Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding highlighted nearly $1 million in Wolf Administration investments for the commonwealth’s hemp industry as he opened the 2022 Pennsylvania Hemp Summit in Lancaster today. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that the highly contagious avian influenza has been found on two additional Lancaster County commercial poultry farms.

The Wolf administration announced Thursday that 3,528 additional acres on 40 farms – including 20 in central Pennsylvania - would be protected from development, an investment of more than $9.7 million in state and county dollars to preserve prime farmland.

The state Department of Agriculture is looking for research proposals on sustaining and growing Pennsylvania’s $132.5 billion agriculture industry. 

Environmental officials today toured farms in Lancaster and Dauphin counties to promote healthy farms, clean water and conservation.  

Four Lancaster County farms were awarded more than $2.2 million total in tax-exempt, low-interest financing through the state’s Next Generation Farmer Loan Program.

Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding will serve on the newly created USDA Equity Commission’s Subcommittee on Agriculture to provide insight on equity in agriculture. 

Seven businesses in central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley are receiving grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of a larger, $32 million investment in rural Pennsylvania.

Manheim-based eggs, milk and ice cream producer, Kreider Farms, recently released the newest product under its hemp-focused Chiques Creek brand—the hemp egg. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is taking proposals for up to $2 million in funding for projects to increase sales, quality and production of Pennsylvania wine, beer and cider. 

Harrisburg University’s incoming Center for Advanced Agriculture and Sustainability, slated to break ground later this year, received a $1 million donation from The Giant Co. 

Mechanicsburg-based independent grocery chain, Karns Foods, plans to separate itself from the national beef supply chain by sourcing, owning, managing and processing its own private beef herd. 

Farms in the Lehigh Valley and the Central Pa. region are among those in 18 counties preserved by the state from future development today, investing more than $7.2 million in state, county and township dollars. 

Legislation to make the PA Preferred Organic Program a trademark in Pennsylvania has been introduced by state Reps. Maureen Madden, D-Monroe, and Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Luzerne. 

Augmented technology was introduced to state farmers at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's annual meeting in Hershey yesterday.