—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 10,1978 106 More efforts needed to preserve family farm BERWICK - The cause of the family farm was championed here recently when State Representative William K. Klingaman of Tamaqua addressed the 25th anniversary meeting of the Berwick Vegetable Cooperative, It was held near here on May 20 a£ the Briar Heights Lodge. A member of the House Agriculture Committee, the Schuylkill County legislator emphasized the need for programs which would help Pennsylvania farmers. He noted that a number of bills have been introduced and passed, but that there hasn’t been enough impact to slow the trend of farmers going out of business. Claiming that Penn- Berwick Vegetable Cooperative’s 25th an niversary cake is being cut by State Represen tative William Klingaman, Tamaqua, and Edward Hopkins, chairman of the board, right. Looking on are State Representative Ted Stuban, left, and BVC manager Burt Hetherington. Berwick Vegetable Cooperative celebrates 25th year sylvania agriculture is “deeply concerned with such a trend,” Klingaman ex claimed “we tried to attack it with a ‘Clean and Green’ law, but its original intent got lost in the shuffle.” An estimated 150 members and guests of the BVC listened attentively as the House Ag Committee member explained why: “In order to get the law passed ?.t all, even with its recognized deficiencies, we had to accept so many ad mendments from so many special interest pressure groups, that it got lose m the shuffle. I think it needs revision so that it truly reflects the original intent: the preservation of agricultural land for agricultural production of food and fibre.” Klingaman told of newer approaches to the ongoing problem of keeping far mland in production and farmers on the farm. He said: “Another idea had now been brought forth in House Bill 2145, which provides for ‘agricultural districts’. It is very complex and intricate piece of legislation that didn’t receive nearly enough consideration and discussion in the Agricultural .Com mittee, which decided to hand it out and let people shoot at it. My own guess - and hope - is that it will be re referred to committee for further study and amend ment, which I think it surely needs. Its intent is to protect the farmer from eminent domain proceedings and “unreasonable local or dinances”. Before I buy that bill, I want to know who is going to decide what is “reasonable”. My personal philosophy is to hold to local control of our destiny. I a 1977 AGRO-K CORPORATION The SYMBEX system can help hold down your costs •U S Patent Pending UNIVERSITY AND GOVERNMENT LABORATORY TESTS PROVE THAT SYMBEX" WORKS SYMBEX CUSTOM SPRAYING FOR NON-TOXIC MATERIALS For more information or lino hurt Wnti 7ook& Ran'k liu (.ap Pa 17527 Ph 717 442-4171 Nairn I ( itv J believe that the local township supervisors know what is best for their neighbors than does some committee or bureaucrat sitting in Harrsiburg. “Here is a case in point. The city of Allentown has a problem of disposing of its sewage sludge, and because of the concentration of heavy industry in the county, the sludge is very often alar mingly high in mineral content. So they’re dumping it on one particular farm m Lynn Township. I mean dumping it and piling it - not necessarily plowing it under I went on a field m -vestigation with the town ship supervisors, some farmers, and some in terested residents of the township. The man in vestigationg for DER suggested that Lynn Township eanct an or dinance against dumping sludge in the township. And so the supervisors did just that. Then guess who joined the City of Allentown in a legal action to contest the for Phoiu .suit I legality of the ordinance? DER did. I brought that strange paradox up at a meetmg of the Ag Advisory Committee to DER many months ago, and the DER attorney promised to look into it and explain then action - and I’m still waiting. So you see, the supervisors thought it was “reasonable”, but DER thought it was unreasonable. Klingaman pointed out in his speech and in a questioning period following his address that the problems of agriculture are no closer to be solved despite the legislation that is being introduced, debated, and amended in Harrisburg. What’s needed, he said, is for agriculture to become profitable and attractive enough to keep young people - on the family farm. On the subject of diminishing farmland, Klingaman pointed out that last yfear foreigners bought $BOO million worth of American farmland and this was developed high-technology crop production SYMBEX™ WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU FARM NOTICE The SYMBEX label should be consulted for full details concerning application, use and warranties year their purchases may reach $1 billion. “Invasion by big business and big capital and big government into the function of agricultural production is not the answer to our problem. The president of that agribusiness cor poration, like his coun terpart in the big industrial corporation, doesn’t really care about the means He sees' only the end. What counts to him is profitable production spilling off the end of a very impersonal and lifeless assembly line,” the legislator stated. “Ever since the biblical book of Deuteronomy was written so many centuries ago, we have been taught that it is our duty to God as well as to one another to honor the land and to respect the plant and animal life that he put on it,” Klingaman continued. “On the whole, humankind was not lived up to that teaching very well, and we’re getting further and further away as more SYMBEX Please mail coupon for Free 16-page SYMBEX brochure (Turn to Page H 5)
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