As we are all aware, agriculture is the No. 1 industry in our great state. Recent possibly unconstitutional budget cuts have held up funds for a great Pennsylvania organization, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, which is administering and supporting many ag conservation and improvement projects that help keep our No. 1 farmers, well, No. 1.

As a full-time business owner and part time farmer for 40 years, I understand the importance of trimming budgets. The Department Of Government Efficiency cuts, however, were haphazard, broad and poorly or not thought out at all.

I am asking for your help in freeing up these Pennsylvania designated funds for agriculture.

Please understand that many projects are getting started or partway done and with the rug being pulled out from under the feet of our hardworking farmers, many will be scrambling to find funds to finish projects or give up on important improvements that were going to keep them competitive and profitable.

Many of these projects had to do with the changing climate we all live in because farmers, whether anyone else will admit it, know that climate change is real, impactful and challenges their farming plans every year.

Please support the hardworking growers in our state and lobby your fellow politicians to at least allow funds to flow to started projects. It makes no sense, nor is it ethical, to make a promise and then break a promise.

T. Lyle Ferderber, president, Frankferd Farms Foods, Clinton Township