May 07, 2025 - Harrisburg, PA
The Shapiro Administration welcomed more than 1,300 K-8 students and educators from across southcentral Pennsylvania to the PA Farm Show Complex for hands-on agriculture career exploration during 2025 Farm City Day. Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding toured career exhibits with Acting Education Secretary Dr. Carrie Rowe and students learning firsthand about careers ranging from dairy farming and beekeeping to sustainable forestry, and technology making our planet and food healthier."Agriculture today is not what it was at the beginning of this century, or even this decade," Secretary Redding said. "We haven't even dreamed up the technology that will be shaping agriculture when they get out of school, and we will need workers who can change along with the field - flexible problem-solvers who can imagine how new technology can make agriculture better and more efficient, food safer, and our planet healthier. Farm City Day is about sparking student imaginations and broadening their minds to aspects of agriculture they may have never thought of - how plants, and trees, can end up as fabric, plastics, and building materials, and how food waste can become fuel and electricity."Farm City Day brings elementary and middle school students to spend a day interacting with horses, rabbits, lambs, goats, and pigs, and the innovative people who raise animals and crops on Pennsylvania farms, along with others whose work helps ensure healthy food and other products that enrich their daily lives.Interviews in Order:Russell Redding - Secretary, PA Dept. of Agriculture Shannon Hawkins - Teacher, Pennsylvania STEAM Academy, Harrisburg, PAKendall Carter-Mercado - 5th Grade Student, Pennsylvania STEAM Academy, Harrisburg, PA
An Official Pennsylvania Government Website