Western Pa. farms receive money through Farm Vitality Grants

Six farms in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties were among several across the state that received funding through the Farm Vitality Grants.

The grants, which were announced in January under the 2019 Pennsylvania Farm Bill, are aimed at enhancing the state’s family farms by funding professional services like financial and tax planning, marketing, researching and consulting.

The grants will reimburse up to $7,500 of the cost of the funded service.

Among those who were granted funding are Urban Homesteaders LLC and Farms Close by, both in Allegheny County, along with Kepple Farms and farms owned by Matthew Carr, William Smith and Barbara McMillan, all in Westmoreland County.

“When Pennsylvania farm families succeed, Pennsylvania succeeds,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in a news release. “These grants will help farm families with all types and sizes of operations create sound plans for their future, and explore the feasibility, profitability and sustainability of those plans.”

With the help of the grants, farms across the state have proposed plans to conserve land and water resources, expand capabilities to produce through organic or aquaponic methods, process dairy into yogurt, cheese or other products and add direct-to-customers sales.

Seventeen recipients will also be involved in the Pasa Sustainable Agriculture’s Diversified Vegetable Financial Benchmarking Study, which aims to achieve targets for revenues and scale and profit margins. Pasa is a sustainable agriculture association.

“The Farm Vitality Grants program will make a tremendous difference in farmers being able to create plans for a more viable future,” Pasa Executive Director Hannah Smith-Brubaker said in the release. “None of us could have anticipated the extreme demands that the current pandemic would have on farmers, and we all know that having a plan helps us weather unforeseen circumstances, so the timing for this program couldn’t have been better.”