The Lehigh Valley has developed significantly in recent decades. In the 1980s and 2000s we experienced a major real estate boom, and more recently our growing place in the global e-commerce economy has produced buildings on a scale we have never seen before. And all this growth has led to more congestion on our roads. That’s the price of being an attractive place where people want to live and entrepreneurs believe they can thrive.
There is no doubt that over the last 40 years we have become a medium-sized region on the way to becoming a large region. But for all our growth, the Lehigh Valley remains a largely agricultural region. It may not feel like it when you see the taillights along Route 22 in frustration at 5pm on a weekday, but if you veer off the beaten path in many places in our valley, you’ll find miles of glorious, beautiful, rolling fields .
According to the most recent agricultural census – new agricultural census numbers are scheduled to be released in February – there are 840 farms in the Lehigh Valley. Unlike the massive farms in the Midwest, most of our farms are small family farms, more than half of which are less than 50 acres in size. About a third of them are animal and two thirds are plant. Most are oilseed and grain farms with crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and rye. And while you’ll often see tractors or combines passing by on the horizon, many of our farmers are innovators with next-generation technology.
Becky Bradley, Managing Director, LVPC. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission celebrated a $21.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the Riverside Drive Multimodal Revitalization Corridor Project on Friday, November 19, 2021.
Brian Dietrich operates his family-owned, 400-acre Lynnacres Farm in Lynn Township. One of the few dairy farms in the region, Lynnacres uses a robotic milking system that automatically milks each of its 200 cows approximately three times a day. The cows are trained to get to the machines and the laser-guided milkers collect data for each cow. Dietrich can track everything from his cell phone. He knows which cows are milking and which were not with the milker. He knows the quality of each cow’s milk and whether any of the cows are sick.
“My grandfather farmed with horses, my father farmed with tractors and I farmed with computers,” Dietrich said. “If you don’t innovate, you’ll fall behind and probably won’t survive in this environment.”
“This environment” is one in which Lehigh Valley farmers say the cost of their expenses has continued to rise over the past 40 years while the prices of the goods they produce have remained stagnant. This dynamic is causing many to evolve to meet a new economy and new expectations. Some even customize the crops grown.
Because most of our farmers have relatively small acreage, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a profit from the grains and oilseeds that have dominated agriculture in the region for decades. Therefore, some are turning more to so-called specialty crops such as pumpkins, apples, microgreens or sunflowers, while others are using greenhouses and even duck houses to increase their profit per hectare. Many are trying more direct-to-consumer sales.
But these farm stands and stalls at our beloved farmers markets bring in, on average, less than $5,000 per operator per year. Others supplement their harvest income with agritourism such as hayrides, corn mazes or agricultural experience packages. Still, the corn maze, Christmas tree farms, and apple orchard, if not diversified, are borderline seasonal and may not bring in enough profit to keep the propane tank filled and the mortgage paid.
Family sustaining farming typically occurs on a much larger scale, such as Brian Dietrich’s dairy farm. His family farm is connected to Land O’Lakes and even transports milk to Hershey for chocolate. Our farmers, like the Dietrichs, support the “production” of milk, which is then packaged or processed into many other consumer products.
So yes, our farmers are agricultural producers. I have heard too often from the economic development community that agricultural revenue represents only a small fraction of the region’s skyrocketing gross domestic product. But that’s simply not true when you consider the value of the end products made from the raw materials from our farms combined with our other natural resources like water and wood.
Without Jaindl Farms, there wouldn’t be a single fresh turkey at Wegmans or Whole Foods, and without the Lehigh Valley wheat and rye operations, there wouldn’t be Thomas’ English muffins. Made in one of those huge warehouse-like buildings in Upper Macungie, this English muffin is best served with Land O’Lakes butter, made from the milk of the Dietrich cows located less than 10 miles up Route 100.
Agriculture of all makes and models is vital to our economy, character and quality of life. This also applies to the processing and production of finished goods from its raw materials. The relationship between farms, farmers, producers and all of us as consumers is undeniable. However, you cannot sit together for this holiday meal without the land and people who started it all, our farms and our farmers.
In a community-wide survey of more than 1,000 people, 59% said “the thing they liked most about living in the Lehigh Valley” was the natural landscape and farmland. This is clear evidence of the attractiveness of this region. People value it so much that we hear almost daily from people whose biggest fear for the region is that it will lose all of its farmland.
There is no question that major industrial developments have emerged over the past eight years as the region has become a larger part of the global e-commerce and food and beverage manufacturing economy. It is certainly true that some were built where grain was once grown. But I want to assure everyone that we will never lose all our farmland. In fact it is not possible.
Lehigh and Northampton counties have some of the most active agricultural land conservation programs in the state. Together they have preserved more than 640 farms totaling nearly 47,000 hectares. If you try to imagine it, it’s almost 73 square miles or 35,000 soccer fields or 435,200 regulation basketball courts.
Fully 10% of all land in the Lehigh Valley has already been legally and permanently preserved as farmland, and both counties invest about $1 million annually to preserve hundreds more acres each year. The counties’ $1 million each is supplemented by state dollars for agricultural land preservation and, in many cases, by local funds.
Agriculture is an important part of our brand and nothing will change. And regardless of whether the farmer has chosen to preserve the land or simply continue to farm it as before, we must keep all of our assets intact. No farms, no food after all.
So as you reminisce with your friends and family over potato stuffing, apple pie and roast turkey, remember that many of the farming families who have given the region such a laudable identity need our support. With a glass of local spirits, let’s toast the people and land that make our region home, our farmers and their farms.
They help preserve an identity that has been in the making for almost 300 years.
Becky Bradley is executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission
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