This week, the state’s secretary of agriculture dropped by Slippery Rock to observe the success of a program that is contributing essential services to Butler County: providing education and job opportunities for young adults with disabilities, which in turn will help to replace the state’s aging agricultural industry workforce with a new generation of employees.

Russell Redding, the state’s secretary of agriculture, visited the North Country Brewing Company on Monday as part of the Planting the Seed Tour to meet with young adults with disabilities who are learning about aquaponic technology — which combines raising aquatic animals with cultivating plants in water and, as a result, provides herbs and other greens to local restaurants. The program, which is a collaboration between the brewery and Slippery Rock University, is known as Growing Together Aquaponics. The Planting the Seed Tour aims to engage young people about career opportunities in Pennsylvania agriculture.

We applaud this inventive program and the Department of Agriculture’s tour, which couldn’t come at a better time. According to a study released in January, Pennsylvania’s $135 billion agriculture industry is facing challenges, including an aging workforce. The study found that the average age in the state’s agriculture industry is 39 years and that there has been a decrease in workers between the ages of 20 and 34 years from more than 50 percent in 2000 to less than 40 percent currently. A workforce deficit of nearly 75,000 people is expected over the next decade. So, educating young people about the industry and providing them with job opportunities is urgent.

During Monday’s event, Marena Toth — an SRU graduate student and Growing Together’s project coordinator — said that unemployment among adults with disabilities is higher than 60 percent. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics found that employment slightly increased for persons with disabilities from 2016 to 2017 — however, the employment-population ratio, which represents the number of people employed in a given area, for persons with a disability between ages 16 and 64 was at 29 percent. The study also found that those who are employed are typically paid minimum wage.

We agree with SRU professor Bob Aberhold, who oversees Growing Together, that the program should be a model for other universities across the state. It teaches important soft skills — such as reporting to work on time — and specific skills that can place its participants on a career path as they enter the workforce. The program is already paying off. Bob McCafferty, the brewery’s owner, said that several youths whom he hired from Growing Together have already moved on to higher paying jobs.

Kudos to all involved in the Growing Together program and the Department of Agriculture for educating young people about the state’s agriculture industry, which will soon be in need of new faces.