1 1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 2 HOUSE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE AND 3 HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE JOINT PUBLIC HEARING 4 AG PROGRESS DAYS 5 THEATER AREA ROUTE 45 6 ROCK SPRINGS, PA 7 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15, 2007, 10:00 A.M. TO 12:00 NOON 8 BEFORE: HONORABLE MICHAEL K. HANNA, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN 9 HONORABLE ARTHUR HERSHEY, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE DAVID R. KESSLER, SECRETARY 10 HONORABLE BOB BASTIAN HONORABLE MICHELE BROOKS 11 HONORABLE MIKE CARROLL HONORABLE H. SCOTT CONKLIN 12 HONORABLE LAWRENCE CURRY HONORABLE GORDON DENLINGER 13 HONORABLE MIKE FLECK HONORABLE DAVID S. HICKERNELL 14 HONORABLE ROB KAUFFMAN HONORABLE MARK KELLER 15 HONORABLE BERNARD O'NEILL HONORABLE TINA PICKETT 16 HONORABLE KATHY RAPP HONORABLE TIMOTHY SOLOBAY 17 HONORABLE TOM YEWCIC 18 ALSO PRESENT: DIANE W. HAIN, MAJORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 19 KERRY GOLDEN, MINORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DAVE CALLEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/COMMERCE COMMITTEE 20 JAY HOWES, DIRECTOR OF POLICY DEVELOPMENT ALYCIA LAURETI, RESEARCH ANALYST 21 22 JO NELL SNIDER, REPORTER 23 NOTARY PUBLIC 24 Jo Nell Snider Court Reporting Service 25 P. O. Box 202 East Freedom, PA 16637 2 1 I N D E X 2 TESTIFIERS: PAGE 3 The Pennsylvania State University 4 Robert D. Steele, PhD 8 Dean, College of Agricultural Sciences 5 PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 6 Hon. Dennis M. Wolff 28 Secretary of Agriculture 7 W. B. SAUL HIGH SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES 8 Wendy Shapiro, Principal 44 9 FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA Tiffany Grove, State President 59 10 PENNSYLVANIA VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 11 David R. Wolfgang, VMD 66 12 PENNSYLVANIA FARM BUREAU Gary Swan, Director of Governmental Affairs 13 and Communications 75 14 PENN AG INDUSTRIES Christian Herr, Assistant Vice President 77 15 PENNSYLVANIA FARMERS UNION 16 Larry Breech, President 79 17 PENNSYLVANIA STATE GRANGE 80 Betsy Huber, President 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Once again, good morning. My name 2 is Representative Mike Hanna. I have the honor of 3 representing the 76th District which is all of Clinton 4 County and a portion of Centre County. I also have the 5 honor of chairing the House Ag Committee, and I'm very 6 pleased to have today's hearing, and it's a joint hearing 7 with the House Education Committee. I'm very pleased to 8 have the hearing here and I'm very pleased that Penn State 9 invited us to participate during Ag Progress Days. 10 I am going to ask Chairman Art Hershey for a few 11 comments, but first, I just want to mention that both 12 Chairman James Roebuck and Chairman Jess Stairs of the 13 House Education Committee asked me to pass along their 14 thanks as well to Penn State. They were unable to be here 15 today because of a prior commitment for another conference, 16 but they are co-chairing or co-hosting this meeting here 17 today. 18 So with that I'm going to ask Chairman Hershey for a 19 few opening comments, and Chairman Hershey? 20 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Thank you Mike. It's a pleasure 21 again to come to Rock Springs to the ag demonstrations and 22 always look forward to having our meeting here. I want to 23 say for you folks that maybe haven't ever took one of the 24 farm tours you can learn a lot by going over there to that 25 building across the way, sign up for a tour, they'll show 4 1 you all different ways of farming and things that work and 2 things that don't work. They'll show you plots that they 3 try to grow vegetables or grain without herbicides and 4 you'll see how much moisture that will take, they'll show 5 you minimum tillage, no till and new ways of growing apples 6 on trellises. I just find it exciting to see that and if 7 you don't go visit that and take that little tour you'll 8 never really know what new things are going on. So welcome 9 here today and have a great time. 10 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Chairman Hershey. Just a 11 couple quick ground rules. We are going to be very pressed 12 for time. We have a very full agenda so we're going to try 13 and keep very close to the allotted time for each 14 presenter. 15 The hearing will be conducted with each presenter 16 being given an opportunity to present their testimony 17 followed by questions from the panel up front. I apologize 18 that we're not able to take any questions or interaction 19 with those in the audience, but I can assure you that we 20 are interested in your thoughts if you would like to speak 21 to us any of us individually I'll make sure that myself or 22 a staff member is available to talk with you after the 23 hearing, but because of our need to stay on schedule we're 24 going to ask everybody to allow our presenters to present 25 their testimony, allow the panel at the front to ask the 5 1 questions, and I am going to ask all our panel members at 2 the front to limit their questions so that we can be sure 3 to stay on schedule. And let me just say that the reason 4 for us to desperately stay on schedule is that everybody 5 here I believe is very interested in attending the luncheon 6 and we have been advised that because it is full and 7 because it's going to be difficult to get the luncheon done 8 on time we can't be late if we want to attend the luncheon 9 so we will keep on schedule. 10 And with that, what I'll like to do now is allow each 11 of our members at the front table to introduce themselves 12 and if I could I'd like to start on my far left with 13 Representative Bob Bastian. Bob? 14 REPRESENTATIVE BASTIAN: Mike, Bob Bastian, Somerset, 15 part of Bedford County, member of the Ag Committee and the 16 Education Committee. 17 REPRESENTATIVE CURRY: Lawrence Curry, Montgomery 18 County, member of the Education Committee. 19 REPRESENTATIVE DENLINGER: Good morning. Gordon 20 Denlinger representing eastern Lancaster County, and member 21 of the Ag Committee. 22 REPRESENTATIVE KESSLER: Dave Kessler representing 23 the 130th district which is southern Berks County. 24 REPRESENTATIVE BROOKS: Good morning. Michele Brooks 25 representing portions of Mercer, Warren and Crawford 6 1 County. I also serve on the Ag Committee. 2 REPRESENTATIVE RAPP: Representative Kathy Rapp, I 3 represent the 65th District of Warren, Forest and 4 4 townships in McKean County. I have served on the 5 Agricultural Committee and I'm here today with the 6 Education Committee. 7 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Good morning again, I'm state rep 8 Art Hershey from Chester County and I am minority chair of 9 the Ag Committee. 10 DIANE HAIN: Diane Hain, Executive Director of the 11 Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. 12 REPRESENTATIVE CARROLL: I'm Mike Carroll, I 13 represent portions of Luzerne and Monroe counties and I'm a 14 member of both the Ag Committee and the Education 15 Committee. 16 REPRESENTATIVE PICKETT: Representative Tina Pickett, 17 I have Bradford County which is the number 2 dairy county 18 in the state, Sullivan and Susquehanna counties, and I'm a 19 member of the Ag Committee. 20 REPRESENTATIVE KAUFFMAN: Rob Kauffman from the 89th 21 District in northern Franklin and western Cumberland 22 counties and I'm on the Agricultural Committee. 23 REPRESENTATIVE SOLOBAY: Tim Solobay from Washington 24 County, I represent the 48th District, and I am also on the 25 Ag Committee and the Veterans Affairs Emergency 7 1 Preparedness Committee that's also visiting here today. 2 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: Good morning, Mark Keller, 3 I'm with the 86th District which encompasses all of Perry 4 County and parts of Franklin County. 5 DAVE CALLEN: My name is Dave Callen, I am chief of 6 staff to Representative Pete Daley, the chairman of the 7 Commerce Committee and member of the Ag Committee who will 8 be joining us soon. 9 CHAIRMAN HANNA: And if I can go back to my left I 10 believe we have 2 additional members joined us, Bernie, you 11 want to introduce yourself? 12 REPRESENTATIVE O'NEILL: Thank you Mr. Chairman, I'm 13 State Representative Bernie O'Neill from the 29th District 14 in the heart of Bucks County. 15 REPRESENTATIVE FLECK: Representative Mike Fleck from 16 Blair, Huntingdon and Mifflin counties. I believe we're 17 about half a mile from my county line, so... 18 CHAIRMAN HANNA: I certainly appreciate the great 19 attendance by both the members of the Ag Committee and by 20 the Education Committee. I think that demonstrates to our 21 audience and to our presenters the keen interest that we 22 have in ag education issues. 23 So having said that and having pointed out our need 24 to stay on time I'm going to actually get us started off a 25 little bit ahead of schedule and I'd like to introduce our 8 1 first presenter from the Pennsylvania State University, 2 Dean Robert D. Steele, Dean of the College of Agricultural 3 Sciences. Dean Steele? Let me again thank you Dean Steele 4 for inviting us to be here today and being the host for our 5 events, and congratulate you on a very successful Ag 6 Progress Days.