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)