Lehigh Valley farmer urges vaccination
Cites protection for family, crew and community
Lehigh County farmer John Good on Friday said he received his COVID-19 vaccine as soon as he was eligible for practical reasons, because becoming infected “could destroy a large portion of our season.”
“If we were to lose two weeks of work at a vegetable farm, our production schedules are so tight, it’s almost untenable,” he said. “Especially in the springtime. There’s not only the two weeks of work we’d lose out in the field, we’re losing maybe two weeks of work in the greenhouse, which translates to maybe four weeks to a month and a half of product that we’re not getting out on time.”
But that wasn’t the only reason, he said. It was also a matter of protecting his family and the small crew who work side-by-side with him on the farm, and he saw it as part of his duty to the rest of the community.
Good, who co-owns The Good Farm in Heidelberg Township with his wife, Aimee, was one of three Pennsylvania farmers to discuss their reasons for getting the vaccine Friday afternoon during a Facebook Live discussion with state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, an effort to get farmers and others in rural communities vaccinated.
Farm and food processing workers became eligible to receive the vaccine March 31 and the rest of the food and agriculture industry became eligible April 5. Currently, anyone ages 16 and up is eligible to receive the shot in the commonwealth.
The discussion came on the heels of the state Department of Health’s daily coronavirus data drop, which showed that the Lehigh Valley hit a milestone Friday with the vaccine.
More than half of the 16-and-over population who are eligible to be vaccinated have received at least one shot, according to the DOH. There are 161,197 fully vaccinated Valley residents and another 115,779 who are awaiting their second shot.
During the just less than hourlong discussion, Good; Redding; Dr. Mark Goedecker, regional medical director for WellSpan Health; Chris Hoffman, a hog and poultry farmer in Juniata and Mifflin counties who also serves as the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s vice president; and Phoebe Brubaker, of Village Acres Farm, a flower and vegetable farmer in Juniata County, spoke about the importance of getting vaccinated and spreading that message in rural communities across the state.
As the number of infected people continues to rise, vaccination started to seem like the only way out, Good said.
“It’s not going away through lifestyle choices,” Good said. “… I logically felt that vaccination was the only way to stop it, then I felt I want to be one of the people who helped stop it.
“Now I feel like we can be part of the wall to help protect our community and everybody else and it really felt like, to me, the right thing to do,” he added.
Near the end of the discussion, Good described how his 13-yearold daughter reacted when he and Aimee came home from getting their shots.
The teen had come running outside and asked how it went and he replied that it was fine, he said.
Good’s eyes welled with tears, but they did not fall.
“I thought about it afterwards and I thought, ‘You know, she’s been worried this whole time and had never really told it to us, and I hadn’t really thought of it,’ ” Good said. “I think sometimes, especially farmers, we’re the indomitable type. We go to work if we have the flu or anything, but sometimes the other people in our family want to make sure we’re going be there, too, and we can’t guarantee that, no matter how tough we are.
“I realized that the decision we made really affected her more than I ever had realized until the moment I came home from getting the shot. It had a big impact on me, and I think it’s something for other people to consider. … Sometimes, making that decision can provide people you love and care about relief too,” he added.