CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — With Veterans Day this week, one of the priorities remains providing outreach services for those who have served our country, and that includes more opportunities for vets involved in farming.
Chris Ishler is co-owner of Egg Hill Farm and Sinking Creek Meats near Spring Mills in Centre County.
“I was a high school senior,” Ishler explained. "After the 2001 attacks, like many others, I signed up for service for my country. I went into army reserve as a mechanic.”
Ishler was deployed to Iraq for eight years.
When he returned home to the family farm, they were raising crops.
Several years passedand then romance.
“I met Eliza at a local hay auction,” Ishler said. “Kinda funny how we met. I had a farm with no animals. She had animals with no farm.”
In 2019, the couple opened the beef operation, Sinking Creek Meats. It’s now showcased in the state Ag Department's Homegrown Heroes Program.
By looking for the program logo on a variety of goods, consumers can support veteran operated businesses.
In the past two years alone, the state has invested $3 million in Homegrown by Heroes that also connects vets with resources, grants, opportunities and other vets in agriculture.
“Two percent of our general operation has been in military service to our country,” says Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russel Redding. “Two percent of the population is involved in farming. Think of how we depend on four percent of our population. Two percent make sure we can sleep at night. Two percent feed us. I'll stand by that four percent anytime.”
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