Agriculture
The Opportunity
The agriculture sector sits at the nexus of the most critical conversations of our time regarding food supply; climate; energy; and human, animal, and environmental health. Simultaneously, agriculture contributes $132.5 billion in annual economic impact and supports 593,600 jobs across the Commonwealth, making it a significant asset and driver of economic growth in Pennsylvania.
Advanced Agriculture is a term used to describe three key, interrelated areas of development that are highly applicable to Pennsylvania agriculture that build upon our strongest opportunities and address some of our biggest threats.
Areas of Impact
Agri-Tech
Transformative technologies like robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality have widespread applications across agricultural production and processing while addressing some of agriculture’s biggest challenges. Pennsylvania is well positioned to leverage existing in-state assets — like applying the power of the robotics, automation, and AI cluster in the southwest region of the state — toward solving real-world problems for farms, foresters, and other agricultural businesses in the Commonwealth.
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)
Indoor, high-tech farming operations maximize resource efficiency to support year-round production and present an opportunity for rapid development of novel, transformational technologies, given their controlled and stable environment. Pennsylvania already has long-held, demonstrated leadership in CEA with its more than 100-year-old mushroom industry, leading the country in both production volume and value of sales. Given this history and dense industry concentration, Pennsylvania is in a tremendous position to capitalize on CEA-targeted advancements, prove out new technologies, and expand local production of food and biopharma crops, while simultaneously capturing revenue from what is currently a heavily import-dependent market.
Climate Smart & Organic Agriculture
“Climate smart” describes both biological and technology-enabled methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, sequestering carbon, and protecting soil health while contributing to a waste-to-value economy. Pennsylvania’s organic agriculture sector, in particular, has seen a surge in production acreage and sales over the last decade that far outpaces the national average, presenting the Commonwealth with a significant and timely opportunity to grow its global leadership in this area.
Pennsylvania Advanced Agriculture Cross-Sector Collaborative
Launched in April 2023, this statewide network brings together leaders from industry, government, organized labor, nonprofits, and academia to create the conditions for innovative, technological, and market-driven solutions that will bolster agriculture as a legacy industry in Pennsylvania’s economy while sustaining and creating jobs.
View a list of Advanced Agriculture Collaborative Participants.
The following digital handout, developed in consultation with stakeholders on Team Pennsylvania’s Advanced Agriculture Collaborative, summarizes aspects of the issue of access to capital for agriculture, particularly as it relates to Pennsylvania’s future growth in the sector and economic competitiveness, and raises key issues to contend with for funding the future of agriculture in the Commonwealth:
Funding the Future of Pennsylvania Agriculture: Addressing Access to Capital
Ready to be involved?
Contact agriculture@teampa.com to learn more about our agriculture work.