U.S. Rep Glenn “GT” Thompson, and state and local officials, cut the blue ribbon, officially opening the 2025 PA Farm Show in Harrisburg Jan. 5, 2025 (Commonwealth Media Services photo)
Standing inside the Maclay Street Lobby entrance of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex on a frigid Saturday morning, leaders in the state’s agriculture community cut the ceremonial ribbon signaling the opening of the 109th Pennsylvania Farm Show.
“This is a show that showcases Pennsylvania, really America’s number one industry,” said U.S. Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-15th District), chair of the U.S. House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. “The industry that provides us most of the things that are essential in our lives. Food and fiber, building materials, energy resources.”
“And what an exciting time,” he added.
The Pennsylvania Farm Show is the largest indoor agricultural event in the country. The 2025 Farm Show features thousands of competitive agricultural events, more than 1 million square feet of hands-on agriculture education opportunities, a food court, and a 1,000-pound butter sculpture.
Speakers on Saturday morning emphasized the theme of the 109th Farm Show, “Powering Pennsylvania.”
“AG is a huge part of our culture and our history and our way of life, but it’s also the foundation of our economy,” said Pennsylvania Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger.
Siger said that the agricultural industry provides for nearly 600,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, meaning one in every 10 jobs is related to agriculture, according to pa.gov.
“It’s an entire ecosystem, one that contributes more than $130 billion annually to our Commonwealth economy,” Siger said.
Siger noted that Gov. Josh Shapiro listed agriculture as one of his administration’s top priorities in his 10 year economic development plan.
Speaking to the Capital-Star following the ceremonial ribbon cutting, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding described the current state of the agriculture community in Pennsylvania as: “it’s diverse, it’s strong, it’s growing, it’s fragile.”
“There’s a lot of things that we’ve learned over the last year with weather, particularly on droughts and some of the flood sort of damage and issues,” Redding told the Capital-Star. “You look forward, you see a lot of change coming around immigration and tariffs and environmental stuff that all of that is the fragile part.”
On Dec. 21, President Joe Biden signed a $100 billion disaster package, which included an extension of the Farm Bill, that was passed by Congress. Redding said that was “really important to Pennsylvania.”
Thompson, who will play a prominent role in agriculture issues in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, struck an optimistic tone in an interview with the Capital-Star, lauding Brooke Rollins, Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“I will say, based on my knowledge and information, not only she’ll be a great individual to work with as secretary, but she will be the Cabinet member that’s closest to President Trump, and that speaks well for agriculture,” Thompson said.
Rollins worked in the White House as the domestic policy advisor during Trump’s first term and led the pro-Trump “America First Policy Institute” over the past four years, Thompson said.
“So she’s got a great relationship with the President,” Thompson said. “So between that and my relationship with the President, I’m excited about the future of agriculture.”
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, also told the Capital-Star on Saturday that he expects to support Rollins’ nomination, despite differences they may have on some issues.
Fetterman said that protecting funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would be his priority for the upcoming Farm Bill.
Redding told the Capital-Star that he’s thankful that a one year extension of the Farm Bill was granted in late December and laid out a number of things he’d like to see as priorities in the legislation.
“Number one is to make sure that both the food and nutrition stay united with our production policy, meaning that there are folks who want to sort of bifurcate the food nutrition from some of the farm policy stuff. We really believe that they have to keep them together,” Redding said.
“Two: food and food insecurity issues are growing, not shrinking, so we can’t have a federal farm bill that shrinks the food programs like our SNAP and our emergency food assistance and all of that,” Redding added.
Redding also cited research and rural development concerns as important.
The 2025 Pennsylvania Farm Show will run through Saturday, January 11 at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg. Parking is $15 per vehicle, although admission to the Pennsylvania Farm Show is free.
A schedule of events and more information about the 2025 Pennsylvania Farm Show can be found at Farmshow.pa.gov.
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