A22—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 29,1983
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
CAMP HILL The second annual
Keystone Cornucopia proved once
again that this ever growing event
sponsored by the Pennsylvania
State Council of Farm
Organizations literally has it all.
The “Horn of Plenty” affair held
Monday night offered:
-All the food that anyone could
ever hope to eat in a single sitting.
-The opulence of the Grand
Ballroom of the Penn Harris Motor
Inn.
-A chance for representatives of
farm organizations from across
the Commonwealth to congregate
and get their legislative act
together.
-And then an opportunity to
pigeon-hole assembled legislators
and play that act in an informal
lobbying atmosphere.
-And finally, a speaker with
down-home humor right out of the
Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.
If anything more might be
wanted, it would have to be a way
to serve the more than 600-person
audience in less than two hours.
For this was the only drawback at
the Cornucopia. Those people at
the last table to go through the
serving line had to be well stocked
with the earlier Hors D’oeuvres in
order to last the near two-hour
wait.
But the wait had to be worth it -
with some 40 different food items
all from Pennsylvania except one.
And if the planning committee
could find a greenhouse owner
willing to try growing coffee that
final non-Pa. item might be
eliminated.
“We used to get 200 or so at these
legislative dinners before,” ex
plained Robert Hodge, retiring
MC and retiring president of the Pa. State Council of Farm
Organizations Robert Hodge, left, with featured speaker Walt
Buescher.
Commodity queens at Keystone Cornucopia include, from the left, Sheila McDaniel,
Erie County, grape; Kelly Mummert, Adams County poultry; Angela DiProspero, Ken
nett Square, mushroom; Kelly Barr, Franklin County, honey; Jean Mobilia, Erie County,
apple; and LuAnn Breneman, Lancaster County dairy.
It’s so dry; trees lean toward the dogs
president of the Council and the
evening’s MC.
’’Last year’s Cornucopia had
some 500 and this year topped6oo.”
Two extra tables had to be
hastily put together to handle the
large turnout.
But the object of the event after
all is to let farmers and
agribusiness representatives rub
elbows with legislators and get the
ag story across once again.
Prior to the dinner, a session was
held with ag legislators or their
aides.
Bill Sonntag, representing Ed
Helfrick, head of the Senate Ag
Committee, gave an idea of what
might be coming up in ag
legislation during the coming
session.
“We need to review the per
formance of the major ag acts
passed in the last two years and
possibly fine tune them to handle
some questions of implementation
that have come up,” he said.
He referred to the Right To
Farm Bill and the Ag Area
Security BUI.
He pointed to the need to keep
Pennsylvania farm products
competitive in the market place
and specifically exempting various
haulers, such as feed, fertilizer and
milk, from various PUC
regulations.
“If you look at the recent list of
Master Farmers, you’ll see that
two of the seven had direct retail
outlets for their products,” be said.
“We need an amendment to Act
319 which would give landowners a
one-time split-off of a couple of
acres to permit commercial
diversification on farms without
the penalty of roll-back taxes.”
Other needs included com-
First in line for some good Pennsylvania beef is Penny Hallowed, ag secretary.
puisory beverage container return,
local options to fund deed
restrictions to preserve farmland,
animal statue update and adequate
funding of ag research programs,
such as soil testing.
Speaking at the banquet were
Sen. Robert Jubelirer, Senate
majority leader; Ag Sec. Penrose
Hallowell who brought greetings
from the Governor and retiring
president Hodge.
Featured speaker for the
evening was Walt Buescher,
retired from the farm equipment
industry, and now a residait of
Pigeon Forge, Tn. who travels the
speakers’ circuit under the
sponsorship of Sperry New
Holland.
With his down-home, male
Minnie Pearl type humor,
Buescber mixed one-liners with a
message of the need for farmers to
promote the marketing of their
products.
Some examples:
“Pigeon Forge is so small that
when you plug in the toaster, the
street lights go dim.
“The fire department is three
dogs.
“You folks who bleed green and
want to be buried in Moline will
have a rotary combine one of these
days, too.
“Agriculture has something to
do with farming and farming is
doing it.
“The farmer takes all the risks
of other businesses and then has
the weather, too.
“Sometimes, it’s so dry the trees
lean toward the dogs.
“And it’s so wet you can’t plow
. -- altimore, chats
with State FFA representatives Mflce Pfautz, Eastern VP; and
Barry Geib, treasurer.
for an hour after eating.
“We never produce too much;
we just sell too little.
Senate finance
member voices
HONOLULU The Senate
leader who two years ago helped
shape the Reagan Ad
ministration’s economic package
the Kemp-Roth bill-remains
“bullish on America’s future.”
Senator William V. Roth (R-DE)
told some 700 cooperative leaders
attending the 54th annual meeting
of the National Council of Farmer
Cooperatives here recently;
“While it is by no means
unanimous, there does appear to
be an emerging consensus that
there will be a moderate upturn in
the economy.”
The Delaware senator, third
ranking member of the powerful
Senate Finance Committee, bases
his optimism on a continued
downturn in interest rates. Sen.
Roth blames high interest rates for
depressing the housing and auto
industries, and being a major
cause of bankruptcies for many
farmers and small businessmen.
He said high interest rates are also
responsible for driving the value of
the dollar to record low levels,
thereby encouraging imports and
discouraging exports.”
To achieve a continued drop in
interest rates will require an assist
from the Federal Reserve Board
which, in the senator’s view, “has
the power to bring real interest
rates down to the level that would
allow and encourage recovery in
1983.”
Sen. Roth says the time is right
for “a bold initiative on the
monetary side." He’s hopeful that
>
v^ f
* t’ *
i*
“Agriculture is the only industry
that’s excused from selling it* own
product.
committee
“optimism”
the federal government “will
maintain a steady hand on fiscal
policy, as the economy turns
around,” predicting that the
Federal Reserve “will make a
dramatic move to lower interest
rates. Such a move, said Roth, is
critically important to enable us to
make the structural reforms
necessary to meet the challenge of
the technological revolution of the
’Bos.
Sen. Roth predicts that
President Reagan “will continue to
have a pretty good batting average
in the next Congress” but believes
the president will have to be
willing to compromise, par
ticularly on defense spending. “I
do not believe the U.S. can afford
to increase defense spending as
proposed by the President when
our economy is so weak,” he said.
“Our economy must be given top
priority.”
The third-term Delaware
senator sa'ved his harshest
criticism for fellow politicians,
commentators and journalists for
their “gloom and doom prophecies
about a craning depression.” He
said, “depression talk helps scare
off the fledgling recovery by un
dermining the confidence of
(Consumers and investors.”
“These remarks may make the
headlines,” he concluded, “but
they are unsettling and, more
important, totally inaccurate.
There simply Is no comparison
"between today’s economic con
ditions <md those of the thirties.”