I Future research benefits won’t come easy By JERRY WEBB University of Delaware iiewark. Del. ierican consumers are Dg to have to be willing to od more money on basic {cultural research If they ect to keep eating jxpensive food. That’s the cling of a lot of ricultural scientists )und the country. They ? the basic need is to speed the rate at which new owledge is being oerated so that growth can ep pace with population Granted, these jricultural researchers ire their own bias. They tlieve in agricultural search and they think ore of it should be done, gybe there’s a thread of preservation in their gn, but they make a fairly bong point in favor of more fesearch. Agriculture has made reat .strides over the last ilf century. Most of this is accomplished through ie discovery of new GARBER OIL CO. 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Milk yields in creased by half; red meat yields in hogs rose 11 per cent Feed efficiency in broilers increased 18 per cent But the agricultural researchers fed strongly that tiie reservoir is running dry, that during the 1970’s increased production has come from expanded acreage rather than in creased yields. And with an increasing population and a shrinking land, base, that option won’t solve America’s food problems forever. The researchers believe the easy work has been done, that in the future agricultural breakthroughs will require more time, more effort and more money. But sadly the trend has been in the other direction. In recent years there’s been a decline in the resources devoted to agricultural research. In flation has caused an erosion of facilities and financial support and there’s been an FEATURES: • 24 Volt Automatic Draft Control (110 Volt Available) • One Quarter Inch Boiler Plate Steel Construction • Cast Iron Door And Frame actual reduction in agricultural research manpower. Along with that reduction has come the added burden of meeting the' enviornmental and regulatory concerns surrounding agriculture. One group of agricultural scientists- has documented its loss of capacity this way. Between 1970 and 1977 the state agricultural ex periment ' s stations throughout the country had a net loss of 193 scientists. In addition, 350 scientists, or the positions of that many scientists, had to be reassigned to meet new and urgent environmental, regulatory and food safety concerns involving agriculture. This means that the equivalent of 543 agricultural scientists across the nation are not doing the research that they used to be doing. Important research in genetics, physiology, nutrition, fer tility-research that may soon be desperately needed to meet increased food demands. Research that is time-consuming, expensive, but very necessary. Agricultural researchers look bade at the develop ment of hybrid corn and what it has meant to our food-producing capacity and they warn that such a dramatic development won’t be forthcoming. We may wish for that kind of magic, but it just isn’t there. The research accomplishments of the future will be hard to come by, relatively ex pensive and yet totally necessary. They say con sumer activists, political leaders, and humanists throughout the country must realize the importance of basic agricultural research PJ3J.A. claims bad roads boost driving expenses by 41 per cent HARRISBURG • As another cold Winter ap proaches, we will all feel hundreds of jarring reminders of PennOOT’s empty wallet, says the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association. Hazardous road conditions in Pennsylvania are a major cause for an average of 72,000 accidents each year. These conditions are boosting the costs of operating our cars by some 41 per cent and em barrassing Pennsylvania before the rest of the nation. Meanwhile, our highway program has come to a standstill, P.H.I.A. claims. A year ago, The Road Information Program in Washington issued a research report saying that if 25,000 miles of Penn sylvania’s 45,000 mile net work of roads are not resurfaced during the next four years, they will become so deteriorated that they will have to be rebuilt from the ground up, at four and one half times the cost of resurfacing - or a difference of |11.2 billion. Due to the lack of money, we’ve used up one of those four years doing little about the problem, P.H.I.A. continues. Legislation was in troduced in the General Assembly last June to at tempt to deal with the complex isue of funding road renewal and bridge repair needs. It included an indepth management study and overhaul of PennDOT; an annual year-end “report card” comparing Penn- DOT’s accomplishments with its promises; and a 3% cents per gallon gas tax increase (which would have provided some' $2lO million in additional revenues). Maybe this legislation would have solved our highway problem, and maybe it would not. But the proposals died when the Legislature adjourned, having never even come out of committee to reach the CREUTZBURG. INC. QUALITY LIVESTOCK SUPPLIES ★ OPEN DAILY >8:00 TO 5:00 X SATURDAY-8:00 TO 12:00 W OWNER: HARRY E. LANDIS ALL PRODUCTS AVAILABLE BY MAIL Send For FREE Catalog CREUTZBURG, BMC. Lincoln Highway East, Box 7, Paradise, Pa. 17562 (717)768-7181 CITY laweastar Firming, Saturday, Pscswtsr 3D, If 79-29 and fire urgency with which it must be pursued. Right now there seems to be time to proceed in an orderly fashion toward a stepped-up agricultural House floor for debate, says another winter of potholes P.H.I.A. and broken pavement - and With the number of broken shock absorbers, pressing matters on the weakened springs and tom- calendar, all up tires, PJELI. A. predicts, vying for limited time for When the 1979 General discussion and action, we. Assembly convenes in the citizens of Pennsylvania, ' January, Pennsylvanians share the blame for inaction v must make it dear to them because we failed to give our that they expect Penn legislators a dear mandate sylvania’s road crisis to be for action, spokesmen at the dealt with promptly, and Association say. that they will settle for Since the Legislature nothing less then a complete failed to act on this urgent and responsible solution, matter, which affects nearly spokesmen at the seven million Pennsylvania Harrisburg-based organiza drivers, we will enter tioncondude. Energy use in Pennsylvania approaches President’s goals UNIVERSITY PARK - Pennsylvania’s use of dif ferent energy sources is quite a bit closer to President Carter’s goals for increased use of coal and nuclear energy than the national average, according to Dr. John R. Daugherty of The Pennsylvania State University. Following three years of analyzing the energy situation, Dr. Daugherty said coal makes up 45 pf r cent of the energy used in the Commonwealth, con siderably ahead of the President’s national goal of 29 per cent energy from coal by the year 1985. Presently, coal supplies only 18 per cent df the nation’s energy. As for nuclear power, Pennsylvania now received 4 per cent of its energy from this source, compared to 1 per cent nationally. President Carter’s goal for power from nuclear energy is 8 per cent by 1985. .Dr. Daugherty indicated the President’s goals call for energy produced from natural gas and oil to decline relative to other energy sources. Over the last five years, the sources of U.S. energy have been shifting, with an increased use of oil, research effort. But when an expanding population and a shrinking land base crash into one another there may not be time to mount a bade food production research effort. coal, and nuclear energy and a relatively decreased use of natural gas and hydroelectric power. - Associated with the College of Agriculture at Penn State, Dr. Daugherty is a teacher-administrator in the environmental resource management program. “In the future, of the President’s emphasis and projected increases in costs of energy, alternative sources such as geothermal and solar energy may begin to appear on supply charts,” Dr. Daugherty predicted. And he claimed that waste heat from nuclear power plants and other types of facilities is used in several locations for space and water heating, called district heating, or as industrial steam or hot water. He believes these examples of centralized heating - using one industry’s waste heat as another industry’s beat source (called cogeneration) - may lead to more widespread use of such total energy systems. No shift for USDA Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Harrison Wellford has announced that bis office will “not be recommending” any shift of food programs from FDA to USDA. He admitted that an early option paper from one of his reorganization projects had recommended the transfer of FDA’s Bureau of Foods to USDA, but he stated that this ap-- proach had definitely been abandoned. The move to switch FDA’s food responsibilities as well as nutrition activities of HEW to USDA reportedly has gotten strong support from Esther Peterson ar.d her deputy. Rod Leonard. However, Weilfosd suggested that f ' would probably wind recom mending belt ays of coordinating ftx urograms between FDA and USTV
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