Tariffs, ICE, climate change raising prices for Pittsburgh-area farms and restaurants

Tariffs, immigration crackdowns and climate change-related extreme weather are affecting Pittsburgh’s food industry.

Dozens of Pittsburgh-area chefs, farmers, and sustainability advocates gathered on Thursday for a roundtable conversation with U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio about the challenges growers and restaurants are facing.

The event, organized by the James Beard Foundation, opened with issues caused by the changing climate but quickly turned to concerns over tariffs, trade, and immigration policy.

Anne McBride, vice president of impact for the foundation, said the turns of the discussion were not a surprise, as all of those factors together end up raising costs for producers and restaurants and make it harder for them to run their businesses.

Restaurant workers said ramped up efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are taking a toll on their immigrant co-workers. They said legal asylum-seekers have been detained at court appointments, made to wear ankle monitors, and threatened with deportation. Some are concerned work visas won’t be renewed.

Tariffs are driving up the price of food packaging. One farm that cans its tomatoes had to pivot to selling the produce fresh after the price of aluminium jumped.

Jen Flanagan, executive director of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh in Hazelwood, said sometimes the reasons for large price increases are unclear.

The kitchen’s largest fundraiser is its annual fish fries. Flanagan said a case of haddock— about 40 servings — was $30 last year. This year, it’s around $80.

“We were told everything from tariffs to the supply chain,” she said. “We couldn’t really get a good read on it, and it was across the board. We tried every single source possible for fish and we could not get it any lower.”

Flanagan said extreme weather, trade issues and federal policy are all impacting the food supply.

“All of these issues, they’re so interconnected. It’s not just one thing,” Flanagan said.

Jason Oddo, who owns Coldco Farm in Penn Hills, said rainstorms last year kept his fields wet from May through July. The soggy conditions allowed a bacteria to wipe out his pepper crop — the second largest crop he grows.

“ We had, at points, very healthy looking pepper plants, but with no peppers whatsoever on them. In some cases, some of the plants actually just looked like they had been burned down with a torch,” Oddo said.

He said he spent between $5,000 and $10,000 to plant and tend the pepper plants, expecting to make about $50,000.

“We had to shift our whole business plan for the year,” Oddo said.

Climate change is making it harder for farmers to plan, Oddo said, and there’s no federal safety net for small produce growers like him. Most crop insurance programs are geared toward commodity crops such as corn and soybeans.

Chefs said the loss of those crops are less noticeable in the summer, when things are abundant. But the losses can leave gaps as they try to source produce through the colder months.

Weather swings also affect livestock. Ben Buchanan, a butcher and founder of Unified Fields, a mobile butchering operation and training program, said cattle can withstand extreme heat and cold. But he said, the fluctuations can slow their growth and make them sick.

Severe storms that knock down trees and branches can make it hard for Buchanan to get his butchering trailer to farms along rural roads.

His big concern is consolidation in the agricultural industry putting cost pressures on small farms.

“ I just don’t want to see us lose all the farm land and all the farmers to, you know, the bigs,” Buchanan said.

Deluzio said he’s hoping to address issues of competition, worker protections, conservation, and climate in the long-delayed federal Farm Bill, which he said has been held up over disagreements about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

He said the economic and cultural impact of the restaurant and agricultural industries in Pennsylvania is huge.

“ You give our communities a lot of heart,” Deluzio said. “I think about food culture in Western Pennsylvania… all the different kinds of cuisines we have, which reflects something beautiful about this country and the people who do that work. It’s pretty important and special work.”

McBride, with the James Beard Foundation, said addressing climate and immigration policies have an economic argument, which could help bridge political divides.

The restaurant industry generates more than $86 billion in sales and supports over 680,000 jobs across Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Community and Economic Development.