's easy to get lost, inside of it.

18:42 - I'd say to every first time visitor.

18:44 - Just, remember which door you came in.

18:48 - That's a great place to start.

18:50 - Is a good place to.

18:51 - And finding your way back out, because our bus routing systems,

18:56 - correspond to where you were dropped off

18:58 - is where you want to be kicked out.

18:59 - So number one,

19:00 - two is, you know, come in with a little bit of a plan.

19:04 - I mean, there's there's a little bit of of,

19:07 - mystery inside of this, like, what is this ad thing

19:10 - and what are all these people doing

19:12 - and why is this interesting for it?

19:13 - But I think most of us, most folks

19:15 - come in thinking about food.

19:17 - You think about animals, you think about the environment.

19:20 - You think about entertainment.

19:22 - But things that I would say are important.

19:24 - One, look at the Pennsylvania prefer culinary stage.

19:30 - I don't think it's important

19:31 - because one, it's Pennsylvania preferred

19:33 - to, is you get a chance to meet chefs,

19:36 - and this year you're going to meet

19:38 - the actual farmers producing the ingredients

19:41 - that go into that recipe.

19:44 - That's different.

19:45 - Right?

19:45 - It's not just the chef is the person who grew it

19:47 - and produced it. So take a look at that.

19:49 - So when you leave and you see the EPA preferred, logo,

19:53 - you know, that that's a Pennsylvania connection,

19:55 - stopped by the, so you want to be a farmer, right?

19:59 - I think there's homesteading.

20:00 - Thing is, you know, there's some appeal now,

20:03 - we look at the homestead greenhouse,

20:05 - look at the homestead smokehouse.

20:07 - How did they do it then?

20:08 - And what what do we do today?

20:10 - There's an egg career expo that we're putting on

20:12 - for primarily youth in the early part of the week.

20:15 - You have an opportunity to, take in the ag explore,

20:20 - it's sort of an educational piece, put it on, put the app,

20:23 - load the app, look around, and then do

20:26 - a couple of other things.

20:27 - Find a quiet moment to look at the stitching.

20:29 - Inside the quilts

20:31 - that are in the family living area and those who are,

20:34 - this year putting together the 250th anniversary quilt.

20:39 - Go, go look at it.

20:41 - And that's the other quiet moment.

20:43 - It's just making sure that,

20:44 - you know, you look at the stories that,

20:47 - that are sort of ringside, as I say,

20:50 - just folks are inside.

20:52 - The show brings us youth or whatever.

20:54 - I think they're important piece.

20:55 - So there's a lot to say.

20:56 - And of course, you never going to go more

20:58 - than about ten feet without eating something.

21:02 - So enjoy that, but have fun doing it, too.

21:06 - All right.

21:07 - Russell Redding, Pennsylvania's secretary of agriculture.

21:10 - We'll see you at the Farm Show.

21:13 - Looking forward. I'll see you in the food court.

21:14 - Thank you.