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]