VOL 22-No. 22 American farmer not responsible for feeding the world LAURELVILLE, Pa. - The goal of the American fanner should fie to optimize production, rather than maximize it with the excuse of feeding the world, says Jon Jantzen of the Mennonite Central Committee, headquartered in Akron, Lancaster County. According to the volunteer church worker, the North American farmer is not responsible for feeding the world, and to assume such a notion would be dangerous. Instead, Jantzen proposes that regions throughout the world become self-sufficient,. He explains that it woiild be folly for the entire world to rely on one continent for-most or aQ of its food supply. Jantzen further believes that American agriculture has become too “energy intensified," and that a slow-down in energy intensity in America would help relieve food supply problems in other parts of the world. His reasoning is that in most other parts of the world energy is hard to come by, and raw materials are often siphoned out of poorer countries by more advanced nations. If this were ' stopped, Jantzen claims, the developing countries would ■ have more resources left with which to improve their own standards. : Having spent 16 years of his' life in India with his missionary parents, the young volunteer has seen hunger first-hand. He forms his opinions from his own ex periences as well as countless official reports. He presented his mews at a recent “Affirmation of Farming Retreat." sponsored by the Mennonite Church. It was held at the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, here. In terested and concerned states and Canada partiqpatedm The challenge before the as Jantzen sees it. Is to have him within ecological constraints.'! feel dangerous path, behave to analyse arhat wfc’redoing to odf utod," Jantzen told his Informal audience. HWbeliteathat a long- - li*s nearly unchanged from turn of the century By JOANNESPAHR LANCASTER, Pa. - Almost half a cantury has passed since the last steam traction engine was made in 1928, hot the business of steaming tobacco beds goes on today in nearly the same manlier as it did in the early 1900’s. Anyone who has grown up on a farm where tobacco is raised has vivid memories of the steamer and his rig, and In this issue Farm Calendar 10 Editorial comments 10 Medicine&Mgmt. 16 Homestead Notes 42 Jr. Cooking Edition 43 My 'Droughts 44 Joyce Bupp 45 Home on the Range 46 Ida’s Notebook 47 Women’s Calendar 47 Recipe Swap 50 Mt.JoyFFA 51 Cedar Crest PFA 53 OctoraraFFA 56 Classifields 60 Lancaster DHIA 90 Lifeon the farm 95 Pacts tor dairymen 99 4-Hfeature .100 Plant Lovers’Corner 103 Octorara Young Fanners 107 New crop program 109 Holstein tour 120 Agribusiness feature 123 Sale Reports 130 Public Sales Register 133 Serving The Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania Areas - Also Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware By DIETER KRIEG some, if they’re old enough, remember the traction engine. The traction steam engines were fired by coal and were self-propelled on huge iron wheels bigger than slate gray mfd-April evening, the 15-ton machine would come alive with By DIETER KRIEG LANCASTER - Soybeans are out of sight in more ways than one. Brices have been jumping considerably during the past few days, but they’ve always managed to stay relatively high. So high, in fact, that some farmers are looking towards other sources of protein in order to avoid the spiraling prices for soybeans and aoybeaq meal. Earlier this week soybeans touched $lO per bushel, although they’ve dropped about SO cents since then. A year ago farmers were being paid $4.54 for their soybeans - less than half of prices today. The reason for the high prices is the tight supply. Soybeans have been on the short side ever since last Fall. A recent shipment of 7.3 million bushels of soybeans to Red China drove the beans further oat of term danger exits with the extreme measures practiced now to maximize production. Contributing to the-possible dangers ahead, Jantzen claims, are heavy use of com- Jon Jantzen, volunteer worker for the Mennonite Central Committee, believes that a less energy intensified agriculture in North America would* bring about better standards of living in less advanced nations. Calling Kansas his home state, the Christian worker has spent 16 years in India. mercial fertilizers, and pesticides energy depletion, and a siphoning of raw materials from less advanced nations. “What is the price we are paying for our agricultural productivity? And is it worth it?” Jantzen asks. He claims that in this country, eight calories of energy go into the production of one calorie of food on the plate. “Energy in other countries is very high priced and they can’t produce because of it,” the Christian worker said. America’s energy-intensive agriculture cannot realistically be exported to other parts of the world either directly or. indirectly without creating serious problems, Jantzen maintains. Aside from thefaet thirt it“would not be goodior the woridtfclook at one continent for iU food sopply, >v they were to, be belching black smoke erupting from the smokestack, the flaming furnace jumping into every time'it waa> staked, and the white steam pouring out from under the pans whenever they were changed. Steaming rigs were used to Soybean scarcity sets off ‘price rationing’ sight. Talk of embargoes followed, but the Carter Admininistration insists that no such action will be taken. The United States is ex pected to export 550 million bushels of soybeans by Aug. 31 when the current marketing year for soybeans ends. That’s about the same By JOANNE SPAHR ANNVILLE, Pa. Members of five Lebanon County Future Fanners of America chapters gathered last Thursday evening to jointly honor their county level achievers. The dinner meeting for this purpose was held at AnnvOle-Cleona High School, the home chanter of county president Jay Bomgardner and county Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 16,1977 Tobacco steaming; Lebanon Co, honors FFA achievers sterilize the soilin the tobacco seedling beds, and (be process involved was relatively simple. The owl-stoked furnace on the rig would beat the water in the boiler to create steam, Ihia steam was then routed through hoses to two five-by- ten-foot pans which were as the year before what soybeans were in a mud) more plentiful supply. It’s expected that the U.S. will have only 65 million bushels of soybeans on band by the time the new harvest season starts, as compared to 245 million bushels the previous season. sentinel, Samuel Heagy, Other chapters participating were Northern Lebanon, Eastern Lebanon County, Lebanon Vo-Tech, and Cedar Crest. Robert Kreider, Annville El, started off the evening’s special awards presen tations when he was honored as the county’s first place creed contest winner. Kreider, a member of toe exported rather than the products) are not always adaptable in other regions and cultures. As part of the solution to the menacing hunger problem, Jantzen suggests American fanners become less energy intensive and people abroad be given the opportunity to take better care of themselves. He observes that foreign countries are often growing crops by and for North American and European corporations. This situation creates unequal trade relations, Jantzen says, and con tributes to the hunger problem. Allowing foreigners to have more of their own raw materials and training them to utilize tboseresources would solve part of the problem, Jantzen offered. “I’m not so sure we should be proud of the statistic that one'American farmer feeds 56 people,” Jantzen con tinued. “We’re following dangerous trends caused by mechanization and bigness. It’s costing us more and more.” Furthermore, Jantzen pointed out that Americans are as reliant on agricultural Imports as they are on exported foodstuffs. Intensification of fanning in North America would not keep all products flowing. That's one reason he favors, programs which would keep agriculture high rat the list in many regions of the world. Another more ob vious reason is that scattering, food producing regions across the globe lessens chances of extremely critical shortages caused by weather or other, unpredictable Simplyput, to have the North American farmer faced with tbe*eqMQi3bpy.of feeding the world would not wily concentrate the lood supply into one region, it would make the entire bumj&cace -yutaerable to mass starvation if rihiiiT struck one and only food basket* That’s why the iMlWflftirwid fais counterpart in Canada should not be told ha must' grow, more and more food to 16] pieced over the segenoent* of seedling beds, which were side-by-side. The two pans were steamed together for 20 minutes, and then moved forward. The procedure went on until the beds were completed with a steamer using approximately one to one-and-half tons of coal per The high prices have soybean fanners In a happy, mood, but for those who must buy beans or meal as protein sources for their livestock and poultry, it’s a different story. Hie United Egg Producers (UEP), headquartered in Decatur, Ga., voices the Little Dutchmen chapter, gave evidence of bis abilities when he recited the creed to the audience. Ken Masse, from the Lebanon County Farmers’ Association awarded Kreider with a $l5 check for his achievements. The Farmers’ Association also gave monetary awards to the second and third place creed contest winners. Earning 10 dollars for second $4.00 Per Year day if the boiler bed about 120 poinds of steam in it. Daring the Spring, steaming would begin as soon as the ground was fit to work, and would be completed by mid- April. During the peak time for steaming, the men would .. .. . „ _ ICominuso on rut Z4] following concern over the current soybean situation; “The recent sale of 390,000 tons of soybeans to Red China apparently removed the stopper from a soybean market which was already under great supply (GnnlinMd on rap tj] place performance was Mike Brajkovich, from Northern Lebanon. Dawn Shirk, Cedar Crest, and Susan HeUlnger, ELCO, were tie for third, and both received five dollars. A second ELCO member was the fourth individual to walk away with a cash dividend during the evening, Kirby Horst, Newmanstown Rl, this year’s Farm Credit I Continued on toge 2s]
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