42— Unc«ter Farming. Saturday. Sept, 27, 1975
Farm youth leams
cultures of Switzerland
By Sally Bair
Farm Feature Writer
"Switzerland is a beautiful country with beautiful
people," said Jane Alecxih with great enthusiasm. She
was talking about her experiences this summer as a
participant in the Youth for Understanding (YFU) in
ternational student exchange.
Jane, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter C. Alecxih,
R2, lived for nine weeks with a Swiss family
and gained some real insight into the culture and the
country.
The YFU program is financed through student fees,
contributions and a grant from the State Department, and
is designed "to promote better understanding and break
down stereotypes," Jane said. It has been operating since
1951 when the first German and Austrian students came to
this country. It is a two-way exchange program and has
both a two month summer program and a year long ex
change. Ann Arbor, Michigan is the program's home
base.
Eighteen-year-old Jane became interested in the
program through a newspaper article, but the in
ternational visitors at her home also “influenced” her,
she said. Her family hosted the International Farm Youth
Exchange delegate to Lancaster County from Turkey last
year and they have hosted foreign visitors frequently over
the years.
She was one of the first in this area to participate in the
program and received a scholarship to help pay the cost.
Jane lived with a family in central Switzerland in the
small town of Spiez on Lake Thun, not far from the capital
Ringing up the cash register and assisting
customers at Herr’s is a part time job for Jane.
Countr
Should farmers join the picket line?
I just cannot help wondering what the average
American consumer would say if the farmers
decided to go on strike In the past few weeks we've
heard so much about other organizations, from
football players to teachers, taking the “strike
route” to increase their paychecks and improve
working conditions But what about the farmer who
probably works longer and harder - what will his
reward be 7
I can picture the typical city dweller sitting down
to a breakfast of scrambled eggs (oops - eggs have
too much cholestrol - remember 7 ) well let’s make it
artificial bacon and black coffee and picking up his
morning paper with a jerk While a banner headline
declaring a farmer’s strike might catch his at
tention, most papers, I'm afraid, would probably
bury the story somewhere under the news of a new
congressional investigation and the latest gory
accident
If the urbanite did find it and managed to take
the time to read such a story, I wonder what his
reaction would be Most probably he’d shrug it off
as non-essential for everyone knows that those
“dumb" farmers, in the first place couldn't con
ceive of such an idea and in the second place they’d
never be able to carry it off
If however, he was slightly concerned, maybe
he’d take time to think of some of the implications a
farmer’s strike could mean
Corner
By Melissa Piper
teacher at a Gymnasium, "a cross between our high
school and college," and her mother was a librarian.
A host sister, Anne. 18. left for the United Slates two
weeks before Jane did and is participating in the year
long YFU program in Minnesota. The two plan to meet
during Anne's visit here. Jane said she is looking forward
to seeing her host sister after she has a chance to ex
perience life here.
There was another daughter in her host family, Rcgila,
21, who lived in her own apartment and taught school.
Jane called her host family “the nicest people" and
characterized the Swiss people as being "unique and
marvelous.”
It was “so interesting," she said, because the people of
Switzerland speak four languages - German, French,
Italian and Romansch. She said, “The people who speak
each language are different. But most of the people are
like the people around here - sensible and solid. I found
them very friendly.”
Was the language a problem? “No," said Jane. “I spoke
some German, but they spoke a Swiss-German dialect.
Mostly we spoke English. I never had any problem.
Almost everyone understands English.”
In size, Switzerland is twice as big as New Jersey, and
lies farther north than Pennsylvania. The landscape had
many “rolling hills, like around here, but directly behind
Homestead Notes
the hills were the Alps. It was an adjustment to come
home and see the hills but no Alps,” Jane said.
Jane had a lot of opportunity to see the entire country of
Switzerland, because she traveled for nearly five of her
nine weeks in the country. There was a two week family
vacation to the Italian part of Switzerland, and one week
she participated in a “studentwoche” through her host
father’s Gymnasium, during which the whole school had
vacation and traveled to the French part of Switzerland.
She was able to study music and German there.
She visited, on her own, an English-speaking school,
L’Abri, also in the French part of the country and met
many Americans studying there. And she had one fun
week traveling with her host sister and other young people
from school to “make a silent movie - a western about
Sherlock Holmes.” They camped out during the shooting
of the film and she later viewed it and said, “It was a
not.”
When she was at home with her family, Jane said, “I
helped my host mother around the house, swam in the
lake and went shopping or visited friends.”
In their free time, Jane said, “My family read really a
lot - books and magazines - everything. They also enjoyed
going to the theater.”
“There were many concerts in the community There
was a harp and oboe concert and a trumpet and organ
concert. It was so interesting because the people really
appreciated the arts. They showed so much respect -
No more food, no more fiber and no more milk -
that in my estimation would be a pretty frightening
thought
Throughout the last few years we have seen
some action by farmers to wake up the American
poW/V
w
(*&
•r a?
consumer to their plight of high production costs
and low returns
We've seen milk dumped into gutters, produce
left to rot in the fields and calves slaughtered and
dumped into pits While those actions have brought
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Jane locates her host country on a globe,
showing the lovely Switzerland where she spent
nine weeks this summer.
nobody talked during the concerts,” she said. "They were
so intent. They really concentrated. And all kinds of
people attended the concerts. Young people really enjoyed
classical music. It was a very important aspect of their
life.”
The Swiss family also enjoyed discussing current
events. Jane said her mother would often read something
about the United States and then ask her if it was true or to
explain it. One question dealt with slums. Jane said, “It
was so hard to describe America because it is so big. I
would try to explain that it is not like that everywhere. It
really made me more aware of things.”
She added, “The Swiss had a lot of stereotypes about the
United States. They really think that every American is so
wealthy. One reason they hold this opinion is that we have
such big yards. My host family had no yard at all. Land
there is so expensive.”
According to Jane, a large dairy farm in that country
would be one with 20 cows. She went on to say that while
she was used to seeing huge cornfields, “everything there
was on a smaller scale - tractors and cars were so small.
In my first week I saw a lot of farm work being done by
hand. Much grain was harvested by hand and carried on
their backs in wicker baskets. I also saw a lot of horses
working.” All the land is put to use, she said, and even the
steepest soil is used, mostly for vineyards.
“The Swiss really enjoyed the out-of-doors. They all
have hiking boots, but I could barely keep up with my host
father on our hikes. We went mountain climbing several
times.” They also enjoy skiing, but Jane said her family
goes very seldom because “they hate crowds” and most
slopes are filled with tourists and have become very ex
pensive.
“We had no television,” Jane said. For those who had
sets, there are three channels, one speaking French, one
Italian and one German, so the choice was rather limited.
Despite their official neutrality, the Swiss “really have
opinions” about politics, Jane said. “They are especially
interested in our country because they have a democracy
too.” One major difference, according to Jane, is that they
rotate the presidency in four year terms from among
elected representatives.
I Continued on Page 441
about some attention, it is usually only temporary
without a lingering affect
Therefore many American consumers fail to
realize that the farmer, who faces 18-hour work
days and rising production costs often receives a
disproportionate return
And despite his efforts to provide consumers, in
this country and often abroad, with the best in
wholesome products, he is constantly bombarded
with barbs from the food industry that his pork and
eggs are "too high" in cholestrol, growth hormones
cause cancer and whole milk makes you fat
Frustrating - you bet 1
There seems to be few solutions to the problem -
at least that have worked. Advertising does help as
does the farmer’s attempts to sell directly to the
consumer Many farmer’s associations have at
tempted to ease the problem by rearranging
marketing but of find themselves stymied
behind mountains of red tape
While a national farmer's strike may never come
about - we should all be concerned about the future
of agriculture One thing seems immently
inevitable and that is that farmers certainly can’t
go on providing the world with food and not receive
a fair profit in return
For in the words of a local Congressman, “He
(the farmer) cannot be expected to grow in
creasing supplies of food only to take a loss on his
labors "