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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
7 DEAN ROBERT D. STEELE: Thank you Chairman Hanna and
8 Chairman Hershey for the opportunity to speak with you
9 today at this hearing. I would like to begin by welcoming
10 you and the other members of both committees to Penn
11 State's Ag Progress Days here in Happy Valley. We're
12 delighted to have the opportunity to once again host you at
13 the Commonwealth's premier summertime agricultural event.
14 We expect that nearly 50,000 people will have attended this
15 year's event to interact with over 400 exhibitors and to
16 take in the exhibits. The activities presented by the
17 College of Agricultural Sciences here showcase our programs
18 in research and extension and in education supporting the
19 entire food and fiber sector of Pennsylvania. The student
20 is at the very core of each of these programs; hence, it is
21 fitting that you hold this hearing on agricultural
22 education at this event. Being mindful of the time
23 constraints this hearing is under I will keep my comments
24 brief to insure that all speakers will be heard within the
25 time allotted for this hearing.
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1 Anticipating that the speakers to follow will be
2 focusing on assorted specific aspects of agricultural
3 education I would like to begin by taking a somewhat
4 broader view, given that we are currently in the midst of
5 defining the 2007 Farm Bill and that I have taken a
6 leadership role nationally within the land grant system in
7 defining the research, education and extension title of
8 this bill. The farm bill, which of course, has been with
9 us since the great depression is a book with many chapters,
10 however rarely do the national or state media get beyond
11 the first chapter, i.e., the commodity programs. Much
12 later in the book is a chapter on agricultural research,
13 extension and education which sets national priority and
14 policy and authorizes public funding for most all programs
15 in land grant colleges dealing with agricultural education
16 in its broadest definition.
17 Farm bill language establishes what I'd like to call
18 a social contract that affirms that it is in the public
19 good to authorize and provide public finding for
20 agricultural research and extension and education programs,
21 that is, everyone benefits from these programs, not just a
22 few. Historically, funding for agricultural education
23 programs has been the primary responsibility of each of the
24 states in cooperation with the universities through a blend
25 of state dollars and tuition dollars to support
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1 agricultural education programs.
2 It is no secret that Penn State's resident
3 undergraduate tuition is the highest of any public
4 university in the nation, mainly as a result of lower state
5 funding for ag education relative to other states in the
6 United States. Therefore, it is fitting that we hold
7 hearings such as these to continue the dialogue on how best
8 to meet the mutual obligation of providing an educated
9 workforce for the Commonwealth's multi-billion dollar food
10 and fiber sector. It also is very appropriate to have this
11 dialog such that our legislative body can assure that sound
12 and effective policy is developed in Pennsylvania under
13 that federal farm bill policy in order to facilitate the
14 effective and efficient offering of these curricula
15 throughout the Commonwealth. Of the more than 150 4 year
16 institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania only the
17 College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State offers the
18 complete spectrum of academic programs in agricultural
19 education that cover this entire food and fiber work force
20 sector.
21 To illustrate the importance of integrating our
22 agricultural education programs into our research and
23 extension activities I would like to use two recent and
24 ongoing examples that have been given wide public
25 attention. The first is what has come to be called the
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1 colony collapse disorder which has been decimating
2 commercial beekeeping operations across the country. As
3 you are likely aware, it was discovered in Pennsylvania in
4 November of 2006 by a commercial beekeeper who notified
5 Penn State Cooperative Extension about his dilemma. Penn
6 State scientists and extension personnel quickly mobilized
7 and partnered with federal and state agencies as well as
8 other universities and the private sector to get a
9 scientific understanding of this colony collapse. It is
10 difficult to intervene in anything until one first has a
11 good understanding of what it is that is happening.
12 Through Penn State's leadership and the tireless
13 efforts of many individuals across the country we are
14 slowly making headway at gaining this scientific
15 understanding. This, of course has been given huge
16 attention by the national, state and local media given it's
17 importance, economic importance to agriculture. What has
18 been given far less attention, however, is that students
19 have been placed at the epicenter of these investigations.
20 We are striving very hard to solve a problem today and a
21 very critical problem that it is, but more importantly we
22 are educating and training that next generation workforce.
23 Most assuredly there will be similar issues in years ahead
24 that are at equal or even greater economic importance to
25 agriculture and it is vital that we have the work force
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1 there and prepared to deal with them. Fortunately, we had
2 a trained and prepared work force at Penn State and
3 elsewhere to deal with colony collapse, but the question is
4 with us, will that agricultural work force be there
5 tomorrow? The only way to assure this is to make certain
6 that we have academic programs in place that are attractive
7 to the best and brightest of our young people. It is in
8 the public good far more than in the private good that we
9 do so. Recall just a few years ago with our anthrax
10 terrorist episode that caught us unprepared in having
11 sufficient scientists and workers available who could deal
12 with it. A number of people, including some Penn Staters,
13 were called out of retirement to help.
14 My second example deals with the general area of
15 bio-based energy, the theme of this year's Ag Progress
16 Days. As with colony collapse disorder, it is difficult to
17 pick up a newspaper or magazine today without seeing an
18 article dealing with the importance of incorporating
19 bio-based renewable resources into our energy portfolio.
20 This is also a critical topic being discussed within the
21 Farm Bill legislation as well as with the Energy Bill.
22 Numerous programs have appeared, such as the 25 by 25
23 program to name just 1, to build momentem around this key
24 issue. The ability to make ethanol from corn has been with
25 us for generations. Growing up among the hills and hollows
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1 of southwestern Pennsylvania, I know firsthand this to be
2 true. Rather than being called a bio-based energy source
3 it was usually just called moonshine generations ago, but
4 we have come a long way in advancing the science and
5 grappling with the economics. But a question I would ask
6 is, are we preparing the agricultural work force in
7 Pennsylvania for this initiative that will be sufficient
8 for the decades to come?
9 Just like the moonshiners of yesterday, the science
10 of today will seem very crude and rudimentary years down
11 the road as this industry matures to near what the
12 expectations are. Questions such as, which feed stocks are
13 best suited for Pennsylvania? What agronomic practices
14 need to be created or adjusted to maximize biomass output
15 and protect our environment? What fuels will we actually
16 be producing in the years ahead?
17 And most importantly, are our young people being
18 adequately prepared in secondary schools to move into jobs
19 and careers for this industry? Are there sound curricula
20 in place to educate these students and their teachers? At
21 best, maybe some, but I think we would all agree that there
22 needs to be much more done to prepare the teachers and give
23 them the tools to do their jobs.
24 Currently, we are far better at asking the questions
25 than we are at answering them. We need to be working
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1 together in the Commonwealth to get at these important
2 agricultural education questions. And who knows what the
3 questions are that haven't yet been thought of?
4 With my extensive involvement with the land grant
5 system across the United States over the last 30 odd years
6 I have become convinced that neither Iowa, Wisconsin,
7 Indiana, Ohio nor anywhere else in the United States is
8 going to be placing high priority or any priority on
9 preparing Pennsylvania's work force in this or any other
10 priority area. It will be up to us to do this for the
11 public good of the citizens and future work force of
12 Pennsylvania.
13 No one else will do it for us, and we need to
14 continue to work together to insure that the young people
15 of Pennsylvania find hope, find opportunity, employment and
16 rewarding careers in these and other food and fiber areas.
17 If and when they do, they will stay in Pennsylvania. If
18 not, they will leave and pursue these opportunities
19 elsewhere.
20 In closing, I thank you again for the opportunity to
21 participate in this important hearing. I look forward to
22 continued and ongoing productive dialogue with each of you.
23 Enjoy your time at Ag Progress Days. Thank you Mr.
24 Chairman.
25 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Dean Steele, and we do
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1 have a few questions for you. Let me first tell you that
2 we appreciate your thoughtful and informing presentation.
3 Let me start by asking you, I am sure you are aware
4 that I'm sure Penn State as well as many of us at this head
5 table were a little disappointed with this year's state
6 budget and funding, particularly for the line items for ag
7 research and ag extension. Certainly, the Govenor's
8 proposal was not what we felt we needed for those line
9 items and it's a small increase that we were able to secure
10 in the legislative arena still doesn't put us in a position
11 that I think we needed to be. Can you describe for us what
12 impact that will have on ag education at the university?
13 DEAN STEELE: Well, as you know, we're very
14 appreciative of the support that we get and continue to get
15 here at Penn State, but when there's not enough money to
16 balance the budget by the end of the year and it's my job
17 to do that just like it is with anybody in any business,
18 that our programs will be impacted. Our challenge will be
19 to minimize the impact on our education programs, on our
20 research and extension programs. Quite frankly, for this
21 year given this budget our impact on our education program
22 will probably be the least of the 3, our research and
23 extension will be effected much more dramatically since we
24 cannot offset that shortfall with tuition like we can on
25 our education program. So I anticipate that over this next
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1 year that the impact on our educational program will be
2 less than what it is on research and extension.
3 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you. Let me just invite you
4 and others at Penn State to work with the committee as I
5 think we should start much earlier in our efforts to try
6 and insure that we do secure additional funding for all the
7 ag line items in the upcoming budget for the following
8 year. I will turn it over to Chairman Hershey, any
9 questions?
10 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Yes, if I may. Thank you Chairman
11 Mike. I want to thank Dean Steele for coming and for all
12 the great work they do up there and also wanted to mention
13 I always look forward to the research tour you provide.
14 That brings us up-to-date on what's going on.
15 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Chairman Hershey.
16 Questions on my right? Representative Keller.
17 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
18 Thank you Dean Steele for your testimony. I noticed in
19 your testimony that you alluded to the fact on the teachers
20 end, in your perspective do you feel that the teachers and
21 the professors have the knowledge to instruct the required
22 information that is needed for a continuation of the
23 process of getting that information out to the agricultural
24 community and the education community?
25 DEAN STEELE: I certainly feel they have the
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1 knowledge, it is a very high caliber pool of students that
2 we attract to our programs in agricultural education.
3 There's certainly the interest out there not only in Penn
4 State but really across the Commonwealth. Could we be
5 doing a better job? Absolutely we can. In the case of the
6 land grant system, Penn State is really one of the few land
7 grants left in the east and particularly the northeast,
8 that maintains the array of programs that we do. So I
9 think we feel very proud of the programs we offer and the
10 caliber of student being attracted to this program but we
11 cannot let down our efforts at working to continue to
12 recruit the high caliber student. These students are
13 smart. They go with where the opportunity is or where they
14 see the opportunity as being. And that's our challenge, to
15 make sure that opportunity is there for the best and
16 brightest of our young people.
17 REPRESENTATIVE KELLER: Thank you.
18 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Solobay?
19 REPRESENTATIVE SOLOBAY: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
20 Thank you Dean Steele. We broached this a little bit
21 yesterday whenever you and I had a chance to talk. With
22 your third party partnerships under the research side of
23 things is there that opportunity do you think to try to get
24 them to kind of help pick up a little bit of the shortfall
25 that unfortunately, this year's budget did fall on the
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1 research side so that maybe on the extension side of the
2 issue we have out in the southwest with especially our
3 horticulture folks may be able to kind of balance that and
4 be able to still be able to meet the needs that you want to
5 try to cover? Is there that concern with your partners?
6 DEAN STEELE: At the federal level the concern always
7 is duplication of programs. Why would we do something in
8 Pennsylvania if it's being duplicated in New York, New
9 Jersey, West Virginia and Ohio? So we work very, very
10 closely with our partners adjacent to our borders to try,
11 none of us have enough money to duplicate programs. We're
12 trying to make sure we have the resources to cover the
13 program needs. So more and more frequently in recent years
14 we are finding multistate intrastate collaborations just as
15 we are within Pennsylvania in doing multicounty intercounty
16 collaborations. So I also know Erie County is a long way
17 from Washington County, and so distance does make a
18 difference.
19 REPRESENTATIVE SOLOBAY: Back on the research aspect
20 of it, other than educational institutions is there also
21 the industry, do they get involved with you under the
22 research side that can maybe help pick up a little bit of
23 that so we don't step backwards on the research side of
24 things?
25 DEAN STEELE: We enjoy a very active partnership with
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1 our industrial partners in the food and fiber sector. Just
2 yesterday we have a group of federal staff of our
3 congressional delegation here at Ag Progress Days, they
4 stopped at our Biglerville station in Adams County to visit
5 firsthand that partnership with the tree fruit, primarily
6 apple industry down there. And the answer absolutely is
7 yes.
8 REPRESENTATIVE SOLOBAY: Thank you.
9 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Anyone else on my right? On my left
10 let me start by having Representative Hickernell introduce
11 himself. He's joined us since the hearing started.
12 REPRESENTATIVE HICKERNELL: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
13 I'm David Hickernell representing Lancaster and Dauphin
14 counties.
15 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you. And I guess
16 Representative Rapp, you have a question?
17 REPRESENTATIVE RAPP: Thank you Mr. Chairman. And
18 thank you Dean Steele for being here. Your testimony was
19 very informative. I wanted to ask you a question since you
20 included in your testimony about the ethanol from corn.
21 And representing Warren, Forest and McKean I am hearing a
22 lot of complaints about the price of corn for my beef
23 farmers and how that has had an impact on them. And I'm,
24 on the other hand, I am very excited because I know that
25 you now have a school of forestry at Penn State, I was
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1 pleased to tour that last year and knowing that the
2 Allegheny National Forest lies mostly in my district, are
3 you also doing research regarding bio-woody mass for
4 energy, and what other areas are you looking at as far as
5 research and alternative energy?
6 DEAN STEELE: Thank you. That's a very good
7 question, and when we talked work force in Pennsylvania it,
8 this is one person talking here, but the answer is not in
9 corn, it is in what we call cellulosic biomass, getting
10 people to understand that the kernel of corn, if you are
11 growing that corn you are thrilled with the price, but if
12 you are trying to feed it to animals you are not so
13 thrilled. And of course, now we're beginning to see the
14 impact of that even at the supermarket aisle.
15 So Pennsylvania is a net importer of corn. We are an
16 agricultural state, we import that grain, so our role in
17 the future I believe in the shorter run is around
18 cellulosic biomass and 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now who
19 knows, who knows what it will be? But the future will not
20 be in corn or feed grain or food grain for us in
21 Pennsylvania, one person's opinion.
22 REPRESENTATIVE RAPP: Thank you.
23 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you. Representative
24 Denlinger?
25 REPRESENTATIVE DENLINGER: Thank you Mr. Chairman and
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1 thank you Dean Steele for your testimony. I'm curious
2 about the inflow of young people into the college and what
3 their backgrounds might be. Do you find sort of a trend
4 away from freshman students matriculating who do not have
5 handson farm experience toward maybe folks who come out of
6 a family where the ag industry was more prevalent?
7 DEAN STEELE: That's true for Pennsylvania and that's
8 true for virtually every state in the United States. First
9 of all, there are fewer farms around the nation so it's
10 logical that there would be fewer farm kids coming into our
11 programs, but more and more kids who come from not the
12 rural farmstead, many from rural areas but increasingly
13 from urban areas coming in. I view that as a good thing
14 because these smart young people from an urban area they're
15 viewing opportunity there to get an education, to get a job
16 and a rewarding career. But the direct answer to your
17 question is yes, there are fewer kids coming into our
18 program and every other land grant program in the United
19 States from the rural farm family.
20 REPRESENTATIVE DENLINGER: Secondly, I am wondering
21 with the interest in bio-fuel particularly among young
22 people these days are you seeing a lot of new enrollments
23 from the kids who just are fired up about alternative
24 energy sources, is that a big picture in the enrollment
25 process?
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1 DEAN STEELE: That's certainly a major priority at
2 Penn State as well as in the college of agricultural
3 sciences. It's too soon to tell whether there's an
4 enrollment shift because this is a rather new venture for
5 us here at Penn State and elsewhere. The interest is
6 certainly there and I predict that we'll see that being
7 translated into more students coming into the biology, the
8 molecular biology of bio-fuels, the economics of it, the
9 business aspect of it, the extension education aspect of
10 it, but it's really too soon to tell. I think it will take
11 a few more years before we start seeing that shift.
12 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Brooks?
13 REPRESENTATIVE BROOKS: Thank you Dean Steele for
14 being here, your testimony was very interesting. Could you
15 touch a little more on the bee colony collapse and with the
16 enormous impact that that does have on the agricultural
17 industry if it continues can you touch a little more on
18 what you are doing, what your meetings are consisting of
19 and the information that you have found so far?
20 DEAN STEELE: Well, I'm going to speak in general
21 terms here because first of all I am not an entomologist
22 but secondly and more importantly, this is work that is
23 very active ongoing work and we need to make sure before we
24 give an answer that is out there for the public that we are
25 confident it's the right answer. So it's probably, most of
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1 you are familiar with the the TV show CSI. That's what's
2 going on right now in the bee industry, there's a CSI
3 investigation to understand the scientific, the biological,
4 the chemical basis of this colony collapse. And then once
5 we have that understanding of what's going on then we feel
6 we can have intervention programs to deal with it.
7 The scientific side of that right now is going
8 primarily in 2 directions. One, the evidence is leading us
9 in a direction of perhaps is a viral pathogen involved
10 there and the other evidence going on a direction is that
11 there might may be a chemical basis, but we're exploring
12 that very actively. And what's most interesting now we are
13 pulling in scientists from non land grant universities,
14 chemists from Columbia University and other universities
15 around the United States, so it truly is a multi multi
16 disciplinary front that's coming at this issue. But the
17 reason we're able to address it, though, is because we had
18 the expertise here at the very, very beginning to even know
19 that it was occurring.
20 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Kessler?
21 REPRESENTATIVE KESSLER: Thank you for your
22 testimony. I represent a portion of Berks County where
23 Berks County we have preserved approximately 50,000 acres
24 of farmland, we're one of the leaders in the country, Berks
25 County. And I live in Oley Township, and my neighbors are
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1 dairy farmers. And I have spoke to a lot of them and the
2 representative had brought up the issue as far as the dairy
3 farmer that does not have enough land to produce enough
4 corn to feed his cows, again, he's hurt by the prices and
5 I'm certainly glad to hear what your opinion that corn is
6 not the final answer. What about algae? Is there any
7 research being done on algae now by Penn State and is there
8 any research that's going to be done in the future from
9 algae?
10 DEAN STEELE: There is substantial research being
11 done on algae and many, many other biological potential
12 fuel stocks. There's no work that I'm aware of and I think
13 I'm aware of the work going on in our college specifically
14 around algae, but there is here in Penn State and
15 elsewhere. But that's a very good example of a feed stock,
16 a non traditional feed stock, not corn, that we are now
17 thinking of and we're exploring, does the science work,
18 will the economics follow once we know the science will
19 work? And then there's a whole multitude of other feed
20 stocks, most being non traditional novel like algae that we
21 haven't even thought of yet. And I would predict that 50
22 years from now we're going to look back and chuckle at how
23 crude this industry was in the year 2007.
24 REPRESENTATIVE KESSLER: Thank you.
25 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative O'Neill?
25
1 REPRESENTATIVE O'NEILL: Thank you Mr. Chairman, and
2 thank you Dr. Steele for being here today. Just real quick
3 to follow-up on Representative Denlinger's questions. You
4 are saying you have less students from the rural areas and
5 more from the suburban and urban areas. Can you tell us
6 how your student enrollment actually is, is it lower than
7 it used to be, higher, staying consistent, any kind of
8 pattern?
9 DEAN STEELE: Our enrollment is increasing. We have
10 had increasing enrollment in our college for the last 3
11 years. We are anticipating in 2 weeks to see yet again an
12 increased size of our freshman class here at University
13 Park, but more importantly, at our another campuses across
14 the Commonwealth. So it is a very bright time right now
15 for recruiting students into our programs. I think the
16 excitement is there around the nature of the programs but
17 this I find is more important to the parent perhaps than it
18 is to the student, but there is virtual 100% employment for
19 these students that just graduated in May. The 3 programs
20 that are enjoying very substantial enrollment growth right
21 now are the animal sciences, Pennsylvania is an animal ag
22 state, agribusiness and food science, not surprising given
23 the nature of the food and fiber sector in Pennsylvania.
24 But the direct answer is yes, our enrollment is
25 growing. That's not the case throughout the United States.
26
1 Across the United States food science enrollment is
2 dropping, but it is growing. I believe that with the
3 support of the Commonwealth and the legislature that new
4 food science and creamery building is having a lot to do
5 with our ability to recruit more students into the exciting
6 food sector of Pennsylvania.
7 REPRESENTATIVE O'NEILL: That leads to my last
8 question to follow-up that. Does your school have an
9 extensive outreach program to get into our public and
10 private school systems in the state to introduce students
11 to the world of ag education?
12 DEAN STEELE: We are there in a formal way with our
13 ag education undergraduate major and having students in
14 there as student teachers, we are in there in what some
15 might call a less formal way with our county based
16 cooperative extension where we're in each of the 67
17 counties of Pennsylvania and many of our extension
18 educators are in the classroom in the local school. So
19 yes, we're in there in a formal way and we're in there in a
20 less formal way. And I would add finally, that many of our
21 supporters or stakeholders, whether it's the apple industry
22 or the dairy industry are also going into schools around
23 the state to help these students understand that there is
24 opportunity in the food and fiber sector programs that we
25 offer.
27
1 REPRESENTATIVE O'NEILL: Thank you.
2 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Dean Steele. That's been
3 very helpful and very informative. We certainly again want
4 to again thank you for being here today and providing us
5 with your testimony and again, thank you for the
6 hospitality of Penn State here at the ag progress days.
7 DEAN STEELE: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
8 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Our next presenter is the Secretary
9 of Agriculture, the Honorable Dennis M. Wolff and while
10 Dennis is finding his seat and getting organized, I'm going
11 to turn to my right and ask our newest member to join us,
12 Representative Scott Conklin, to introduce himself. Could
13 you pass him a microphone?
14 REPRESENTATIVE CONKLIN: Thank you Mr. Chairman. As
15 always, it's a pleasure to be here with everybody here and
16 it's nice to have the folks from not only Penn State but
17 the Secretary and the rest of the folks come in and talk a
18 little bit about what's important not only in my district,
19 the 77th District but important to the state. Thank you.
20 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Scott, and I understand we
21 have Representative Yewcic has now joined us. How about
22 passing a microphone to Tom so he can introduce himself?
23 REPRESENTATIVE YEWCIC: Hello, I am Representative
24 Yewcic representing Cambria and Somerset County.
25 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Welcome Tom. Welcome Secretary
28
1 Wolff. We certainly appreciate your being here, we are
2 looking forward to your testimony. Please proceed.
3 SECRETARY WOLFF: Good morning, and thank you
4 Chairman Hanna, Chairman Hershey, members of the House and
5 Rural Affairs Committee as well as the Education Committee.
6 I have written testimony that I submitted and I'm not going
7 to read that, I am just going to make some remarks from
8 that testimony and then certainly allow plenty of time for
9 questions that you may have.
10 First I want to thank you for your support, the great
11 support that Pennsylvania agriculture gets from this
12 committee. As I mentioned this morning in an earlier
13 meeting, sometimes we take for granted all the great
14 programs we have here whether it's helping to underwrite
15 crop insurance, whether it's the dollars for farm land
16 preservation, whether it's the dollars for our county
17 fairs, Farm Show, animal health, and the list goes on and
18 on. When I have the chance of meeting with my counterparts
19 in different states from across the country they really
20 envy Pennsylvania and the great support that we have from
21 our legislature; and the results are that we have a better
22 agricultural economy because of that.
23 I first would like to say also that we have a great
24 working relationship with the Department of Education. We
25 work with Secretary Zahorchak on a regular basis on issues.
29
1 A couple of the specific issues recently have been in
2 working through the Chapter 339 issue as it related to the
3 challenges there with the 360 hour requirement for the
4 supervised ag experiences, and I think we made some
5 subsbantial progress there, we certainly had a great input
6 from many people on that and Secretary Zahorchak was very
7 open to those suggestions and I think some good things will
8 come from those meetings.
9 The other most recently is a national program that
10 we're going to have in Pennsylvania in participating with
11 the Department of Education, it's called Lead the Way, and
12 that will allow Pennsylvania teachers in particular the
13 opportunity to access some good information with rigorous
14 science standards and it's actually kind of an industry
15 driven program that is a new program and we're excited
16 about being able to continue to work with the Department of
17 Education on this new program.
18 I know as part of the handout a couple, one of the
19 sheets specifically looked at some of the accomplishments
20 that the department has been able to achieve. Those
21 accomplishments have certainly been the result of the
22 support of the committee that's before me as well as the
23 Department of Education, programs like Marketplace for the
24 Mind which averages around 10,000 users every month. That
25 would be teachers throughout Pennsylvania that are
30
1 accessing good accurate information about agriculture and
2 incorporating it into their curriculum. That's something
3 that we're very proud of.
4 Also the vet assistant program where we started this
5 program in working with Dauphin County Vocational Technical
6 School or I should say Dauphin County Technical School in
7 working with us in this accredited program. It's the first
8 time that a program like this has been accredited, and as
9 to the good work and our relationship with the Pennsylvania
10 Veterinary Medical Association in being able to develop
11 this accreditation that we're able to use, and this is
12 being looked at as a national program. We have have had
13 some recent meetings at the national level where it is
14 being considered as possibly a program that could spread
15 across the United States where it helps deal with the
16 shortage of veterinarians in making technical assistance
17 available.
18 Of course, we have programs like the urban ag camp
19 every summer where we bring at risk children into
20 Harrisburg from Harrisburg and surrounding counties to a
21 farm and show them what production agriculture is all
22 about.
23 We have the Learning Stations at the Farm Show that
24 we have developed in the last 4 years where I think we're
25 up to 18 stations that are manned all the time so that we
31
1 can help people understand the diversity of agriculture and
2 how important it is in Pennsylvania.
3 We have Farm City Day that we hold at the Keystone
4 International Livestock Exposition where we have 1800
5 children in there during the day to tour the Farm Show
6 Complex and see agriculture, the Traveling Milk Can,
7 another example, and Ag and Rural Youth grant program where
8 we give $110,000 a year out to FFA and 4-H organizations to
9 enhance agriculture.
10 So we're certainly pleased with and proud with some
11 of those initiatives. Do we need to do more? Of course we
12 do. We're not short on ideas and short on creative minds
13 around the department so we are also looking at those
14 programs on how we may be able to improve them as well as
15 new programs that we may be able to put in place.
16 Agricultural science, agriculture education over the
17 years has focused on a number of different areas.
18 Certainly food production has been at the heart of much of
19 that research and much of that education, agri business is
20 always very important as it relates to plant sciences, new
21 genetics that are being created and developed.
22 Pennsylvania has a huge food processing industry here
23 in Pennsylvania, that's certainly part of agri business and
24 an important part of agriculture and for example, it isn't
25 by accident that companies like Giorgio Mushrooms, Land of
32
1 Lakes, Welches Grape Juice, even Hershey Foods, it's not an
2 accident that they are located here in Pennsylvania. They
3 are here because agriculture is here, and they're an
4 important part of agri business here for our state.
5 One of the areas that we think is a new frontier that
6 we're really excited about is the Governor's PennSecurity
7 Initiative. It is about renewable energy, and it is about
8 beginning a discussion where farmers have traditionally
9 grown food and fiber for people of Pennsylvania, the United
10 States and actually exported a substantial amount of that
11 throughout the world and increasing that to include fuel.
12 And that is something that we think that we're a little bit
13 behind the 8 ball there, we're excited about becoming part
14 of that. We think it's essential and critical in terms of
15 doing some catchup work there.
16 So with the PennSecurity Initiative we are looking at
17 a very aggressive goal of replacing the oil that
18 Pennsylvania imports from the Persian Gulf which will total
19 about 1 billion gallons by the year 2017. There's a plan
20 and a program in place for that. Some of the triggers
21 involved with that mandate would be that as we increase
22 production of biodiesels here in Pennsylvania and we
23 increase production of ethanol those levels and
24 requirements as to how much we use would increase. Now we
25 have about 30, 40 million gallons of biodiesel being
33
1 produced in Pennsylvania every year with several more
2 plants on the radar screen and we're also looking forward
3 to some ethanol plants that are either under construction
4 or soon will be under construction here in Pennsylvania to
5 start producing ethanol here.
6 What does this mean in terms of new career
7 opportunities for the students in the next generation?
8 It's everything from creating new varieties of corn that
9 will be effective and more efficient in producing instead
10 of 2.7 gallons of ethanol per bushel, 3.3 gallons of
11 ethanol per bushel. There's a lot of research being done.
12 Penn State has done a wonderful job on that here in
13 terms of being focused on that research, whether it's
14 soybeans producing more biodiesels or ethanol producing, or
15 corn producing ethanol and or cellulosic ethanol that I'll
16 talk about in a moment.
17 But whether it's how we can improve the use of the
18 byproduct of using corn into ethanol which has been a dried
19 distiller's grain and what a valuable food commodity that
20 is for our livestock industry and how we can make some
21 changes and further process that so that we can even take
22 more advantage of that high value feed additive. It is a
23 feed that we use in livestock production but unfortunately,
24 it is very high in acid content and we have to limit the
25 amount we give to livestock, so I know that there's
34
1 research being done to see how we may be able to improve
2 that use.
3 Just simply improving the yields on corn and
4 soybeans, we know the history has been that every year we
5 are able to increase corn yields by 2 bushels per acre,
6 that has been the history, and that comes from good science
7 and the dedication of many people. Once again, Penn State
8 developing cellulosic ethanol is the frontier that I think
9 everyone is so excited about where farmers for the first
10 time would be able to specifically grow a fuel crop instead
11 of it being a crop that is used for food and fuel both.
12 New feed stocks for that, how would you handle those
13 feed stocks? The huge hardwood industry we have in
14 Pennsylvania, the very large forested part of Pennsylvania
15 that could be the source of those feed stocks, the highly
16 environmentally sensitive in terms of highly erodible
17 ground in northern Pennsylvania that could grow switch
18 grass. I think the opportunities are endless.
19 Or maybe the students would work on the specific, and
20 the next generation would deal with issues as to how we
21 could improve the very good no till equipment and no till
22 portion of farming that we have today, so that we can even
23 have less impact on the environment from our farming
24 practices, or develop methane digesters for smaller farms
25 rather than just larger farms.
35
1 So when you start looking at the menu of
2 opportunities and the career potential for what, bringing
3 energy to the discussion of agriculture it is almost
4 countless and it is certainly a very exciting frontier but
5 we are looking forward to being part of and we want to make
6 sure that we are ready and we are a part of that.
7 So once again, I want to thank you committees for all
8 of your support for Pennsylvania agriculture, all the good
9 things that you do, all of the great programs that we have
10 here that are the result of the good work you do in
11 recognizing how important it is to support our number 1
12 industry here in Pennsylvania, and that's agriculture. So
13 with that I'll be glad to take some questions.
14 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Secretary Wolff. Very
15 informative presentation and we appreciate that. Let me
16 start on the left this time and I'd like to start with
17 members who did not have an opportunity to ask a question
18 last time, is there any? Representative Bastian?
19 REPRESENTATIVE BASTIAN: Thank you Mike, and thank
20 you Mr. Secretary. Just a thumbnail sketch, if you could,
21 on your personal involvement and the department of
22 agriculture's involvement in the dairy policy on the
23 national level. I think it was a plus for what
24 Pennsylvania did there, just give us a couple minutes to
25 talk about it.
36
1 SECRETARY WOLFF: Yes. We certainly have been very
2 involved in the farm bill. We did listening sessions
3 starting about 18 months ago where we were in every corner
4 of the state getting input from our farmers. A lot of the
5 issues last year focused on the dairy industry, being we
6 had record low prices and the dairy industry was really in
7 financial difficulty. We were able to from that
8 information make some good suggestions as to how we think
9 the federal dairy policy could be changed. We have, we're
10 certainly pleased with and happy to see that Congressman
11 Holten introduced legislation in the house as well as
12 Senator Specter and Senator Casey introduced like
13 legislation in the Senate that will be part of the farm
14 bill discussion as we move forward.
15 It's basically taking a look at and trying to improve
16 the counter cyclical payments for our farmers, that is
17 looking at milk revenue insurance or some kind of a revenue
18 insurance policy that our farmers can invest into deal with
19 the very volatile market that they are facing, and some of
20 it is just about cleaning up the current dairy policy by
21 having, for example, mandatory reporting of prices that are
22 subject to audit, so we don't go through some of the
23 experiences like we did this last year where we found out
24 some of the information was being misreported that cost the
25 industry, at best guess, 50 million dollars just from that
37
1 misreporting of information. So we feel good about this
2 policy that we developed about 6 months ago, there's
3 actually been a number of things that have unfolded in the
4 last 6 months that have really reinforced how important
5 this policy is, how timely it is and how it really is
6 focused on the issues and challenges.
7 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Any members on my right who did not
8 have a chance last time? Representative Pickett?
9 REPRESENTATIVE PICKETT: Mr. Secretary, I am always
10 impressed with the way you cover agricultural events
11 throughout the state. Thank you for always being there.
12 This may be an old subject, multi flora rose. I'm
13 wondering, have we found a way to use that for fuel? But
14 seriously, as more farmland is left unused multi flora
15 seems to just move in and take over. Got any new
16 suggestions for the folks from my area who are always
17 calling me about that?
18 SECRETARY WOLFF: Well, some of the information I
19 received was that there is good news that there is actually
20 a blight that is effecting it and it's slowing moving in
21 our direction, so like any invasive species, unfortunately,
22 there's not a natural predator to deal with it and like
23 many of our invasive species, it was actually introduced by
24 USDA a number of years ago as a suggested good practice,
25 and however, it easily gets out of control. So I think
38
1 working with once again, the extension service that does
2 such a wonderful job at the grass roots level of production
3 agriculture we would recommend that your constituents in
4 your area talk to their local extension agents while we're
5 waiting for the blight to make its way to Pennsylvania.
6 REPRESENTATIVE PICKETT: Thank you sir.
7 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Dave?
8 REPRESENTATIVE KESSLER: Good morning Secretary. On
9 the vet assistance program, what are you seeing in terms of
10 industry acceptance and are you going to be looking at any
11 necessary legislative changes in terms of practice
12 authorization?
13 SECRETARY WOLFF: Right now I don't think there's any
14 discussion on that, but when we started this program we
15 tried to bring all the the stakeholders together, and
16 actually we brought PVMA to the table, Pennsylvania
17 Veterinary Medical Association to the table, and they were
18 part of the discussion as we started to develop, and they
19 actually developed the criteria for the credentials, so
20 that when these students graduate from this program and
21 they take this test that they become certified at a level
22 to carry out some of the responsibilities as it relates to
23 the needs of the veterinarian industry here in
24 Pennsylvania, but as of right now I don't think there's any
25 discussion on the legislation, modifying legislation to
39
1 better align that, but certainly one of the issues that we
2 have on a regular basis is the shortage of veterinarians
3 that is specific to some parts of Pennsylvania more than
4 others.
5 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Conklin?
6 REPRESENTATIVE CONKLIN: It's nice to see you again
7 today Secretary Wolff, it was an honor having lunch with
8 you yesterday and glad to see you're here at Ag Progress
9 Days again today. As you were talking about the
10 alternative uses for fuels to get away from the grains,
11 I've been working with Penn State University and their
12 technical staff on some of the different grasses, the saw
13 grasses, the switch grasses, which they seem to work very,
14 very, well, especially in the plateau areas that would
15 reuse a lot of abandoned strip mines along with a lot of
16 the lower grade soils. Are you at the state level looking
17 at that as well as ways to use that type of hearty research
18 that was pretty much once seeded you never have to worry
19 about it again except to cultivate it?
20 SECRETARY WOLFF: That certainly has a lot, so much
21 appeal, especially in northern Pennsylvania where your soil
22 quality may not be such that it really is profitable to
23 grow corn or soybeans on that land and/or is highly
24 erodible, meaning it's fairly steep hillside. We rely on
25 Penn State for that, and we're just really pleased to be
40
1 able to support them through some research dollars in being
2 able to develop those new varieties that will align with
3 the future, and the future being cellulosic ethanol.
4 REPRESENTATIVE CONKLIN: Thank you Mr. Secretary.
5 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Chairman Hershey?
6 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Thank you Secretary Wolff, it's
7 always a pleasure to work with you and I know your fellow
8 dairymen as I am. I want your outlook on the dairy
9 industry. You know, in the last 5 or 6 years milk prices
10 went from 11.50 to 19 dollars a hundred weight then down to
11 12.50 for 18 months then now 20 or 21. It's hard for
12 farmers to plan where they're going, and know there's a
13 stronger, I read there's a stronger demand for dry powder
14 in third world countries. What do you see in your crystal
15 ball in the next 18 months, 2 years?
16 SECRETARY WOLFF: Well my crystal ball is much like
17 the futures contracts that are out there and available
18 right now. It is a strong market and I think the market
19 looks exceptionally good for the rest of this calendar year
20 and actually fairly strong next calendar year. I think if
21 I remember the last quote last Friday it looked at a farmer
22 having the ability to lock in a net price for milk at 17
23 dollars or higher for next calendar year, and that is
24 certainly a stronger price than we have seen in recent
25 times, and possibly could be the longest stretch of higher
41
1 prices than we have ever seen. And the reason is that it
2 is not based on supply demand just here on our national
3 level, it's supply demand on the local level.
4 And when you have countries like China and southeast
5 Asia that have improving economies, one of the first things
6 that those countries would do is improve the nutrition that
7 they buy. In many cases it's not like the United States
8 where an improved economy means more investment in the
9 stock market or buying another car or boat, those countries
10 really look at trying to improve the diets for their
11 families. One of the ways that they do that is buying
12 protein, and protein comes in the form of powder milk and
13 whey. So that is a very strong part of the formula in
14 terms of demand. And then on the supply side you see
15 countries like the European Union that have significantly
16 decreased production because of a cut in government
17 subsidies and you see countries like Australia that have
18 had tremendous hardship and droughts that they feel is
19 going to take them quite awhile to recover from. So it's
20 an interesting dynamic. You have a very strong and growing
21 world market and you have a very flat global supply. So
22 therefore, we are optimistic that the dairy industry is
23 going to see a pretty strong market for the rest of this
24 year and certainly into next year.
25 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Thank you very much.
42
1 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Rapp?
2 REPRESENTATIVE RAPP: Thank you Mr. Chairman and Mr.
3 Secretary, it's a pleasure to see you again. First, I want
4 to make a comment. I have a refinery in my county and I
5 would just like the public to know that all of the crude
6 oil for that refinery comes from North America, not
7 overseas, and we have a huge oil and gas business in the
8 northwest and those wells are still producing and so that
9 oil is being produced right here in northwestern
10 Pennsylvania.
11 I am very honored to serve on the timber task force
12 on forestry here at Penn State, and we talked previously
13 with Dean Steele about bio-woody mass. And at our last
14 meeting though at the task force on forestry there is a
15 growing opposition to the harvesting of trees in different
16 parts of Pennsylvania. Now where I live we have the
17 Allegheny National Forest. There is even growing
18 opposition to harvesting of timber in the northwest. And I
19 heard you say that you worked very closely with the
20 Department of Education in promoting programs for
21 agriculture. And since we are looking at alternative
22 energy and possibly the use of bio-woody mass, would you be
23 working with the Department of Environmental Protection to
24 make sure that where all of those trees exist in the
25 northwest, specifically in the Allegheny National Forest
43
1 and other forests across the state, that down the road if
2 we're looking at bio-woody mass that you would be working
3 with DEP to assure that we could harvest the trees and have
4 that leftover for bio-woody mass?
5 SECRETARY WOLFF: I think that's an excellent point
6 and it would be working with not only DEP but DCNR, the
7 Bureau of Forestry that oversees our state forests, so yes,
8 I think that's a good point and the answer is yes, we'll be
9 glad to work with them however we can in terms of making
10 sure that that quality feed stock can be part of this
11 formula.
12 REPRESENTATIVE RAPP: Thank you.
13 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Brooks?
14 REPRESENTATIVE BROOKS: Thank you Mr. Secretary for
15 being here today but I'd also like to thank you for the
16 enormous amount of dedication and the time that you have
17 given to strengthen and preserve agriculture in
18 Pennsylvania. I am very impressed, you are everywhere
19 throughout the state, and again, I'd just like to thank you
20 for that.
21 In your testimony you have identified that it's
22 anticipated by 2010 that we would have 12 biodiesel plants
23 up and running. What is the breakdown or can you give us a
24 structural idea of what that will comprise of, where they
25 may be, what is the thinking behind those?
44
1 SECRETARY WOLFF: I think it's specifically the
2 interest that's out there for biodiesel. I know that they
3 are all now located pretty much in Central Pennsylvania and
4 fairly close to the Harrisburg area actually, and I don't
5 have the map exactly as to where they would all be located
6 but it is kind of an economic development study that's been
7 done that we think is realistic and we will see the
8 expansion that way. Certainly there are other parts of
9 Pennsylvania that I think would be excellent locations for
10 those type of facilities so biodiesel can be produced
11 there.
12 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Mr. Secretary. We
13 certainly apreciate your presentation and your thoughtful
14 answers to the many questions. We look forward to working
15 with you in the coming year and years so thank you again
16 for your presentation.
17 SECRETARY WOLFF: Thank you.
18 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Next we have from the Walter Biddle
19 Saul High School the principal, Wendy Shapiro. Wendy?
20 PRINCIPAL SHAPIRO: To my right is Jean Lonie, Jean
21 is currently the executive assistant to the executive
22 deputy secretary of agriculture and formerly from Walter
23 Biddle Saul High School, the career and technical education
24 advisor, so I've asked her to come and sit with me since I
25 have only been at Saul for 2 months and I'm a city girl
45
1 learning agriculture. In fact, Jean has helped me with my
2 remarks today. I would also like to acknowledge the fact
3 that one of our teachers, James Tatro is in the audience,
4 also hails from Philadelphia.
5 Good morning Chairman Hanna and Hershey, committee
6 members, Secretary Wolff, Dean Steele, my fellow speakers
7 and guests. I am very excited that as one of my first acts
8 as principal of Walter Biddle Saul High School of
9 Agricultural Sciences in Philadelphia is to have this
10 opportunity to share with all of you some of the work we
11 are doing in Philadelphia to promote agricultural education
12 and the many diverse career opportunities available in the
13 industry. With a background in career and technical
14 education and administration, or vocational technical
15 education as it was previously called, I have been able to
16 experience firsthand the many benefits students enjoy when
17 they're able to combine hands-on skills with theoretical
18 knowledge. In my 2 months as principal at Saul I've been
19 able to do a little of both myself, from reading the Vision
20 for Agricultural Education in Pennsylvania to helping out
21 our veterinarian and farmer with a displaced abomasum
22 surgery. I haven't conducted a valid survey yet, but I am
23 pretty confident that I am amongst one of the only
24 Philadelphia high school principals who can claim dairy cow
25 surgery amongst their first summer professional development
46
1 events.
2 I say this with a laugh, but the statement really
3 sums up the uniqueness of Walter Biddle Saul High School.
4 Founded in 1943, Saul has provided agricultural education
5 for Philadelphia students for the past 64 years. While
6 many things have changed in that time the one constant is
7 students learning and doing on our 120 acre campus. The
8 mission of Saul is to develop in students an understanding
9 of and appreciation for the career opportunities available
10 to them in the many fields of agriculture. It is also our
11 commitment to cultivate each student's individual abilities
12 to prepare her or himself for a lifetime of productive
13 academic and civic endeavors. It is on the career
14 opportunities that I will focus my remarks this morning.
15 To set the stage for you, W. B. Saul is the academic
16 home to more than 550 Philadelphia 9 through 12th graders.
17 These students apply to attend W. B. Saul and come from
18 across the city of Philadelphia. As school buses are not
19 available for transporting high school students our young
20 people take public transportation to school every day with
21 some traveling between 60 and 90 minutes each way to our
22 campus in the northwest section of the city. Our student
23 body is a diverse group. Just over 60% of our students are
24 African American and 35% are Caucasian. The remaining 5%
25 of students is a mix of Hispanic, Asian and other
47
1 ethnicities. Some of our students speak English as their
2 second language and many of our students represent the
3 first generation of their family to enroll in post
4 secondary education. Many of the perceptions people have
5 about urban education are true. We have students who are
6 homeless or shifting from friend's houses to friend's
7 houses at night. We have students from single or no parent
8 houses. We have students that struggle with addiction
9 issues, either their own or their parents', and some of our
10 students have children. Many of our students have lost
11 loved ones to violence and there are times even in this
12 modern age that our students still deal with racism and
13 societal issues; yet at Saul these children have found an
14 academic home, and despite issues in their personal lives
15 and despite their lengthy travel time we have more than a
16 90% daily attendance rate and a mid-90% graduation rate.
17 The reason is because Saul creates an educational
18 experience that encourages them to be involved every day.
19 Our students buy into the fact that you need to be at Saul
20 every day to learn because we can't replicate a calf being
21 born, we can't reschedule a veterinarian visit or the big
22 wedding that they're doing for flowers that can't be put
23 off.
24 Students take the full complement of academic courses
25 and select 1 of 4 Department of Education approved
48
1 agricultural programs as a career and technical education
2 major. The programs available at W. B. Saul are
3 horticulture operations, where students can focus on
4 floriculture and greenhouse management or landscape design;
5 food science, animal science where again, students can
6 select either large animal or small animal science focus;
7 and natural resources management. Students select these
8 majors at the end of their 9th grade year and will
9 supplement their in class learning and hands-on experience
10 on our own campus. Students are able to participate in a
11 number of extra-curricular learning activites that provide
12 career exploration and high level learning activities.
13 One way students at W. B. Saul learn by doing is
14 through their involvement in the FFA. W. B. Saul students
15 using the FFA LifeKnowledge curriculum to help students
16 develop their potential for premier leadership, personal
17 growth and career success. I am proud to report that W. B.
18 Saul students have won 8 Pennsylvania FFA career
19 development event state championships in the past 7 years
20 and 5 W. B. Saul students will head to Indianapolis this
21 fall to represent Pennsylvania in the national
22 nursery/landscape judging contest and the national talent
23 show.
24 A little closer to home, W. B. Saul students have
25 spent this and many previous summers gaining invaluable
49
1 experience in making their city a little more agricultural
2 savvy. Before I give you an overview of the organizations
3 and events that W. B. Saul students are participating in
4 right now I should mention that we work to make all of our
5 internships competitive. Students must complete written
6 applications and interview for positions and it is stressed
7 that grades, attendance and disciplinary records are
8 reviewed before final decisions are made. It is important
9 to us that each student is actively involved in the
10 internship process and we want to make sure that each and
11 every student is able to walk away with more interviewing
12 and job searching experience than they had going in.
13 This summer a W. B. Saul junior attended the
14 Pennsylvania Governor's School for Agricultural Sciences
15 here at State College. I was excited to learn that 8 W. B.
16 Saul students applied for the governor's school last year
17 and I have already met 3 students who plan on applying for
18 the program this year. The PGSAS program plays a very
19 strong role in encouraging Saul students to stay in
20 agriculture and opens up a host of career opportunities to
21 the students who attend.
22 Each year 1 W. B. Saul senior is selected by the
23 USDA's Agricultural Research Service to receive their
24 annual SCEP scholarship. The students receive up to $7500
25 per year towards college tuition and have a standing
50
1 internship with the ARS stations where they are able to be
2 hands-on contributors in the valuable research done at
3 these sites across the country. In addition, when a
4 student completes their undergraduate studies they have a
5 job available with the Ag Research Service.
6 One of our longest standing partnerships for career
7 development for students is with Longwood Gardens.
8 Longwood really goes above and beyond to provide an
9 outstanding experience for students. Due to the lengthy
10 journey from Philadelphia to Kennett Square, Longwood
11 provides a shttle bus for the duration of the internship
12 which picks students up from the Saul campus and drives
13 them to their work site. The students are paid for the
14 commuting time as it is an hour's drive each way. Students
15 are treated as any other member of the staff wearing staff
16 attire and even getting their own name tags which really do
17 give the interns a sense of pride. More importantly, the
18 students are able to spend 6 weeks learning and earning on
19 the site of a world renowned horticulture show place. And
20 we just had 5 of our students complete the internship at
21 Longwood and a special celebratory dinner was given to them
22 this past Friday night.
23 Fortunately for W. B. Saul, when David Foresman, the
24 gentleman who started the Longwood Gardens internship
25 program left the organization, the internship program did
51
1 not suffer. In fact, we're lucky enough to have Mr.
2 Foresman create another wonderful opportunity for Saul
3 students with his new company, the Brickman Group. The
4 Brickman Group now recruits W. B. Saul landscape design
5 students to spend the summer after their senior year in an
6 internship with the company which is designed to lead to
7 full-time employment for the student with plans to train
8 the candidate for a future supervisory role. This is an
9 amazing opportunity for our students who would like to go
10 immediately into the work force, and provides them with a
11 position in a national landscape management and design firm
12 that offers them many benefits.
13 Also available for our horticulture students are
14 interships with the Philadelphia Eagles and the
15 Philadelphia Phillies. The Eagles interns to do some
16 general landscaping management work but have the added
17 bonus of working the Lincoln Financial Field and the
18 NovaCare practice center turf. It definitely doesn't hurt
19 that the Eagles interns also work the actual games as the
20 crew who pulls the nets up behind the goalposts. On the
21 Phillies side, this internship has been available for the
22 past 2 summers and it is quickly becoming one of our most
23 popular. 50 students attended the Phillies/Eagles interest
24 session and thanks to the sucess of the first year's crew 4
25 students were selected to work for the Phillies this
52
1 summer. This group is tasked with managing the 100 acre
2 complex that Citizens Bank Park sits on on and is given
3 extensive insight into the various horticultural careers
4 available to them from the design to installation and
5 maintenance right along to the interiorscaping done
6 throughout the Phillies executive offices.
7 The past 3 years all School District of Philadelphia
8 Career and Technical Education students have had the
9 opportunity to participate in the Vocational Experience
10 Program, or VEP. This program sets students up with
11 industry partners where they work 20 hours a week for 6
12 weeks during the summer at no cost to the company. The
13 district funds the program, and the District Career and
14 Technical Education Staff oversees the day to day
15 management of the program. This is a great way to get our
16 foot in the door with new agriculturally focused companies,
17 show them the high level that W. B. Saul students function
18 at with regards to agricultural skills eventually create
19 new employer paid internships that will continue in future
20 years.
21 This summer, the VEP program had positions for 50
22 students and we actually had to turn down some employers
23 due to the financial parameters that we have to live
24 within. The VEP students are wrapping up their 6 week
25 experiences right now and the companies that signed on for
53
1 this year are:
2 USDA Agricultural Research Service in Wyndmoor, PA,
3 The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary
4 Medicine's University Lab Animal Research Center,
5 The University of Pennsylvania School of
6 Veterinarian Medicine New Bolton Center Equine Research
7 Center,
8 Temple University Urban Equine Camp,
9 Temple University's university lab animal research
10 center,
11 Pennsylvania Hospital Gardens, (this is the first
12 Physick Garden in the United States and home of the oldest
13 hospital in America),
14 Pegasus Therapeutic Riding Center,
15 Journey Home, an urban employment center where
16 students provide landscape support, provide entrepreneurial
17 support to Journey Home projects and helped train other
18 Journey Home students,
19 Farm Journal Media,
20 The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education,
21 The Fairmount Park Commission,
22 and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
23 A new partnership that I am excited to report to you
24 is one that W. B. Saul has forged with the University of
25 Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine. Through work
54
1 with Dean Joan Hendricks at Penn Vet, we are working to
2 create a unique urban vet-prep partnership where Penn Vet
3 students and W. B. Saul students will learn side by side
4 from each other. The program has been growing and
5 developing over the past year and a half and this school
6 year will see the first groups of students meet with each
7 other. More than half of W. B. Saul's incoming students
8 will tell you that they want to become veterinarians but
9 have little to no idea of what that actually means in terms
10 of academic studies, time in school or related career
11 opportunities. While I realize that not every student will
12 become a veterinarian there are a variety of related career
13 options that our students would flourish in, and through
14 this partnership we can work to make sure that each student
15 makes an informed decision about their future
16 opportunities. And since it is proven that students learn
17 the most when they are actually teaching others, we are
18 excited that both sets of students will get to show what
19 they know to a new audience.
20 With financial familiar support from a USDA SPEC
21 grant W. B. Saul has created a relationship with Cheyney
22 University where students from Saul will have an
23 opportunity to learn in the Cheyney aquaculture program.
24 Led by Dr. Steven Hughes, we are excited about this career
25 area and have already had W. B. Saul students receive USDA
55
1 scholarships in aquaculture and be recruited by aquaculture
2 programs throughout the country.
3 As you can tell, there are a variety of options
4 available to W. B. Saul students with regards to career
5 choices, internships, scholarships and colleges. Each year
6 we highlight these options at our annual Agricultural
7 College and Career Fair. Focusing on agriculture and
8 agriculturally-related institutions and businesses, last
9 year students visited with almost 50 exhibitors from 12
10 states. A new and really successful feature of the program
11 was what kids call the "Blue Row" that showcased 7
12 different majors available through Penn State's College of
13 Agricultural Sciences.
14 Through Penn State, Saul has also started a Jr.
15 Minorities in Agricultural, Natural Resources and Related
16 Science or MANRRS club. This is a great group that is lead
17 by Saul science instructors who look at agricultural
18 science careers and post secondary education opportunities.
19 A big push for this group is to get students to apply for
20 and hopefully receive USDA National Scholars Program, or
21 1890s scholarships. These scholarships pay tuition, room
22 and board and provide a laptop computer for each recipient.
23 Students may study agriculture at any of the 18 1890's
24 schools and have USDA employment waiting for them at the
25 end of their undergraduate career.
56
1 To help the staff members make sure that we are
2 training the students to be successful students and
3 professionals, we rely on our outstanding advisory board
4 that receives strong support from Penn State staff experts,
5 local companies and allied industry organizations. Many of
6 the groups mentioned above have employees who are on our
7 advisory board and a number of board members are here at Ag
8 Progress Days.
9 While we do the best that we can do to make sure that
10 W. B. Saul students are aware of how diverse the
11 agriculture industry is and the amazing opportunities it
12 can offer to them, the best way the students can learn what
13 is out there is by meeting people themselves. That is why
14 we appreciate the opportunities that our students have to
15 participate in FFA events, the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the
16 Keystone International Livestock Exposition, National FFA
17 Convention and other similar activities. While our
18 students do amazing work on our Philadelphia campus, it is
19 when they meet professionals, visit businesses and spend a
20 few weeks working side by side with people who make a
21 living doing something they have a passion for when they
22 realize that agriculture offers them not just a great
23 education but a great way of life.
24 To that end, I would encourage everyone here to come
25 visit our students and share your experiences with them.
57
1 Please continue your efforts to move agricultural education
2 forward by offering new meaningful industry certifications
3 for our students to earn and to help us create a rigorous
4 curriculum that reminds everyone that agriculture is, first
5 and foremost, a science. Thank you.
6 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Principal Shapiro. It's
7 certainly very informative, very helpful I think to all of
8 us who may not have had much background on what the school
9 does, and we certainly appreciate that. Chairman Hershey?
10 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Miss Shapiro, I want to thank you
11 for what you do for the urban youth in Philadelphia. Our
12 urban youth need all the opportunities that they can get
13 and we appreciate that.
14 PRINCIPAL SHAPIRO: Thank you.
15 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you. Thank you Chairman
16 Hershey. Representative Kauffman?
17 REPRESENTATIVE KAUFFMAN: Thank you for being here.
18 I believe it was February of 2005 was the last time that
19 this committee had, the agricultural committee had the
20 opportunity to come and visit Saul High School and it was
21 quite an impressive program and quite astonishing for a
22 rural legislator to come into Philadelphia and see a
23 program of this caliber, so I want to compliment you on
24 that and would encourage our chairman to arrange another
25 visit for the new members of the committee if Saul High
58
1 School would host us. It was an amazing educational
2 opportunity for me and I know it would be good for some of
3 the newer members of the committee.
4 Do you have any statistics of your student body as
5 far as those who go directly on to agricultural education
6 furthering their agricultural education or those who go on
7 to work in agriculture directly from high school?
8 JEAN LONIE: Thank you for that question. At Saul
9 High School we have about 80% of students that go on to
10 post secondary education. The last year that I was there
11 which would have been this past year, the anticipation was
12 that 40 to 45% of students would go directly into
13 agricultural related post secondary studies or industry.
14 So we're working towards almost half the student body
15 actually continuing on in areas directly related to
16 agriculture. That is a huge growth for us and we're very
17 proud of that.
18 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Pickett?
19 REPRESENTATIVE PICKETT: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
20 Just a quick comment to echo pretty much what
21 Representative Kauffman said, I had the opportunity to tour
22 the school also a couple of years ago, and I can tell you,
23 you have turned me into an ambassador. I have spoken about
24 the school so many times and I always tell people that it
25 was one of the few places, it was a crisp snowy morning and
59
1 it was very early when we arrived there, where you could
2 see teenagers in Carhartts doing chores, smiling and giving
3 you a quick wave. It's truly impressive, and I was also
4 impressed with your number of applications for the school
5 that you have and with your goal to make every student have
6 a plan when they leave school, whether it's going to be
7 further education or a job related, so I congratulate you
8 and continue your good work. Thank you.
9 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you. Principal Shapiro, I
10 guess I am getting instructions to meet with you and see if
11 we can arrange another visit. I hope you are open to that.
12 PRINCIPAL SHAPIRO: Wonderful.
13 CHAIRMAN HANNA: The committee will certainly be in
14 touch with you.
15 PRINCIPAL SHAPIRO: Thank you.
16 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you very much for your
17 testimony.
18 PRINCIPAL SHAPIRO: We look forward to seeing you.
19 Thank you.
20 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Next from the Future Farmers of
21 America we have their state president, Tiffany Grove.
22 Tiffany? Welcome and please proceed.
23 TIFFANY GROVE: Good morning. Thank you. I would
24 like to take this opportunity to thank you for inviting me
25 to speak on behalf of the nearly 8000 FFA members from
60
1 across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I am Tiffany
2 Grove, the Pennsylvania State FFA President. I live in
3 McVeytown, a small town in Mifflin County and I am a recent
4 graduate of Mount Union Area High School and the Captain
5 Jack FFA chapter in Huntingdon County. I am taking a year
6 off of college to fullfill my duties as a state FFA officer
7 which include traveling the state promoting not only FFA
8 but also agricultural education.
9 The FFA mission states: FFA makes a positive
10 difference in the lives of student by developing their
11 potential for premier leadership, personal growth and
12 career success through agricultural education.
13 Agricultural education is made of 3 core components; class
14 room and laboratory instruction, supervised agricultural
15 experience, and FFA.
16 Agriculture is rooted in science, math, business and
17 technology, therefore, the classroom and laboratory
18 instruction is based on these areas of study. The
19 knowledge students gain through their agricultural
20 education classes takes them far beyond the classroom and
21 teaches them the basics they need to pursue a career of
22 their choice. For example, students pursuing a career in
23 landscape design and golf course management will get
24 involved in the turf management class. Or those that wish
25 to become a veterinarian would get involved in the animal
61
1 science or the veterinarian assistant class. Many of you
2 have probably heard the saying, agriculture is more than
3 cows, plows and sows, which is very true. Agriculture is a
4 very diverse field, and no matter what you are interested
5 in there is something for you in agriculture.
6 Through supervised agricultural experiences, or SAEs
7 students take the knowledge they learn from the classroom
8 and apply it to their projects to gain the hands on
9 experience needed to be successful. What is a supervised
10 agricultural experience or SAE? An SAE is a project that
11 students are involved in outside of the classroom. A
12 student's project could be raising an animal for their
13 county fair, working on a local farm or even a home
14 improvement project such as landscaping their lawn. This
15 is where students take the knowledge they learned in the
16 classroom and use it to make their projects successful.
17 Agricultural Educators play a key role in the development
18 of each SAE project. I know when I was raising animals for
19 my local fair my agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, Mrs.
20 Mowrer, would visit my home to make sure my animals were
21 progressing the way they should be and that I was doing the
22 things that I needed to get the most out of my project.
23 Due to the fact that agricultural educators are vital to
24 the success of each student's SAE project which lasts year
25 round, agricultural educators should be employed on a 12
62
1 month contract. Most teachers are employed on a 9 month
2 contract but for agricultural educators their job does not
3 end when school lets out for summer vacation. They are
4 dedicated to their students year round, and by having them
5 on a 12 month contract they do not have to stop the help
6 they give their students on their SAE projects during the
7 summer months.
8 The third and final piece of the agricultural
9 education puzzle is FFA. FFA takes the knowledge learned
10 in the classroom, the hands on experience gained through
11 supervised agricultural experiences and the talent each
12 student possesses and puts them to the test through career
13 development events or CDE's. I know from experience that
14 there have been many times I sat in a classroom and
15 wondered, where am I ever going to use this? But the first
16 time I participated in a career development event I knew.
17 All the things I learned in my agricultural education
18 class prepared me to compete in each event. Whether it was
19 my animal science class preparing me for the dairy judging
20 competition or my FFA leadership class preparing me for the
21 public speaking contest I realized that everything I
22 learned in the classroom benefitted me in one of the other
23 areas of agricultural education. CDE's are a great way to
24 help students grow, lead and succeed. The key to success
25 in FFA is to get involved. By getting students involved
63
1 you set them up for success and start them on their way to
2 being our country's future leaders.
3 These 3 pieces make up agricultural education which
4 impact nearly half a million students across the nation
5 every year and has for the past 80 years.
6 I know from personal experience what agricultural
7 education and FFA can do. When I was a freshman in high
8 school I was extremely shy, I hated change and the thought
9 of having to interact with new people frightened me. After
10 getting involved in my agricultural education class and
11 local FFA chapter I began to come out of my shell. I
12 started attending leadership conferences and participated
13 in every activity my advisor would take me to. If it
14 weren't for the knowledge I learned in the classroom, the
15 handson experience I acquired through my supervised
16 agricultural experiences and the leadership and team work
17 abilities I gained through FFA I would not be here today.
18 I strongly believe that agricultural education and
19 FFA can and will continue to impact the lives of numerous
20 students in the future. That future rests on the shoulders
21 of agricultural educators, local business leaders, FFA
22 alumni, current FFA members and our legislative friends to
23 insure agriculture education remains a vital subject in our
24 high schools across America.
25 We need to continue to support agricultural education
64
1 programs and local FFA chapters so agricultural teachers
2 can continue to deliver an innovative cutting-edge and
3 integrated curriculum to students to help prepare them for
4 the more than 300 careers in science, business and
5 technology fields of agriculture. Recently energy and the
6 role agriculture can play in helping produce different
7 forms of energy have been the topic across the United
8 States. I know that through agriculture education in our
9 schools today my generation will continue to pursue
10 alternative forms of energy and make our country an even
11 greater place to live, work and play.
12 I want to thank you for allowing me this opportunity
13 to represent the FFA members, students of agriculture
14 education and agricultural educators from the Commonwealth
15 of Pennsylvania. I look forward to working with each of
16 you in the future and I hope that you will continue to
17 support the FFA and agricultural education. Thank you.
18 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you very much Tiffany, that
19 was certainly a wonderful presentation and it's clear that
20 you did attend the FFA leadership class preparing you for
21 public speaking as you did an excellent job. Before we ask
22 members some questions I think we have a presentation for
23 you. I would call on Representative Fleck to come forward.
24 Let me give you a microphone there, Mike.
25 REPRESENTATIVE FLECK: Thank you. Well Tiffany, of
65
1 course, is from my district. I got to know Tiffany many
2 years ago through FFA right down the road in Mount Union
3 where my wife is a teacher, and then when she was the
4 Huntingdon County Dairy Princess which is a small feat on
5 her part because she lives in Mifflin County, so that is a
6 good feather in her hat, but we are all very proud of you
7 in the 81st District and it's great to see you expand on
8 your leadership capabilities and take it to the state
9 level. And I have a citation, if you want to come up here,
10 to present to you and we wish you great luck this year. I
11 am sure it will be a very fascinating and fast paced year
12 for you, Tiffany.
13 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Representative Fleck and
14 thank you Tiffany. Chairman Hershey?
15 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Tiffany, I want to thank you for
16 taking a year off your studies to tell the good story of
17 agriculture. We grow the good food and fiber that everyone
18 enjoys, and too many times we are taken for granted. And
19 thank you again.
20 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Representative Solobay?
21 REPRESENTATIVE SOLOBAY: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
22 Tiffany, also the same comments, Chairman Hershey kind of
23 grabbed the thunder I was going to say but I think it just
24 shows your dedication to the agriculture community to be
25 willing to sacrifice your personal goals and gains for down
66
1 the road to sacrifice 1 year of your time to do your job as
2 the president and to spread the gospel, as it would be, of
3 the importance of agriculture in Pennsylvania, so
4 congratulations on that.
5 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Tiffany, we appreciate
6 your presentation.
7 TIFFANY GROVE: Thank you much.
8 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Next we have Dr. David Wolfgang from
9 the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association. Dr.
10 Wolfgang, I apologize for beginning your presentation by
11 asking you to keep it as succinct as possible. Thank you
12 Dr. Wolfgang. Our need for brevity is not due to lack of
13 interest, it's just that we are facing a deadline, so we
14 appreciate your comments.
15 DAVID R. WOLFGANG, VMD: And I fully appreciate the
16 deadline so I understand that. Mr. Chairman, thank you
17 very much and members of the committee thank you very much
18 for giving me a few minutes to talk to you about what I
19 think you'll come to realize is a very important national
20 and state wide problem, and it's addressing the need for
21 veterinarians in what we call the public sector fields.
22 And you also have attached with my testimony a white
23 page paper that's put together by some national groups from
24 the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges,
25 and I appreciate you all can read very well so I am going
67
1 to go fast and I am going to skip some of this and I will
2 be done well less than the 15 minutes to give lots of time
3 for questions and time to speak.
4 So briefly, there are approximately 3000
5 veterinarians in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Veterinary
6 Medical Association represents about 2000 of those members.
7 I'm the immediate past president. One of my considerations
8 over the last few years has been to look at what we can do
9 to increase the pool of veterinary professionals in what we
10 call the public sector. Most people think of veterinarians
11 as someone who takes care of their companion animals, and
12 that's all occurred since about the 1950's, following World
13 War II, the affluence that the United States experienced
14 plus urbanization, people moved into those areas from rural
15 areas, they took with them the desire to have animals, and
16 lots of them have pets. For years the pet was just a
17 member of the family and now for most people he is the
18 family. And so people invest time and money and resources
19 in companion animals and the food animal sector has sort of
20 lost some of the lustre over the years.
21 There are a few of us that have been around the
22 veterinary field for a few years and those of us that
23 graduated probably prior to 1980s, our class was dominated
24 by men. My class at Penn, 1982, was the last class at Penn
25 that had more men than women in the class, there was
68
1 52-48%. Prior to that it was a field dominated by men.
2 Some schools today in the United States have upwards 80 to
3 90% of the class are women, and so they tend to, by and
4 large, if you look at salaries and what they do, they tend
5 to be attracted to companion animals and exotic animals by
6 and large, not that they can't do the work, it's just that
7 their interest pulled them to those areas.
8 There's a crying need for people to service what we
9 call the public sector, that's large animal medicine,
10 that's research, that's public health, that's also things
11 like teaching, residencies, equine, lots of other areas are
12 short, and this is a problem nationwide and
13 internationally. The need for people to go into those
14 fields is now less, in fact, if you look at we what call
15 the bioterrorism agents and agri support issues, those
16 issues are more important now than they ever were. Of all
17 the category A bioterror agents, and most of you probably
18 know what they are, they're the common ones, smallpox,
19 anthrax, plague, all those other infectious agents, all of
20 them except smallpox are zoonotic diseases. They are
21 diseases carried by animals transferred through animals and
22 back and forth between animals and people. Things like
23 eboli, West Nile Virus, 0157, all the things that you hear
24 about in the news right now are all bacterial agents that
25 are important zoonotic concerns.
69
1 And currently the food service industry, folks in the
2 USDA, APHIS, the average age for veterinarians in that
3 field is 54. So they're people like me that came out in
4 the seventies, came out in the early eighties. I did mixed
5 animal practice for 14 years, been with Penn State for the
6 last 16. So lots of those people now are getting up in
7 years.
8 It takes 4, 6, maybe 6 to 7 years to train those new
9 professionals if they have to get back on to specialty
10 training such as residencies or PhDs, and so we are at sort
11 of a crisis stage with veterinary manpower in the United
12 States. We are in a crisis stage with this manpower in
13 Pennsylvania. I think lots of you that live in rural
14 communities know it's hard to find someone to come out,
15 take care of your sheep or goats or these animals, large
16 animal veterinarians are few and far between and it's hard
17 to get them.
18 In Pennsylvania we have lots of veterinarians,
19 unfortunately, some of that number is inflated because we
20 have lots of big universities, we have lots of big
21 pharmaceutical firms. Our veterinary numbers are actually
22 somewhat inflated to what's actually out there in the
23 field.
24 There are lots of initiatives on the way right now to
25 try and improve that. Over the last 30 years there has
70
1 only been 1 veterinary school added to the United States,
2 and that was the Western California School which is
3 exclusively devoted to companion animals, and they added 89
4 students. About 35, 40 years ago there was approximately 9
5 veterinarians for each million people today. Today in the
6 United States there about are 6.5 veterinarians for each
7 million people, so the number of veterinarians per person
8 have gone down. At the same time number of pets, number of
9 household pets has gone up. So there's a crying need for
10 more veterinarians to go into areas like food and animal
11 medicine, like research, and like public service.
12 I would just want to remind you a couple things that
13 I believe that your committee should think about as you
14 move forward on that and that's listed on the back of page
15 2 as far as educational training, but I would really like
16 to think about some programs we can do to help support
17 folks that do animal research. A lot of the research
18 dollars in America today is from the Pennsylvania State
19 Health Department and actually sometimes go to support
20 human research, sometimes people use animals models and
21 that counts as animal research. I think there's a crying
22 need for veterinary research. That's research into
23 diseases that cause production issues, health issues, food
24 safety issues. Sometimes they're not as well supported.
25 There's a need for more support for post graduate education
71
1 and training grants to do that.
2 At the same time, I encourage you when you talk to
3 your colleagues from the US legislature, there's been
4 several pieces of legislation passed by the US congress
5 signed by the president and never funded. The Veterinary
6 Manpower Act, the Veterinary Legislative Infrastructure
7 Act, infrastructure act had 1.5 billion dollars set aside
8 to build veterinary infrastructure, that would be more
9 classrooms, more teaching facilities, those legislative
10 initiatives have never been funded. They are competitive
11 grants, so schools like Penn, Cornell, Ohio State,
12 Virginia, would vie for those moneys to expand their class
13 size.
14 Currently in Pennsylvania we have had lots of talks
15 with the new Dean at Penn and the Pennsylvania Veterinary
16 Medical Association, they're trying to address the
17 situation. The dean has made a commitment to actually look
18 at expanding our class size. Now that the Hill Pavilion
19 has been opened they are going to look at expanding the
20 class size. That requires them to retrofit some of their
21 basic teaching labs, they're in the process of doing that
22 and the dean feels that they could probably add 10 to 15
23 veterinarians per year to the class with an emphasis on
24 those individuals having interest in what they call the
25 public sector fields. The dean has made that commitment,
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1 the Veterinary Medical Association and other folks need to
2 address people like in FFA and Penn State that have an
3 interest to do that type of veterinary work and we are
4 trying to do that.
5 At the same time, one of the real concerns we have is
6 the amount of debt veterinarians graduate from school with.
7 At the bottom of page 3 the last section about debt,
8 veterinary schools by and large cost the same amount as
9 medical schools, costs the same amount to build it, costs
10 the same amount to train people, so it's a very expensive
11 education. Around the country, depending on where you go,
12 most kids graduate with 120 to $160,000 of debt, that's
13 after the professional career. Penn, because Penn is a
14 little more expensive, the average debt today for kids
15 coming out of Penn is $160,000. It's very difficult to
16 encourage people with that kind of debt load to go back to
17 a rural community and do companion animal practice and
18 large animal practice and be on call 24-7 and raise a
19 family. Again, most of the veterinarians today are women,
20 they do have family concerns which is perfectly legitimate,
21 not everybody wants to work 24-7 like some of us did, but
22 there are some concerns now students graduating today who
23 have different desires for what they want to do with their
24 life besides work.
25 And so I strongly encourage you to think about some
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1 things Pennsylvania might do to encourage students to go
2 back to the rural areas. Lots of other states have
3 recently passed legislation, Ohio and Kansas notably, with
4 10 to $20,000 worth of debt forgiveness if students go back
5 into these areas, and so I strongly encourage you to think
6 what we might do in Pennsylvania to encourage people to go
7 back into rural areas and practice public sector medicine.
8 Some of it would be private practice, some of it would be
9 also to support some people for training grants and
10 research. And I feel sure that with modest amounts of
11 input from the state and some support that we could make a
12 difference. Like I said, the dean and the Pennsylvania
13 Veterinary Medical Association have already made some
14 efforts in that regard, we do enlist your help and ask very
15 much if you consider that as you deliberate over the next
16 few years in the legislature. Thank you very much and I'll
17 be glad to answer questions. Dr. Bob VanSaun is with me as
18 well, and he'll be glad to help you as well.
19 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Dr. Wolfgang. I certainly
20 encourgage members to review closely the page 2 and 3 of
21 Dr. Wolfgang's testimony and particularly the growing
22 crises that seems to be out there with the lack of
23 availability of veterinarians. We need to meet with you to
24 see what we can do to try and address that crisis. Let me
25 ask members if they have any questions. Representative
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1 Bastian?
2 REPRESENTATIVE BASTIAN: Thanks Dave for being here.
3 You tell it like it is and I appreciate that very much.
4 There's some hard figures there for us to digest and we
5 need to act on them now. Thank you.
6 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you very much. Anyone else on
7 my left? How about on my right?
8 DR. WOLFGANG: They can contact the number to talk at
9 your convenience. I know it's a busy day.
10 CHAIRMAN HANNA: I'd like that opportunity to sit
11 down with you because clearly, we do have to look at some
12 incentive to try and get more people into the profession.
13 Thank you for all that you do. Thank you Doctor.
14 DR. WOLFGANG: Thank you very much.
15 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Our final group is a panel
16 consisting of Gary Swan from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau,
17 Christian Herr from PennAg Industries, Larry Breech of the
18 Pennsylvania Farmers Union and Betsy Huber from the
19 Pennsylvania State Grange. And once again let me begin by
20 apologizing to our presenters because of my need to request
21 brevity as much as we can. I am going to ask each of you
22 to take your turn at the microphone and try and summarize
23 your testimony as best you can. We are under a bit of a
24 time deadline and again, I want to emphasize our request
25 for brevity is not a reflection on the importance of what
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1 you have to say but rather on the deadline that we need to
2 meet.
3 GARY SWAN: Chairman Hanna, Chairman Hershey, members
4 of the panel, my name is Gary Swan and I am here
5 representing the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. I will condense
6 and ad lib in about 2 minutes what I intended for 6 or 7
7 minutes, so pardon me if I stumble. There are 4 points
8 that Pennsylvania Farm Bureau wants to make today about
9 agricultural education and career opportunities.
10 First of all, 20% of our nation's gross national
11 product is dependent on the farm industry. It creates 200
12 careers across this country. There is no industry that
13 produces more diversity and the bottom line is, is that
14 young men and women in Pennsylvania, no matter what their
15 career objective, accountant, engineer, architect, there is
16 a place for them in agriculture and the food industry.
17 Point 2, farm young men and women have an inherent
18 advantage in the employment place. In the interview, think
19 about it for a minute, if you are a manufacturer of farm
20 equipment you have an advantage, you want to hire someone
21 if possible who understands agriculture, who knows about
22 farming, and so right out of the box the young men and
23 women who either grow up on a farm and have agricultural
24 experience have an opportunity in the world of getting a
25 job.
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1 Point number 3, we talk in the state of a concern in
2 the state about the brain drain about its being said that
3 sons and daughters moving to other states because it's said
4 that there are greater opportunity elsewhere. And we have
5 the 19th largest agricultural economy in America, which
6 translates into the kind of job opportunities I mentioned a
7 minute ago. Think about the brain drain in that context.
8 We literally if we do a better job of connecting young men
9 and women with the reality and understanding of these job
10 opportunities we can stem the brain drain. We at the
11 Pennsylvania Farm Bureau believe there's a job in this huge
12 agribusiness farm industry for most of the young men and
13 women that seek some kind of employment, some kind of
14 specialty.
15 Point number 4, we must not overlook the need to
16 continue to focus on basic agriculture education. It is,
17 after all, farmers that create this huge industry, this
18 huge career opportunity across America and across
19 Pennsylvania.
20 And finally, number 5, we need to retain vocational
21 agricultural departments, and let me just underscore the
22 FFA. Let me just give you 1 quick illustration. In the
23 United States Senate, comprised of 100 people in this
24 country out of a population of 260, 270 million people, 2
25 of 100 United States Senators are formerly national
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1 officers of the FFA. What are the chances of that? That's
2 not an accident, it's because it's a reflection of what FFA
3 and great organizations like 4-H do to help young men and
4 women find their way and discover their talent.
5 We at Pennsylvania Farm Bureau can do lots of things
6 working with you to try to put a better focus on this and
7 we appreciate your focusing on the subject today.
8 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Gary. Christian?
9 CHRISTIAN HERR: Thank you very much Chairman Hanna,
10 Chairman Hershey, pleasure to be here with the folks from
11 the education and agricultural committees. I too, will
12 condense my comments.
13 I'm an ag education major from Penn State, son of a
14 former agriculture teacher and past president of the state
15 FFA foundation, appreciate your bringing this subject to
16 light.
17 Just a quick story, a number of years ago I was asked
18 by a person at an event why it was necessary to slaughter
19 livestock when you could go to the supermarket and purchase
20 meat? True story, it happened. The young lady who asked
21 the question understood what she said quickly afterwards,
22 but it highlights the need for agricultural education.
23 And a couple of points along those lines, I do have a
24 white paper to present to you, pass out to the group and
25 you can go over this later, about support for K-12
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1 agricultural education is critically important. Programs
2 and continued support for programs like Market Place for
3 the Mind and Ag in the Classroom, Farm Bureau does an
4 outstanding job of Ag in the Classroom, Department of
5 Agriculture an Outstanding job for Market Place of the
6 Mind, continued support for that program.
7 Like my colleague from Farm Bureau mentioned, support
8 of the FFA. Unfortunately in this year's budget, very
9 tight budget, very difficult decisions, $16,000 was cut
10 from last year's FFA appropriation. Anything you can do as
11 agricultural and educational committee members is greatly
12 appreciated to reinstate that or help this outstanding
13 organization. You all have FFA members in your district,
14 we appreciate that support in the future. Appreciate the
15 support that you already give it but you see these kids,
16 they do a tremendous job.
17 The attention should be given to monitoring education
18 standards, the Department of Education as they relate to
19 agriculture, take a close look at that, make sure that
20 those standards are in place by legislation, by law are
21 being adhered to.
22 And lastly, I had the opportunity this past week to
23 be the guest at the Humane Society of the United States in
24 Washington. Very interesting day, very, 160 million dollar
25 a year organization working to teach our children things
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1 about animal and animal care that may not be in line, is
2 not in line with agriculture and a lot of the ways we think
3 of animals, but we need to do everything we can through
4 various programs, the educational programs that are in
5 place to make sure that we offer a balanced approach to
6 these advocacy groups out there, radical advocacy groups
7 that run contrary to what we believe.
8 So appreciate the opportunity to speak today, look
9 forward to reiterating some of these points in person in
10 the future. Thank you very much.
11 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Christian. Larry?
12 LARRY BREECH: Thank you Mr. Chairman, honorable
13 members of the house, administration, I am Larry Breech,
14 I'm president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union. Briefly,
15 agriculture is the mother industry. No other economic
16 endeavor is more important to the success of our society.
17 "If the brightest and best minds of our society do not
18 engage in agriculture, our civilization is going to cease
19 to exist." So wrote the Roman nobleman, Columella as he
20 travelled with the legions around the birth of Christ. As
21 it was then, so it is now. We have a problem, ladies and
22 gentlemen, we have lost 85% of the youth in agriculture in
23 the last 20 years. They're not coming back.
24 We have got to teach our youth how to read. We fail
25 to teach reading past 6th grade. Dr. Bill Daggett, one of
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1 the notable reading educators in the world has figured out
2 that farmers need to read at one of the highest levels in
3 our society to do their job economy right, level 3, well
4 above that of educators. We need to teach reading skills.
5 Our system is so dynamic that as former Secretary Riley
6 stated, the top 10 demand jobs in 2010 didn't even exist in
7 2004. We need to teach our young people how to solve
8 problems that don't exist yet using skills that haven't
9 been invented yet. We don't do that. We need to adopt the
10 paradigm for progress. That will be essential to moving
11 our education, our agricultural system forward.
12 I'd like to just finish with the thought, we can't
13 avoid learning to use these tools. If you look at the
14 figures and stuff before you you will see that we are at
15 what's called the hockeystick of technology and new
16 knowledge. We are exponentially gaining so much knowledge.
17 Our students need to learn new skills, how to accumulate
18 it, how to sort it, how to digest it and utilize it. "We
19 can't avoid learning these tools and we can't walk away
20 from this." It needs its farmers and its business people,
21 that is agriculture, to be at their best empowered by these
22 new skills and abilities to be successful in the new
23 economy. Our challenge to you is will we develop a vision
24 to do this and will we enact the procedures to enable it?
25 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Thank you Larry. Betsy?
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1 BETSY HUBER: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am Betsy
2 Huber, the president of the Pennsylvania State Grange. The
3 grange was organized in 1867. One of our main purposes
4 was to educate the farmer. Indeed, one of the specific
5 objectives in our original declaration of purposes states,
6 we shall advance the cause of education by all means within
7 our power. We recognize that education is a continuing
8 process. We encourage all to continue their education
9 through adult education classes by continued reading,
10 observation and such other methods as may be available.
11 Farming methods have changed dramatically over the
12 years creating a whole specturm of new and diversified
13 career paths. We have come a long way from the scythe and
14 flail to make McCormick binders and old fashioned thrashing
15 machines that moved from farm to farm. Today's modern
16 combine contains yields monitors that transfer information
17 to the combine's computer and then to a disk which becomes
18 a key instrument in today's precision agriculture. That
19 disk relays information on soil tests divided into 3 foot
20 squares on the farmers field and feeds that information
21 into the computer of a fertilizer spreader truck which
22 then, depending on the map details of low yield or high
23 yield areas, determines and spreads the appropriate amount
24 of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash required to maximize and
25 balance the entire operation. This information can
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1 contribute to substantially increased yields for the farmer
2 at the same or lesser costs for the fertilizers.
3 In addition to the farmer this one example requires
4 the expertise of mechanical engineers, computer science and
5 programming personnel, the scientists who perform the soil
6 tests and manufacturing skills to develop the complex
7 computer mechanical combination of the fertilizer spreader
8 trucks. When people think about agriculture as it used to
9 be this 1 example shows how complex it is now and how many
10 new opportunities are available. The USDA reports that
11 there will be a thousand more jobs in agriculture than
12 there are graduates to fill them this year.
13 In precision agriculture, genetics are playing and
14 will play an increasingly important role in breeding grain
15 for specific purposes. For example, corn altered
16 genetically to produce a higher sugar content will be
17 extremely valuable to the ethanol industry because fewer
18 bushels of corn will be required to produce more gallons of
19 ethanol due to the higher sugar content. Corn breeders are
20 also producing corn with higher phytates for use as feed
21 stock for the monogastrous animals (poultry and swine.)
22 Genetically engineered enhancement of grain has greatly
23 impacted hog production. 50 years ago it took in excess of
24 4 pounds of grain fed to a hog to produce a pound of pork.
25 Today, because of improved genetics in the animal, improved
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1 nutrition and improved housing conditions it requires
2 approximately 2.7 pounds of grain to produce a pound of
3 pork. Also, 50 years ago it took 12 weeks to produce a
4 market broiler, today it takes half that time due to
5 improved genetics and nutrition. Here again the
6 nutritionist, the heating and air conditioning engineer for
7 the animal housing units and the animal geneticist are very
8 important contributors to agriculture.
9 The long and short of this whole issue is that
10 agriculture today involves far more than what many people
11 think of as farming. Career choices are as diverse as
12 healthcare, science, business, manufacturing, mechanical
13 engineering, genetics, animal husbandry, et cetera. While
14 opportunities are extremely broad and getting broader, the
15 various educational curricula available play a key role in
16 future efficiency, productivity and profitability of all
17 agriculture related careers. A great example is the
18 veterinary assistant course that has been mentioned
19 earlier, it's been very successful at Dauphin County
20 Technical School and will be duplicated at Lancaster County
21 this fall and probably at other states in the future. All
22 of the Dauphin County graduates are going on to further
23 education, a fact that will certainly help ease the
24 shortage of large animal veterinarians in years to come.
25 I also wanted to mention the Market Place for the
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1 Mind website. It's extremely valuable in getting career
2 information out to students as well as agricultural
3 information out to teachers in all areas of the state,
4 urban as well as rural. This website provides
5 scientifically sound information, not inflammatory
6 misinformation. The Grange favors maintaining adequate
7 funding in the state budget for this very important
8 resource. Thank you for the opportunity to bring the
9 Grange's thoughts to you this morning.
10 CHAIRMAN HANNA: And thank you Besty, and thanks to
11 all 4 of our panel. Again, I want to apologize for the
12 condensed time frame we find ourselves in. Let me ask if
13 any members of our panel have any questions. Anybody on my
14 right? Anyone on my left? Representative Brooks?
15 REPRESENTATIVE BROOKS: I just had a short comment.
16 I would just like to thank you for your time and apologize
17 for the time constraints and thank you for your
18 understanding.
19 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Chairman Hershey?
20 CHAIRMAN HERSHEY: Listening to all 4 I got the gist
21 that there will be more technical jobs available in
22 agriculture and related fields than there is now and Larry
23 Breech said by 2010 there will be a lot more jobs that
24 aren't available now, so we need to keep our minds open,
25 keep working, keep educating. Thank you for bringing that
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1 to our minds.
2 CHAIRMAN HANNA: Again, we thank all 4 of you, we
3 certainly appreciate your being here and look forward to
4 working with you as we try and address these critical
5 issues.
6 With that I'd like to wrap up and I want to thank
7 everyone for being here today. Again, I want to thank our
8 host, Penn State, and the Ag Progress Days Committee for
9 providing us with this wonderful venue and this wonderful
10 opportunity. I know that the committee learned a lot, and
11 we look forward to digesting that information and hopefully
12 doing what we can on the legislative level to help our
13 agricultural communities. Thank you again for being here
14 today.
15 (Hearing concludes at 12:00.)
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2 I hereby certify that the proceedings and
3 evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes
4 taken by me on the within proceedings and that this is a
5 correct transcript of the same.
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8 Jo Nell Snider Registered Professional Reporter 9 Notary Public
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