DELAWARE – Delaware’s lone House Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester is unveiling a new plan to support agriculture across the First State. Rep. Blunt Rochester tells WMDT that the ideas for the plan came from Delawareans. She heard from them as she traveled on her Delivering For Delaware tour.

Farmers Facing Pressure

The Congresswoman says farmers face many pressures. They include supply chain challenges and the threat of diseases like highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Those in the agriculture industry also deal with a changing climate and razor-thin margins in a tight economy.

One in four Delawareans live in rural areas. Rep. Blunt Rochester says coming up with creative solutions to tackle the challenges that many of them face is crucial.

“We’ve seen a decline in our family farms. In Delaware, I think it’s about 90% of our farms are family farms. We want to continue supporting them,” Rep. Blunt Rochester said. “It’s farming, but it’s also biotech; it’s also finding new cures for things. That’s all part of agriculture.”

Protecting Producers

Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse agrees that those challenges are mounting, especially involving the supply chain.

“We really need to make sure that we are able to get adequate products and supplies from foreign countries where we’re importing nitrogen, potash, and other things for our producers,” Secretary Scuse said. “Better managing our supply chain to help ensure that we don’t have those disruptions is extremely important to everyone, not just producers.”

Sometimes farmers are faced with even tougher challenges, like losses of animals from diseases such as HPAI. Secretary Scuse says protecting producers is vital.

“When contract growers get hit with [HPAI], they’re not the ones that receive the compensation. Yes, they’ll be compensated for cleaning up their facilities, but it’s lost revenue for those producers,” Secretary Scuse said.

Community Care Means Farmers’ Success

However, Rep. Blunt Rochester says supporting farmers off of the fields is equally as important.

The Congresswoman’s agriculture plan urges more resources for housing, health care, lower utility costs, increasing education, and delivering the latest in technology to rural communities.

“Making sure that we’re paying attention to what we’ve done but also what we can do, that’s what this plan is all about,” Rep. Blunt Rochester said. “As we look towards the future, and look towards the present, we’ve got to make sure that we’re using all of the tools at our disposal.”

The need to increase access to technology is growing just as fast as the innovation itself is progressing, says Secretary Scuse.

“Today’s agriculture world is high-tech. We are very reliant now on high-speed internet at all of our farms,” Secretary Scuse said. “We have planters now that are relying on GPS to go straight across the field to change plant populations, to change nutrient loads on different areas of the field as needed.”

Inspiring the Next Generation

All of these efforts, Rep. Blunt Rochester says, inform the way that Delaware will support its next generation of farmers. And extending that attention to the younger generations is key in that work, she says.

The Congresswoman points to farm-to-table programs, and innovative projects like vertical farming in First State schools, primary to higher education. Rep. Blunt Rochester is also touting her success in securing Congressional community project funding to bring the Delaware State Fair’s 4H and Future Farmers of America facility up to speed.

And, the Food Bank of Delaware’s work in growing fresh produce and serving it to the hungry is another creative solution, says the Congresswoman. Other important efforts, she says, include inspiring and enabling urban communities to connect agriculture.

“Our goal is to encourage [young people], to inform them, and to educate them about what the possibilities are, and really to make it fun and cool,” Rep. Blunt Rochester said. “We tried to look at the whole continuum, from little kids all the way up to our current farmers, to make sure that they have the resources they need, as well.”

Secretary Scuse says it will be extremely important to continue inspiring the younger generations. Part of that is helping them to see that farming isn’t just about sowing seeds and tending livestock. Agriculture is also dependent on non-production jobs, from biotechnology to aeronautics.

“You could run the whole list and there’s probably an area in agriculture that fits in,” Secretary Scuse said. “We need our brightest and best minds to continue in these areas that are actually going to help production agriculture.”

Collaborating on Capitol Hill

Looking ahead, Rep. Blunt Rochester says collaborating with other lawmakers on Capitol Hill is going to be vital to pushing these efforts forward. The Congresswoman is the first person from the state of Delaware to serve on the House Agriculture Committee in 120 years.

And, Rep. Blunt Rochester says she’s seen first-hand how agriculture touches so many lives. The Congresswoman recounts an incident in line at the grocery store in which she noticed a father with three children replacing a bag of grapes that rang up at $9.

“It shook me to my core, and it made me realize that I can do something,” Rep. Blunt Rochester said. “Every single one of us is impacted by agriculture in this country and in this state, and [it relates to] the focus on keeping the costs of goods down so people can afford them.”

To download and read Rep. Blunt Rochester’s agriculture plan, click here.