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Luzerne County farmer Raleigh Masters has been elected the new state chairman of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer and Rancher (YF&R) Committee, the organization announced last week.
With that move, Masters, of Sugarloaf, also assumes a position on the bureau’s state Board of Directors.
As well, Columbia County farmer Charlie Porter has been elected as a new member of the Board of Directors representing District 4, which includes farmers from Carbon, Columbia, Luzerne, and Schuylkill Counties.
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is the state’s largest farm organization, representing farms of every size and commodity across Pennsylvania.
Masters’ vision
“As a member of the YF&R committee for six years, I’ve had the opportunity to attend several national conferences, where we shared ideas with young farmers from other states on how to improve our overall efforts and to better engage with our peers,” Masters said in a statement released by the bureau. “I think we are capable of doing bigger and more impressive things in Pennsylvania.”
A potato and grain farmer, Masters works in partnership with his wife, in-laws and other family members. One of his priorities will be to increase outreach efforts to engage with younger farmers.
“I’d like to create excitement among young farmers from across the state to get move involved in YF&R activities and to build a foundation for a strong committee in the future,” he added. “By increasing participation among young farmers, we can do more to identify opportunities and combat challenges facing young farmers, without relying on a small group of people to do all the work.”
He also wants to see young adults who have represented agriculture in their counties and across the state have an opportunity to continue to be engaged in activities and careers associated with farming, according to the bureau.
“I’m interested in having conversations with members of 4-H and FFA, who may not be aware that YF&R is a great place for them to utilize their talents after they’ve graduated high school or college,” Masters added.
Porter’s role
Porter, who grows a variety of crops on 300 acres of land and runs a beef cow-calf operation, has been a Farm Bureau member for more than 40 years, a release stated. He also has held a variety of positions within the Colombia County Farm Bureau and is currently its first vice president.
He also has been a major advocate of farmers engaging with the public through his work on the Agriculture Promotion Committee, and played a key role in the county receiving a County Activities of Excellence award for its “State of Ag” newspaper columns, among other honors.
“I’d like to play a role in motivating other members of the state board and farmers to play a larger role in promoting agriculture to the non-farm community,” Porter said. “While serving on PFB’s Ag Promotion Committee, I meet a lot of people from counties across the state who are interested in talking to the public about farming and what goes into producing healthy food.”