Shapiro Administration Announces 2026 Pennsylvania Farm Show Theme: ‘Growing a Nation’

Oct 06, 2025

Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced the 2026 Pennsylvania Farm Show theme, “Growing a Nation” at historic Wyck House Farm and Garden in Philadelphia. The 2026 Farm Show Pennsylvania’s State Fair™ will kick off a year of America250PA special events and celebrations bringing millions of visitors to the Commonwealth recognizing Pennsylvania’s leading role in the founding of our American democracy.

“America was born in Pennsylvania, with its identity deeply rooted in agriculture,” said Secretary Redding. “Two hundred and fifty years later, Pennsylvania agriculture is still leading our nation, supplying the economic power, ingenuity, and innovation that is growing our nation’s future. Farm Show celebrates the outstanding products and people who make up our powerhouse agriculture and food industry, supporting 600,000 jobs pouring more than $132.5 billion into our state economy, including exports of more than $4 billion in agriculture and forest products not only keeping our heritage alive, but supplying innovative solutions to our nation’s greatest challenges.

“The Shapiro Administration is proud to support Pennsylvania agriculture and the innovative, tenacious Pennsylvanians who are growing a vibrant tomorrow for our Commonwealth and our nation,” he continued.

Wyck House Farm and Garden uniquely bridges the past and future of American agriculture. As one of the oldest urban farms in the country continuously cultivated for over 300 years Wyck stands as a living example of how agriculture has shaped communities, sustained families, and rooted American values in the soil of our cities and towns. Its legacy makes it the ideal backdrop for revealing a theme that connects generations of growers to the broader American story.

"For 300 years, residents of Wyck have used the land to nurture and nourish themselves and their community,” said Wyck Executive Director Kim Staub. “Today, we use the past as inspiration for the present, sharing a harvest that puts food on the table and strengthens connections in our urban neighborhood."

Source : pa.gov

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators