Page 9 - Rick Ebert News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Targeting polluted streams, a proposed program could set up a framework to provide needed money to farms in Lancaster County and across the state, where pressure is high to make environmental improvements. That was the message shared by Republican state Sen. Gene Yaw of Lycoming County, who spoke Monday in York County to promote his Senate Bill 465, which has support among farmers and conservation stewards. But even with that support, Yaw acknowledged there is an obstacle. Specifically, no dedicated funding source yet exists to get the proposed program off the ground. “Funding is an issu...

From Mirror staff reports CAMP HILL — Pennsylvania Farm Bureau applauded the Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ bipartisan passage of House Bill 101, saying the legislation would help Pennsylvania family farms grow their rural communities and remain viable through a changing farm economy. The bill would offer commonsense legal protection to farms that invite the public onto their property for agritourism activities, such as corn mazes, pick-your-own produce, hayrides and similar attractions. Specifically, the bill would grant farms that offer agritourism activities reasonable protect...

wfrank@altoonamirror.com Mirror photo by Walt Frank Anthony Rice, shown with his steer, Isaiah, recently became part owner of Clover Creek Cheese Cellar LLC near Williamsburg. Property owners in Pennsylvania have a new financial incentive to help beginning farmers access the tools they need to get their start in agriculture. The Beginning Farmer Tax Credit provides an income tax credit for selling or leasing agricultural assets such as land, livestock, facilities and equipment to a beginning farmer. The program, administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Developmen...

Worried about mounting conservation mandates and their prohibitive costs, local stakeholders continue to raise concerns about the development of a plan to clean previously overlooked pollution piled up behind a Maryland dam. The strategy, which is in its final planning stages, is likely to have an impact in Lancaster County, especially its farmland, which contributes pollutants to the downstream Conowingo Dam. Now, officials in the county and across the state are concerned about the Conowingo project's costs, as well as its potential to draw resources away from other local clean-water efforts...