- 2 years ago
On Thursday, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) delivered remarks on statewide agricultural policy innovation.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome everyone. It's my pleasure to welcome you all to the Dickinson College Farm. Thank you so
00:13much for being here with a special welcome to Governor Shapiro, Secretary Redding, Representatives
00:18Kutz and Representative Ecker. We are our farmers here and we find value in waste, especially
00:25materials like food scraps and livestock manure. Since 2007, this farm has collected over 3.5
00:30million pounds of food waste from the Dickinson cafeteria, generating a valuable compost that
00:35enhances our soil and crop health. Food waste is full of energy and nutrients, is easily recycled
00:41on farms, and simply does not belong in the landfill. Converting waste into biogas, a burnable
00:47renewable carbon neutral energy source, is actually very easy. Just mix some cow manure with water,
00:52warm it up, and keep out the air. Anaerobic digestion will happen and biogas will result.
00:57Add some food waste and the biogas production doubles. The liquid effluent of the process,
01:02called digestate, is a valuable crop fertilizer. We then separate any remaining fibers from the
01:08digestate to produce recycled bedding for the cows. Nothing is wasted. Since 2008, Dickinson
01:13students and staff have built dozens of small anaerobic digesters for research projects,
01:18while generating cooking fuel for our commercial kitchen and residences. Our new farm scale digester
01:24is a project based on the same technology with the addition of specialized machines to convert
01:29biogas into electricity that powers the farm and connects right into the utility grid. We
01:34partnered with our neighbors at Triple L Farm Dairy, allowing us to combine the manure of 150
01:39cows with two to three tons per day of food waste from Dickinson and our community. After years in
01:44development, we are thrilled to finally be coming online. Just 15 months ago, this area where you
01:51were standing was a grass field, a cow pasture. We moved cows into the building in March, began feeding
01:57the digester the first week of June, and produced our first burnable gas three days ago. Soon we
02:02will be generating enough renewable energy to wipe out the farm's electric bill and export
02:06additional power to 30 homes. There are already a handful of farm digesters in Pennsylvania, but
02:12what makes our project unique is its relatively small scale. There are about 5,000 dairy farms in
02:17Pennsylvania with an average herd size of 100 cows, so there is great potential for growth in smaller
02:22farm digesters. We're sharing the lessons learned through this working model with other farmers with
02:26the goal of replication around the region so that more farms can generate clean energy from their
02:31waste in their communities. This project was a team effort. In addition to Triple L Farm, the Dickinson
02:37Farm Team, and college administration, I am so grateful to the local, state, and federal agency
02:42partners who help with funding, design, and permitting. We've worked with nine Pennsylvania
02:46businesses for engineering, construction, and special equipment. All of them have been essential to our
02:51success. I'm especially thankful to the visionaries at Nutrient Control Systems of Chambersburg for
02:56believing that we can and should build family farm digesters here in Pennsylvania to help the
03:01environment, strengthen farms, and generate local economic development. Thank you, everyone. Now it's
03:07my pleasure to introduce Representative Kutz.
03:15Well, good morning. It's an honor to be here today. Let me first thank Governor Shapiro, Secretary
03:19Redding, my House colleague, Torrin Ecker, for being here today and for investing in showing the
03:25importance of investing in agriculture here in the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania has been a national
03:30leader in agriculture for years, and the governor understands that agriculture innovation is key to
03:36driving our economic success. I was proud to join a large bipartisan majority of our State House
03:42colleagues recently to support the Ag Innovation Bill that recently passed the House. It's farms like
03:49these here in South Middleton Township, in the Boiling Springs community, and things all over our
03:53Commonwealth that will continue to pave the way for Pennsylvania as an agricultural leader. But
03:59those don't come easily, and it requires us as legislators and the administrators that you see here
04:04today to be supportive of the agriculture industry. This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue we
04:11can all get behind. Things that require investment into our farmers and our agricultural community to
04:17preserve that way of life, not only for the farms that we have today, but to encourage expanding our
04:22workforce through agricultural careers, opportunities through career and tech development, and
04:28supporting initiatives like our local FFA to be able to provide those students with agricultural
04:35pathways as well. Here in Cumberland County, we are blessed with a rich agricultural history, and we
04:41continue to have so, including right down the road here at Land O'Lakes, where Secretary Redding and I
04:46toured the facility last year, which produces four to five million pounds a day of dairy products.
04:51These are the types of projects we need to support as a Commonwealth and as a state government. It's
04:57an honor to be here today to provide that support, and it's now my honor to introduce our Secretary of
05:02Agriculture, Russell Redding.
05:09Representative, thank you, and good morning, everybody. Good to see you. A few really smart folks right
05:14here in the shade, right? Thank you for hosting President Jones and the Dickinson College family. When I
05:25was a dean at DelVal, we had a farm, and I always sort of envisioned what we could do to be like this,
05:32right, to take this innovation and the technology. We had the cows and generated a lot of manure, but we
05:38didn't have this, and to me, this is the differentiator, both in terms of the college and what we can do,
05:44what you'll do, but it also shows us the future, about how do you merge the issues of science with the
05:50concerns about the environment, right? And how do we, as a Commonwealth, and I'm really proud of the
05:55governor in the proposed budget for the very first time, to have innovation funding. We've done a lot of
06:02really important work through the Farm Bill and conservation and research in marketing, and you can make
06:07the list, but on that list, we've never been able to add the word innovation. So the very first time, you can
06:14say, we're going to innovate, we're going to do the things that have really been a hallmark of Pennsylvania
06:18agriculture. We're here because of the adoption of innovation over generations, right? It's really been
06:24important, but the state now can play a role. We have seen it. The governor and I have been together on
06:30numerous farms, and every farm has a story, right? Everyone is an amazing, sort of inspiring story about
06:37progress and perseverance and innovation. We saw it in hemp last week, right? We've seen it on dairies, and
06:43just make your list. So this has application no matter where you stand in Pennsylvania. You can be in the
06:51English community, in the Amish community, and the innovation is key. You can be in the forest lands and on
06:57the open fields, and innovation is key. You can be in the rural communities and urban centers, and it's key.
07:05So make your list. Everything has a connection to innovation because of what we do here and what you're
07:12doing here at Dickinson College. So thank you for that. The driver in this is twofold. Actually, one of those is
07:20just we are in a hypercompetitive environment. We have to compete. We have to have our products, whether it's
07:28the land lakes down the road or the timber industry, which we were with last week, they have to compete, right?
07:34So we're in a place where you've got to compete, you have to innovate. The other is, and I think the governor will
07:39talk about this, how important the agriculture is to the very fabric of our communities, economically, socially,
07:46environmentally, and through innovation, we get a chance to do that. So this fund has by design a broad sweep of
07:57initiatives attached to it. I'm pleased that it's gone through the House, and thank you very much for that support.
08:03Senate, we hope, next week in it, but inside of it is the opportunity to invest in the conservation story, it's the
08:12biodigesters, it's our neighbors in the fruit industry and the drones and what they're doing inside of their orchards,
08:20it's the forest products industry, it's inside the dairies, every place, and in this fund will be the opportunity for us to be a
08:27partner in that. And we view the innovation fund as sort of the yeast, right? Much like that digester has to have some yeast, right?
08:35This is the yeast. I mean, this gives us a chance to raise other money and investment. So, but it's important to have the
08:42investment from the state and to be able to do this and the plan for continued innovation, but also continued progress with the
08:50partners. It's the other stories we look around the number of partners who are here who helped both Dickinson College, but
08:57also this project specifically, many, many partners, community members, families in the community here. So, a note of thanks to
09:05each of them for what they have done and continue to do. But why does it matter, right? It matters at the end of the day for the
09:13economic competitiveness of agriculture. It matters socially to what we do with food waste and generate energy. It matters
09:22environmentally, what we do. So, there's a lot of benefit to this. And on top of that, the opportunity to be innovators in the
09:30agricultural space and stay in that top tier in a very competitive market that allows us to have both a vibrant community and a vibrant
09:39economy in agriculture. So, thank you, Governor, for your vision on this very much appreciated. And just want to say thank you every
09:47time that I'm with the Governor on a farm is the opportunity to talk about the future of, and this is sort of organic in the sense of his
09:57understanding of Pennsylvania, but also his understanding of agriculture stems from the conversations as Attorney General on the acre law and
10:07just the interface issues. But his appreciation for what this industry can be is both inspiring to hear and to see and to be part of it, but
10:17also when you can fund and do things that are innovative, like an innovation fund and dairy margin coverage and building western labs that are all
10:25connected to the work that we do and the vision that we have. Speaking of vision, somebody who's led Dickinson College and is part of this great
10:35story of both the institution and this student-led farm, I'm very honored to introduce to you the President of Dickinson College, John Jones.
10:45Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and thanks for all your support. And it's been invaluable to us. We welcome the Governor today, our state reps as well, who've been so
11:04supportive. It's great to see you all at Dickinson, at the Dickinson Farm today. It is my honor to welcome you to this great tract. We're tremendously proud of
11:17this 80-acre USDA-certified organic farm, which serves as a living laboratory where students can put into action concepts they learn in the classroom. Here,
11:29students in a wide variety of disciplines learn about renewable energy and sustainable agriculture through hands-on work-study and volunteering opportunities. They can
11:39participate in on-site classes, independent research projects, things that give them the unique insights into the subject areas, such as complex mathematics, the role of
11:48food in global politics, public art projects, the natural sciences, and more. Additionally, since its founding 17 years ago, this farm has helped prepare hundreds of
11:58students for careers in agriculture and food system-related fields. At Dickinson, we always say, sustainability is not just a buzzword. It's a core value, and we approach it with
12:10creativity and a broad base of knowledge. The project that you see before you today exemplifies our innovative approach to solving complex issues that face us all. The
12:22Biodigester Project demonstrates real-world solutions to manage waste, reduce climate emissions, create renewable energy, and protect local waterways, including the Yellow Breaches, right next door, and
12:35ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay. These are all efforts designed to strengthen sustainability for Dickinson and, indeed, the local region as well. We're proud that this new technology will
12:46benefit dairy farmers across Pennsylvania and across the country. Our students have been a part of this project from the start. I want to congratulate Matt Steinman, Assistant Director of the College Farm and Energy Projects, our Director.
13:00He shepherded this project from the beginning, Jen Halpin, Director of the Farm, Ken Schultes, Assistant VP for College Sustainability and Facilities Planning, Alex Smith, Farm Manager, and all of the students who, through the years, have been involved in this project. Our students, some of whom are here with us today, are changing the world, even before they leave our campus.
13:27It is now my great and distinct honor to introduce the 48th Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and I will tell you that, over my career in public and private life, it occurs to me that, including Governor Shapiro, I've had the great good fortune to know six governors of Pennsylvania pretty well, and I think, from that perspective, I'm qualified to say that Governor Shapiro is a special talent and a tremendous governor, off to a great start.
13:56I've known him since his time in the legislature and through his career. He's an exemplary public servant, and we're so proud to have him at the farm today. And I'll say one more thing, Governor. I know that one of your mottos is that you get stuff done, and stuff is-
14:15You can say, get manure done.
14:16Well, yeah. You don't want to step on my joke now. Look, it's my farm.
14:25Take your time.
14:26So, I'm just kidding. So, you know, stuff can be a euphemism for something else. It's a less elegant word. I just want to tell you, this is what we do with stuff here today. Governor Shapiro, good to see you.
14:39Thank you. Thanks, Mr. President. And let me begin by saying it is awesome to be on a farm. It's
14:47always great to be on a farm with Secretary Redding, and it's especially nice to be here on
14:52a farm today with President Jones and the leadership of Dickinson College, and you, Matt, as well. I
14:58want you to know that I admire President Jones for a whole bunch of reasons, certainly because
15:04of his career in public service as a distinguished judge on the bench. But one of the things I admire
15:10most about his leadership at Dickinson College is he understands the power of educating students
15:16outside the walls of a classroom, and he understands that we've got to create greater connectivity
15:21between our workforce and our farms and what happens at our colleges and in our classrooms.
15:28And so, Mr. President, I admire you for your leadership. I thank you for your leadership,
15:32and I really do look forward to continuing the partnership that we have had for many years
15:37together. I think what you've built here at the Dickinson Farm should be a model for the rest of
15:42Pennsylvania, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to get out here and see this today and
15:47have the chance to visit together with your state representative, Representative Gutz, along with
15:51your neighboring representative, Representative Ecker, and his children who join us here today.
15:58I'll dispense with my formal remarks, both in the interest of heat and time, and just share a few
16:04thoughts with you. When I get the opportunity to visit a farm, which is, you know, nearly weekly
16:09here in Pennsylvania, I'm always reminded of the rich heritage that agriculture plays in the
16:15Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I love in particular, though not the case today, but I love in particular
16:20visiting these multi-generational farms or visiting a farm like this one where a year or so ago this
16:27was just a meadow, and they envisioned something even better, an opportunity to grow and to be able
16:32to serve others. And the service that happens at a farm, I'm not sure there's anything more noble
16:38in life, no offense to our representatives or other public servants or even the work that I do,
16:44that the work that farmers do every day to feed people, that's noble, that's honorable. And we
16:50understand more and more that that work to feed people requires us to have a focused strategy
16:57and to focus not just on the dirt in the soil, but also the technology that allows us to do that work
17:04even more effectively. You know, when I became governor, one of the things that was really clear
17:10to me, and I think the reps would agree with me on this, is that we were falling behind from an
17:15economic competitive standpoint. We weren't investing enough, and we didn't have a clear
17:20vision of where we wanted to go in Pennsylvania. And in fact, over the last 20 years, we've not had
17:26an economic development strategy for Pennsylvania. And as a result, we haven't created as many jobs
17:32or created as much generational wealth as I would have hoped, or I imagine as these gentlemen would
17:37have hoped. Why do I share this with you? Because I believe when you're developing a strategy, you've
17:42got to be clear in your purpose. You've got to be clear in your focus. You can't be everything to
17:47everybody, but you've really got to focus in on the areas where you see real opportunity. And for me,
17:53we focused on five specific areas of our economic development strategy. And for the first time ever
17:59in Pennsylvania, one of those key areas is agriculture. Why do I share that with you?
18:04Because when I see a farm like this, I don't just want to think about the history of Pennsylvania,
18:09I want to think about the future of Pennsylvania. And the future to me, when it comes to prosperity,
18:15when it comes to job creation, when it comes to great family sustaining jobs, when it comes to
18:20putting food on the table for your kids, or taking them on a vacation, or buying them what they need,
18:24it runs through places like this. And so for the first time ever, we're focused on agriculture
18:31as a key sector of our economic opportunity. For too long, Pennsylvania has only looked to the high
18:37rises of our big cities and the sprawling office parks of our suburbs. And while they're critically
18:42important, when we talk about those two areas, we have to add a third, and that's the farmlands
18:47of Pennsylvania. And that has been a big focus of my time as your governor. Now to do that,
18:53we've got to make really smart and wise investments. The kind of investments that the
18:58commonwealth and others, federal government too, have made here. Investments in technology,
19:04investments in innovation. When people think about technology and innovation, sure, we should think
19:10about biotech and the life sciences and health care, but we should also be thinking about
19:14agriculture. We should also be thinking about our farms. And when we do that, we create jobs,
19:20and we do something right by our planet. Think about what's happening with this digester here,
19:24again, in part funded with some state resources. Think about what's happening here. They are
19:29turning waste literally into energy, and they've become an energy exporter in just about a year.
19:36I visited another farm, Reinford Dairy Farm, not too far from here. I think we're in Juniata County,
19:40right? If I'm not mistaken, Reinford. That's another area where they literally have an entire
19:46neighborhood that gets its power from the methane digester that exists on that farm. The future
19:52of farming, sustainability, addressing climate change, runs right through these farms. And I'm
19:58grateful for the commitment that Dickinson has made and others have made to seeing to it that
20:03this can be a model for the rest of the commonwealth. Now, we got a lot of dedicated people
20:08here, but they also recognize that they need resources in order to effectuate this high-tech
20:14vision for farming going forward. And on that, I'm really pleased to be able to report to you
20:19that we have been able to come together on a bipartisan basis in the House of Representatives
20:23with an overwhelming vote that these two gentlemen supported. The vision that I laid out
20:28to invest more resources into ag innovation, over 10 million dollars to be exact. And don't get
20:34caught up just on the individual dollars, though that's obviously a lot of money. What we should
20:39focus on here is that we were able to find bipartisan consensus around investing in our
20:44farms. What does that mean? That means urban and suburban representatives voted together with
20:50rural representatives to see to it that our agriculture folks got taken care of. That's
20:55a big deal. And it's important for you to understand the context within which all that
21:01is happening. I am literally the only governor in the entire country with a divided legislature.
21:08I want you to think about this for a second. The House of Representatives is led by Democrats,
21:12the Senate is led by Republicans. Fun fact, there's only two divided legislatures in the
21:17whole country. The other is the Congress of the United States, and they don't get a whole lot done.
21:22We're proving that we can get a whole bunch of stuff done in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
21:28because we're doing common sense things that bring Democrats and Republicans together.
21:33In the budget I've laid out, we're proposing historic investments for agriculture, historic
21:39investments that have broad bipartisan support. And as we work to finalize our budget over the
21:46next several days and weeks here, I want you all to know that there's a real commitment to working
21:53together to get this done, to do common sense things like investing in our schools, investing
21:58in public safety, and investing in economic development. And again, a big part of economic
22:04development is what happens on farms like this. As we go forward, I hope you understand the
22:10position that we're in, the unique position we're in to make these investments. Pennsylvania today
22:16sits on a $14 billion budget surplus. That means that over time, the Commonwealth has taken $14
22:23billion more from the taxpayers than they've invested. Now is the time for us to reinvest
22:28those resources back in our farms, back in the good people of Pennsylvania. The budget I put
22:34forth is balanced, it cuts taxes, doesn't raise them, and it makes those critical investments.
22:39And again, as the only governor in the nation with a divided legislature, I'll stand up here and I
22:43will state one thing is an absolute fact for what's going to be in the final budget deal.
22:50Compromise. And you know what? I know in our politics today that some people view compromise
22:55as a bad word. I view compromise as key to making progress. Progress here in Pennsylvania,
23:01progress for our farmers, and progress for our future. That's the spirit that I and these
23:06gentlemen approach these conversations with, and agriculture has been a big winner in that effort,
23:11and we're going to continue to see that forward. So let me close again by thanking President Jones
23:16for welcoming me here at Dickinson Farm. Let me tell you that I view places like this as critical
23:22to the future of Pennsylvania. I'm glad for the opportunity to get to know so many of you
23:27here today, and it is really a pleasure to be with all of you. I'll just say on a personal note,
23:33my family abandoned me this week and went to the beach, and today's my birthday. So for me to be
23:38able to spend my birthday on a farm is pretty special. So thank you for welcoming me here on
23:43a special day. Appreciate y'all. So, oh my goodness. Thank you. You can say Josh. It's all
23:55right. Thank you, gang. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll see if we got any
24:04quick questions from the media. I don't want everybody to bake out here. Yes.
24:08You mentioned the budget. Could you give us a quick update on how the budget is going?
24:12Yeah, look, we're making progress. There have been really good,
24:15productive conversations. We're going to continue to stay at it. Staff was meeting even today,
24:21and there's good dialogue happening. There's honest dialogue happening, and I would just say
24:25Leader Pittman, who's the Republican leader of the Senate, had it right when he said
24:30divided government does not need to be dysfunctional government, and that's going to
24:34require him and me, Representative Bradford, and the other leaders to come together and compromise,
24:39as I said before, and we're working hard to do just that. Anything else? Thank you all very much.
24:47Thanks, Rep.
25:04Pittman.
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