HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — The butter sculpture is a PA Farm Show favorite. This year’s sculpture was unveiled Thursday, and it highlights the 2023 Farm Show’s theme “Rooted in Progress.”
Carved from 1,000 pounds of butter, the sculpture depicts generations of a dairy farming family celebrating how they work together to produce food for their community, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture explained.
“We celebrate this year’s theme, Rooted in Progress, by highlighting the progress made over the past eight years and the opportunity that Pennsylvania’s farm families have today to innovate, diversify, and plan,” said Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.
The sculpture is sponsored by American Dairy Association North East, the Department of Agriculture said, and it recognizes the 5,200 dairy farmers in Pennsylvania.
“The entire commonwealth benefits from the strong roots we’ve cultivated for agriculture. These roots feed local economies and Pennsylvania families, they break down walls holding Pennsylvanians back, and they are a strong foundation for the future,” Redding said.
The piece was sculpted by Jim Victor and Marie Pelton, who began working in mid-December to create the sculpture using butter donated by Land O’ Lakes in Carlisle. They have been making the Farm Show butter sculpture together since 2008, according to American Dairy Association North East.
The butter sculpture is displayed in the Farm Show’s Main Hall.
According to American Dairy Association North East, it would take one person more than 153 years to eat the butter sculpture, based on an annual average butter consumption of 6.5 pounds per person.
After the Farm Show, the butter will be moved to the Reinford Farm in Juniata County to be converted to renewable energy in the farm’s methane digester, the Department of Agriculture noted.
