Fifth generation Penns Valley farm finds support, success through Homegrown by Heroes program
For five generations, Egg Hill Farm has been at Ishler Lane in Spring Mills. But it wasn’t until more recently that Sinking Creek Meats began, which is part of the PA Preferred and Homegrown by Heroes programs.
Ahead of Veterans Day, Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, Brigadier General Maureen Weigl, deputy adjutant general for Veterans Affairs, and Joshua Scheinberg, eastern regional director and military veteran’s coordinator, visited Sinking Creek Meats Wednesday.
“We recognize that there are roughly 2% of our community at large here in the United States who have served in the military. There’s another 2% that are engaged in production agriculture. So think about responsibilities that we place on 4% of our population; 2% allow us to sleep well and another 2% allow us to eat. That is a 4% that I’ll stand with any day,” Redding said.
Since 2015, the department has been engaged with supporting veterans in agriculture, Scheinberg said. The Homegrown By Heroes program is an initiative for veterans coordinated by the Farmer Veteran Coalition to build brand recognition. It is a program for PA Preferred members who are veterans.
The PA Preferred program launched in 2004 and the PA Preferred logo on product packaging ensures that the main ingredients were sourced from a Pennsylvania farm. Through the PA Preferred Act approved in 2011, PA Preferred was officially named as Pennsylvania’s statewide branding program for local food and farms. By blending the PA Preferred logo with the Homegrown by Heroes Logo, consumers can identify it and support veteran-owned businesses.
Since Governor Tom Wolf signed the Pennsylvania Farm Bill in 2019, $3 million has been invested in the PA Preferred Homegrown By Heroes program to increase membership, improve consumer brand awareness and offer services to farmer-veteran members to enhance marketing and business growth, according to a press release.
Chris Ishler, a fifth generation farmer at Egg Hill Farm and co-owner of Sinking Creek Meats, shared his farming story as a veteran and how the Homegrown by Heroes program has helped them.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Ishler felt the call of duty to serve his country. He joined the United States Army Reserve as a mechanic, and after basic and advanced training, he was home for a few weeks before being deployed. He reported to Fort Drum, New York, to mobilize to Iraq in 2003.
When he returned home, he began farming again. He raised mostly soybeans and corn before meeting his partner, Eliza Walton, a few years later.
“I met Eliza at a local hay auction,” Ishler said. “As luck would have it, she had some cows and no farm and I had a farm and no cows. So I guess you could say it’s a match made farmer heaven.”
They mostly sold their feeder calves at auctions and then in the spring 2019, they began to raise and directly market their finished cattle through Sinking Creek Meats.
“We realized people wanted to know where their food comes from, and how and who raises it,” Ishler said. “The Homegrown by Heroes program through the PA preferred network is a great resource for veterans in agriculture. With the Homegrown by Heroes label, it helps differentiate our product on the market as a veteran-owned business.”
Last year, the PA Department of Agriculture established a military veterans coordinator position in recognition of the many opportunities in agriculture for veterans with valuable transferable skills, a press release stated. Scheinberg serves in this role, as he’s a U.S. Air Force veteran and spent about 10 years working in food safety and technical support for small meat processing and the food industry.
Scheinberg said that having the Homegrown by Heroes brand incorporated into the PA Preferred program has helped those businesses stand out.
“This has been a really great opportunity for veterans that are producing agricultural products to use this brand to highlight what they’re doing to help promote themselves and to stand out within the marketplace,” Scheinberg said.
Weigl applauded the Homegrown by Heroes program as it helps veterans while they’re starting out and the PA Preferred logo shows people the food is of quality and can be trusted.
“It’s not only helping them get their foot in the door into this industry ... but it’s also teaching them how to be a small business,” Weigl said. “When I retired, I started my own business, a woman-owned, service disabled veteran owned, small business. It’s challenging, it’s very difficult to not only figure out how to do the paperwork to get established, but then how do you grow and how do you sell your business?”
Weigl said having the PA Preferred logo on products made by businesses such as Sinking Creek Meats is “enormously important for them to be successful.”
For more information on Sinking Creek Meats, or to view its products, visits www.sinkingcreekmeats.com. Their products can also be purchased through Centre Markets.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 5:06 PM.
