We were honored to host Senator Mastriano and Representative Torren Ecker at our farm on September 6, 2024.
Featured left to right, Terra Slaybaugh, Wendy Slaybaugh, PA Representative Torren Ecker, Senator Doug Mastriano, Rebecca Mastriano, Blake Slaybaugh and David Slaybaugh.
Federal Regulations and Small Agricultural Farm Businesses
Advocating and bringing awareness to the burden of federal regulations that small agricultural farm businesses face on a day-to-day basis is important to us. We were honored and excited that we were given the chance to share some of these difficulties with Senator Doug Mastriano and PA State Representative Torren Ecker. A small interactive gathering took place where topics such as labor shortage, Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR,) H-2A program regulations, and many more topics were discussed. They were able to hear first-hand how often we struggle to comply with expensive, confusing and time consuming regulations. With small farms making up such a significant portion of farming, we believe it’s important to advocate for effective policies that will allow us farmers to thrive. What better way for this, than building relationships with our representatives. We truly appreciated their level of engagement with all of us here at the farm. It is their willingness to learn and understand our operations that can impact and help us bring positive change. While there still lie many challenges ahead, we remain optimistic. Overall from our perspective, it was a very good and informative day and we felt very fortunate to have been a part of it.
Senator Doug Mastriano, David Slaybaugh, Blake Slaybaugh at one of our Gala blocks
During their visit, the Senator got a chance to tour our farm and a glimpse of full apple harvesting. Blake Slaybaugh also explained the process of high density planting!
Blake Slaybaugh explaining the process of high density planting to Rep. Ecker.
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