Post from Truth Social

Beth Lieber is a small business owner former dairy farmer and current beef and crops farmer from Westmoreland County like to introduce Beth Lieber Mr. President government and elected officials and honored guests Thank you for coming to Western PA again today to hear our concerns and address solutions My name is Beth Lieber and to play opposite of Nick. I married the farmer's son Who is here today with my two sons Levi and Owen? I'm a Christian a wife a mother of three and a small business owner in that particular order. I with my husband Brian own Own and operate a direct-to-consumer on the farm market Featuring beef that has been raised on the family farm in Donegal, PA We procure lamb chicken and pork from other small farms in Pennsylvania like ours and all the animals are harvested through local processors to our specifications Since opening in 2017 our goal has been to provide our customers with consistently high quality products while also supporting other small businesses and our community in May of 2020 we expanded our store and offerings due to the needs of consumers during COVID and to offer other businesses another avenue to sell their goods We now offer several agricultural and specialty items all produced in or near the Laurel Highlands area My husband is also a full-time owner operator of transport in the dry bulk industry And I also work part-time for a Christian school is the food service director I share our occupations as an introduction to explain the challenges due in large part to the inflation that we have seen That we have witnessed and experienced both as a producer and a retailer and also a consumer as a truck driver My husband normally fills his truck two to three times a week with diesel in January of 21 just after Biden revoked the Keystone Pipeline One of our fuel receipts totaled five hundred and ninety two dollars for two hundred gallons of fuel That was two dollars and ninety nine cents a gallon In May of 22 a year after our energy independence moved overseas Feel one of our fuel receipts totaled nine hundred and ninety six dollars for one hundred and sixty six gallons of fuel That was five dollars and ninety nine cents a gallon That three dollars per gallon more means upwards of eight hundred to twelve hundred dollars a week in Fuel expense and less to meet our business and family's needs This net zero approach has also increased farm costs exponentially, which I know comes as no surprise to anyone here today Fertilizer is up thirty to sixty percent in 2024 not to mention the increase in seed cost the fuel the parts and supplies and man hours for planting Electric has doubled from around four hundred dollars a month in 21 to eight hundred dollars a month this year Just to run some equipment and the lights that doesn't include heat in 2023 feeder cap prices reached an all-time high Coupled with the increase in other commodities and prices to farmers not keeping up This equals very small profit margins and therefore we have been purchasing a fraction of the feeder cattle that we have the capacity to feed Our farm currently feeds out approximately 70 to 100 head of cattle and that is reduced from 180 to 200 head just two to four years ago But we have the capacity to feed upwards of four to five hundred Actually, we are currently feeding only enough to satisfy our direct-to-consumer base as it remains somewhat constant the seasonal tourism of camping and skiing in the Laurel Highlands contributes to our sales and we are located in the heart of the Laurel Highlands I Handle all of the customer relations for our on the farm market and our customers often share their concerns with me These are some of the things I hear most often. I really don't need a lot of beef anymore. It costs too much. I Can't afford to purchase a whole animal this year. What smaller packages do you offer? We are visiting from out of town. We don't have any places like this where we are from and Recently, the thing I've heard the most is I used to purchase bulk beef from a farmer nearby Friend relative, but they don't have cattle anymore Just last week a local dairy in operation for over 65 years announced the closure of their bottling operations due to rising costs of supplies and down demand Other farms in the area have declared bankruptcy or sold-off property and down sized I can't even get started on the detrimental effects that the weather has had on the vegetation in our region this year From hailstorms to droughts our corn and soybeans were among the victims nevertheless Farmers are no strangers to the risk and the gamble that they take every single day in order to do what they know and Love and that is to farm their land And as always this too shall pass hopefully soon Jeremiah 29 11 tells us for I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you and not harm you Plans to give you hope and a future I'm not an economist and to be honest foreign policy is not in my wheelhouse, but this roundtable event is to address On how to protect our farms and food from China. It seems like basic conservative common sense to me Do what it takes to keep our farms producing our markets selling and our customers buying. Thank you for your time

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