The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau recently gave its support for House Bill 2429 that would reopen garden centers so long as the businesses use appropriate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standards.
“Garden centers are life-sustaining businesses,” bureau President Rick Ebert said, “These businesses can reopen following the same social distancing guidelines that other retail establishments are following. The bipartisan passage of House Bill 2429 demonstrates strong support for allowing garden centers to open. We hope that Gov. (Tom) Wolf will quickly address this situation and allow these businesses to serve the public.”
Garden centers are life-sustaining, the bureau said, because people grow vegetables to supplement their food budget, and communities rely on the centers for other necessities.
Wolf has set a target date of May 8 to partially reopen 24 of Pennsylvania’s counties. This is not good enough, the bureau said, because garden centers and the customers who use them are spread throughout the state.
The bureau is urging Wolf to reopen garden centers statewide immediately.
Garden center owners cannot finally afford a delay in reopening, Ebert said, because spring is family-owned garden centers’ busiest time of year.
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is the state’s largest farm organization.