York farms honored for Farm-City Week participation
BY JOYCE BUPP “More with less” is the message * * L
Staff Correspondent of Bay funding, especially in the
YORK - Four York County area of nutrient management. Two
farms and four local businessmen of the largest problems of the
were honored during the annual estuary are nitrogen and manure
York seminar, pollution, with manure
February 27, at the York management and central focus of
Fairgrounds banquet center. spending in Pennsylvania.
Recognition went to those farms Swartz says that farmers in the
and business representatives who 27,000-square-mile Bay watershed
participated in the 1985 Farm-City basin area are applying annually
exchange, held on National Ag an extra $9O in nutrients to their
Day, March 20. Businessmen spent farmland, or the equivalent of
the day with their farm hosts, then $2200 per farm,
hosted their farm exchangees to Increasing concentrations of
their business at a later date. animal numbers on decreasing
Participants were Paul and Gail amounts of land is the concern of
McPherson, Maple Lawn Farms, soils specialist Dr. Les Lanyon. Dr.
who hosted Bill Groft of the York Lanyon related statistics showing
Bank and Trust Company; Martin over half the animal manure in
Grey, Sinking Springs Farms who Pennsylvania is produced in the
. exchanged visits with Gregrory Southeastern comer of the state,
Keller of the Drovers and with up to 27 tons applied per acre
Mechanics Bank; Jerry and to some Lancaster County land.
Carolyn Rutter of Rutter’s Since 72 percent of the state’s ag
Livestock and their exchangee income is directly derived from
Walter Jeffers, Agribusiness In- livestock or poultry commodities,
surance Center; and Robert L. Lanyon is working with DER
Smyser, Smyser’s Richlawn funded measuring equipment to
Farms and James Vallosio of the monitor volumes of manure ap-
General Telephone Company of plied per acre. Use of this
Pennsylvania. technology can help farmers
“Agriculture and Its En- pinpoint actual tonnages of
vironment” was the theme of the nutrients applied to cropland. The
23rd ag-business session, which aim is to drastically slice the
drew about one hundred contribution from the
representatives from the business Susquehanna basin of 70 percent of
and agriculture communities. the nitrogen and 56 percent of
Speakers included state Director phosophorus levels that are
of Environmental Resources Paul creating problems in the Bay’s
Swartz and Penn State specialists marine environment.
Dr. Les Lanyon, Dr. John Skelly Pollution expert Dr. John Skelly
and Dr. Karen Mancl. looks up instead of down in the
After spending $26 million for a environment, claiming a Chicken
five-year study and report on the Little, or “the sky is falling”
Chesapeake, the Environmental complex.
Protection Agency will now shell What’s actually falling, warns
out a couple of million more for a Skelly, is acid rain, a direct result
model to shew how the Bay works, of short-sighted theories that “the
says DER director Swartz. solution to pollution is dilution. ’ ’ To
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The York Chamber of Commerce honored participants in the 1985 Ag Day farm-city
exchange. From left are Bill Graft. Paul and Gail McPherson, Lome Detter, chairman of the
Chamber’s Ag-Business committee, Robert Smyser and James Vallosio.
direct coal-fired factory and power
plant emissions away from the
ground, builders constructed
towering stacks to carry pollutants
into upper air levels. But emissions
at that level combine with
moisture to form acid rain,
sometimes with a pH level nearly
that of vinegar. Industrial and
vehicular emissions also create
ozone, one of the most critical
pollutants to plants.
Both acid rain and high ozone
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crops, especially sensitive ones better engineering at pollution
such as grapes and white pine, sources, plant breeding, protective
While varieties are being plant sprays and legislation are all
developed to resist such pollutants, components of long-term solution
Skelly questions the value of to pollution,
genetic pollution resistance. Clean water or lack of it
“It’ll just result in more air concerns water quality specialist
pollution,” he figures, projecting Dr. Karen Mancl. High nitrate
that scientists and en- levels, which are prominent in
vironmentalists are neglecting the numerous rural well water sup
need to protect our long-term food Pl* es > pose the greatest danger to
supplies from the effects of filthy (Turn to Page A 29)
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