Political Quotes

“Agriculture is Pennsylvania's number one industry and Pennsylvania has one of the largest rural populations in the nation. There are 45,000 farms in the state and Pennsylvania is second in the nation in the number of acres of farmland preserved for agricultural use. We all depend on the food that these hard working citizens produce for our tables. As we all know, 1999 has been a bad year for farmers. Month after month brought no rain. September brought hurricane rains. There is a small dairy farmer in my district who raises fresh market sweet corn to sell from a roadside stand. His normal production is about 28,000 ears. This year, his production was 500 ears. This farmer has already purchased hay from out of state for his dairy herd and will do so repeatedly through the winter. This is one small example of the effect of the devastating 100-year drought in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania farmers have lost $700 million. This bill provides an anemic $58 million for our farmers. Our farmers need a combination of direct assistance, emergency livestock feed assistance and low interest disaster loans. Unfortunately, this bill does not adequately meet these needs.”