VOL. 30 No. 22 Thornburgh 64 looking” for new ag secretary Governor Dick Thornburgh and former state Agriculture Secretary Penrose Hallowed, in happier times. U.S. to impMe claties on Canadian pork? BY JAMES H. EVERHART WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commerce Department has set the stage for imposition of import duties on Canadian hogs, officials here say. The department has announced that it has reached a preliminary determination that payments from Canadian federal and provincial governments, in effect, are unfair subsidies to that country’s pork producers. Perhaps more importantly, the department required that Canadian pork producers begin posting a bond equal to the amount of the subsidy on all pork imported into this country after April 2. The plea for Commerce Pa, Bull Test Sale The Pa. Department ot Agriculture’s Meat Animal Evaluation Center held its Per formance Tested Bull Sale in the Ag Arena for the first time this year According to the test program’s director Glenn Eberly, good weather, new facilities and a large crowd all contributed to this year's higher prices. See Lancaster Farming’s sale report on page A 24. Five Sections Department intervention was filed last November by the National Pork Producers Council. Although the immediate impact of the ruling has not been felt, the action could slow the flood of Canadian imports which tripled in 1984 and drove down prices in the ailing pork producing industry. The preliminary decision is not a final ruling, officials said, and must stand up under in-depth department scrutiny, and review by the International Trade Commission. The ITC recently conducted its own investigation on the complaint by the NPPC, and reached con clusions that are considered <Turn to Rape A 29) INSIDE this week’s Lancaster Farming Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 6,1985 BY JAMES H. EVERHART HARRISBURG The search is on for a new state secretary of agriculture to serve in the remaining 21 months of the Thornburgh Administration. Penrose Hallowell, Thorn burgh’s Ag secretary for the first six years of the administration, resigned Wednesday, following his conviction on retail theft charges stemming from an alleged shoplifting incident Sept 1 Hallowell, a wealthy Bucks County farmer, allegedly placed a $4.99 tape recording in his pants pocket and walked out of the store without paying for the item. Both a District Justice and a Common Pleas court judge have rejected Hallowell’s argument that he did not intend to steal the tape, but absent-mindedly placed it in his pocket. Knowledgeable sources in Who’s pitching for NE BY WENDY WEHR BALTIMORE, Md -- The Northeast dairy farmers are coming to bat in Washington this year with three strikes against them. Low priority for the 1985 Farm Bill, relative financial stability in the dairy industry, and lack of Northeast representation will add up to one, two, three, and mav leave the Northeast dairymen out of the Washington Farm Bill game In a sort of spring training for the season, more than 175 Nor theast dairy industry leaders gathered in Baltimore this week for the Northeast Dairy Con ference. As they took a look at dairy policy, the conference speakers were honest about the Northeast dairymen’s prospects in the game in Washington. “The Farm Bill is a real side issue that has very little priority with the Administration and Congress,” said Dr. Kenneth Robinson, a Cornell University ag economist, who spoke about the Jersey meeting Jersey breeders from across the state met last weekend in Tioga County for a full schedule of annual meeting activities. Full coverage of the Pa. Jersey Cattle Club annual business meeting and banquet, queen contest, and annual calf sale, can be found on page A 22. Harrisburg say the governor will try to fmtj someone to fill the ad mittedly short-lived position. In the meantime, he has elevated one of Hallowell’s deputy secretaries, George F. Grode, as acting secretary. Grode, formerly the Deputy Secretary for Policy and Planning, served as the governor’s liaison during the recent avian influenza outbreak. Grode, said Thornburgh’s Press Secretary David Runkel, "is not a candidate for the permanent ap pointment." The search for a full-time secretary will go on, he added, and the governor hopes to find a nominee within the month. Speculation around the capital centered on a number of former legislators who have expressed interest in farming, sources noted It was thought unlikely that a process and the politics that will shape dairy polic> this veai The deficit, defense, tax reform and, particularly, trade deficits will dominate the Washington scene Robinson said that a compromise on the Farm Bill may simply be a by-product of votes Diary leaders ad dress the economic impact of bovine growth hormone. See page A 26. being traded on other issues. Strike one. And among the farm policy issues, dairy is a side issue as well, said Robinson. “You’re an c<rnd of calm in a sea of distress, told the dairy industry leaner.. Polity makers will be preoccupied with the commodities that are ** . f A * Turn to AlB for a report on the'Holstein State Calf Sale. Results of the Spring Red & White Sale can be found on A3O. (7.50 per Year sitting assemblyman would give up an elected post to accept the short-term appointment. Runkel noted that the governor did not have any conditions the new secretary would have to fill, other than that he would be 'knowledgeable on agricultural issues.” Asked if the governor would try to nominate a candidate who, like Hallowed, was a farmer, Runkel said, ‘‘the search is not limited to farmers.” Some insiders commented that the governor might be tempted to let the department rest in the hands of a ‘caretaker” like Grode However, farming organizations and interest groups have been pushing the case for a full-time, activist secretary that has the confidence, and the ear, of the governor dairymen? suffTO on the export market. Wayne Boutwell of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives concurred with Robinson “We're out of the market in every single lommodity," he stated as he reviewed the multi-billion dollar drop in U.S ag exports in the last five years Boutwell proposed that the three policies that now guide farm programs support of farm in come and prices, maintenance of adequate supplies of food and fiber, and orderly marketing and distribution of farm products should be rounded out with a fourth policy assuring that the United States is competitive in world markets. ’Also admitting that dairy is not in the first string of Farm Bill issues, was James Jeffords, U.S. Congressman from Vermont, and ranking minority Republican on the dairy subcommittee, hough dairy is respected,” (Turn to Page A 26)
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