Although the 15th District may be best known for its dynamic manufacturing and health care industry, our region remains a vibrant center for agriculture production. Today, over 1,200 picturesque farms can be found throughout the rolling hills of Berks, Lehigh, Montgomery and Northampton Counties. These farms produce a wide variety of commodities, including dairy products, grains, poultry, corn, soybeans, fruit, and even Christmas trees.
In our area, farms covers over 166,000 acres of land. Keeping these farms producing not only benefits the local economy, but helps preserve dwindling green spaces. Since entering Congress, I have worked to extend tax incentives for private land conservation. For many farmers, these incentives provide a real alternative to selling their land for commercial development. I have also fought to eliminate the estate tax or ‘death tax’, which can destroy family-owned farms. Ending this damaging tax policy would allow more farms to be passed on from generation-to-generation and help prevent the gradual encroachment of development.
When traveling through our area, it’s easy to notice a growing number of vineyards. To support this fledgling local industry, I worked with the U.S. Department of Treasury to designate “Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania” as an American Viticultural Area (AVA). This important AVA designation encompasses 9 wineries and over 20 acres of vineyard in the southeastern Pennsylvania, and provides our growers and producers with a unique selling point in the rapidly emerging local wine market.