Let the agricultural voyeurism begin. Exhibits are just about ready for the public opening of the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Saturday.
One new exhibit shows farm animals fit for consumption in their husbandry habitats. Chris Herr, with the group PennAg Industries, said it’s a kind of edgy way to expel the mystery of whence the eggs and bacon come.
“Cages for laying hens, and crates for sows,” Herr pointed out. He said the idea for the exhibit came from past efforts to show people what animal farming practices look like. “We thought, well, we have nothing to apologize for. We’re going to show the general public what’s inside those steel barns that they see up and down the highways of Pennsylvania.”
Herr said some may feel unsettled by the exhibit. Who wants to walk past a veal calf on their way to the food court?
“If we’re afraid of the way we’re raising animals, then we probably ought to change it. If we’re afraid to show them, if we’re apologizing for those things, then maybe we ought to change it,” said Herr. Rather than apologize, he said the display is meant to welcome the spectrum of reactions to animal production.
“It’s an exhibit, much like an art exhibit where [visitors] can come in and sort of observe and reflect on it and take away from it their own feelings about it,” said Herr.
Many exhibits focus on farming practices, but at least one section is devoted to making those practices work for the environment. David Wise from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will speak at the event about his work with farmers to fight river pollution by creating forested buffers.
They’re barriers along a stream where trees are planted.
“In time the area would be forested as opposed to be in production or being under hoof with livestock,” said Wise.
Such buffers have long been thought of as a good filter for pollution. But Wise said just a few years ago scientists learned that tree-lined streams actually become self-cleaning agents, and can process nitrogen pollutants found in farmland runoff.
“A stream that has forested buffers really is substantially ahead of the game, ahead of the pace in terms of its ability to remove pollution that gets to it,” he said.
Farmers will also be on hand at the show to talk about their harvest and equipment. Daryl Alger grows soybeans in Lebanon County grain farmer. He stood next to a $300,000 as he explained the soybean production process.
“I would imagine there’d be some folks from the city areas that probably have seen soy beans growing in the fields in the summer when they’re pretty and green,” began Alger.
He continued: “When the leaves fall off and they turn dark brown… they’re not really a pretty crop, I’d say, for the consumer. But that’s what’s left, and that’s what a farmer wants.”
The Farm Show is billed as the nation's largest indoor agricultural exhibition. It draws some 400,000 visitors and features about 6,000 animals. Doors open at 8am on Saturday.
