V VOL. 34 No. 26 Egg Marketing Association Pushes For Action On Egg Check-Off BY LOU ANN GOOD LANCASTER While egg prices have risen recently, produc ers and marketers have not forgot ten the economic crisis that ear marked their industry during the last two years. Then higher nation al production combined with declining per capita consumption pushed producer prices downward. On Wednesday, at the Quality Inn, Lancaster, the PA Egg Mark eting Association studied steps to initiate an egg marketing order. John Hoffman, executive direc tor of the Pennsylvania Poultry Federation, told the members that 14 years ago, a study for a state check off was initiated. Since then, there have been numerous studies that show support for the checkoff. “Additional studies are a waste of money and time,” he said. ‘Td likQ to get 12 guys, tops in the industry, who must write a propos al before they are allowed to leave the room. If we can’t get these 12 BY PAT PURCELL EPHRATA Should you vote “yes” or “no” on the local tax reform referendum appearing on the May 16 primary ballot? Only the voter can make that decision. But the best decisiop it always an informed one. And cri tics and supporters of the tax reform proposal are offering their services with the goal of gathering Safety Measures To Follow Pesticide Use Can Be Hazardous To Your Health BY USA RISSER Fanning is one of the most, if not the most, dangerous of occupa tions. Spring is particularly dangerous as farmers prepare their fields and plant their crops. One area to which many farmers don’t pay enough attention in terms of safety is pesticide usage. They often don’t take time to read the label’s safety precautions, couldn’t be bothered with protec tive clothing, and disregard clean ing and storage recommendations. These are the farmers who become poisoned. Pesticide poisoning often goes unnoticed or is rationalized away because the symptoms of low dosage poisonings are fairly gener ic. “Unless farmers were really exposed to a pesticide, they wouldn’t recognize or admit that they were poisoned,” said Win Hock, professor of plant pathology and pesticide coordinator of Penn State's pesticide education prog 01619/ 1299 Pt NIOUICALS D1V1&/■}»•< W/09 l-'t’' * ' Efc r L }-Wn ' LIMI 'M RSI i Y PI NNSVI W.NI ‘™l „ V', o,' l 'lßo/ . UNIVCKSIIY RARK Hi ' ■ Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 6,1989 guys to agree, nothing is ever going to happen and we might as well drop it now and quit wasting our time.” In response to Hoffman’s sug gestion, the association decided to forego additional studies and rely upon the survey currently being done by the Lancaster County Poultry Association in cooperation with Penn State University. Although that is a nationwide survey, the association intends to extract the necessary information to determine county responses. A summary from the national survey taken in December showed that Pennsylvania producers are less supportive of a marketing order than producers in other states. Regardless, 54 percent of state producers felt some action necessary. be," Hoffman said, "that a marketing order will not mater ialize. But it’s tune to determine which way we are going instead of (Turn to Pagt A4O) Tax Reform Referendum Get All The Facts votes for their cause. Probably no other proposal in the Common wealth’s, history has intiated such heated debates. The public is invited to attend an informational forum on the tax reform proposal. The meeting is being sponsored by the Lancaster Inter-Municipal Committee on Thursday, May 11,7:30 p.m. at the Farm and Home Center, Arcadia ram. “Most fanners would handle pesticides, feel sick, then go home at the end of the day and go to bed. Because they are no longer exposed to the pesticides, the symptoms go away.” Until the next time. Receiving low doses of pesticide poisoning over many years is called chronic exposure, and is potentially as dangerous as acute eposure.’The long-term exposure is a big mys tery,” Hock explained. “It’s a big concern because we don’t know what will happen from long-term exposure. We don’t know if it causes cancer; we don’t know if it causes reproductive problems in males; we don’t know its effects on pregnant women. There are studies to suggest a relationship between the chemicals and cancer. “When we tell farmers to wear protective clothing, we’re saying you may get nailed if you’re not careful.” (Turn to Pago A 24) ha ™ e f ted this week on Running Springs Farm at the corner of Vil age and Mentzer roads near the Lampeter Fair Grounds. Heavy rains here over last weekend tor P iiam oJttS'LtoVn Si 1 ® 1 ?* the week ' ,n add,tl °n, Ascension Day. a religious holida? P®°P*® on Thursday, kept their teams of horses and steel-wheeled tree. DtenSSSJ; SStSf S th ® en . d of the ®P«hfl mmml corn ® nd f ,ot of tV® was on the ground, waiting to be made into silage to um ** drtWer **® atwhen Manag,ngEd,torpver «ttNewswanger stopped Road in Lancaster. Gordon Hoover, president of the Lancaster County Farmers Associ ation will be serving on the panel along with Edgar Long, legislative Training People Who Sell Milk Can Benefit Farmers BY KARL BERGER Special Correspondent EPHRATA The people who promote dairy products think many of the people who actually sell them could be doing a better job. For more than 15 years, as vari ous advertising campaigns have come and gone, they’ve taught the grocery store employees who man age dairy sales the best ways to store, stock and sell dairy products Manheim Central Rebuilds Ag Ed Program BY PAT PURCELL MANHEIM (Lancaster) Debbie Seibert didn’t need a national study to tell her the future of vocational agriculture was hanging by a slender thread when she began her new teaching posi tion at Manheim Central in July 1985. Four students were enrolled in her freshman class for the 1985-86 school year. Enrollment in the entire program was 38 in the ag program with another SO enrolled Four Sections Harvesting Rye chairman of the Centerville Chap ter of the American Association of Retired Persons; Thomas T. Bal drige, vice president of Govern ment and Public Affairs of the through a day-long seminar, the “Dairy Department Management Workshop.” The workshop program has proven to be popular in, the Mid- Atlantic area and a way for farmer funded promotion groups to increase their influence with local food retailers, according to Dick Norton, manager of the Middle Atlantic Milk Marketing Agency. MAMMA, which promotes milk in the Federal Order 4 market, Ag Classes Near Capacity in the small gas engines and gar dening class. Seibert knew she had a one-year position if she didn’t get enrollment numbers up, immediately. LF s' Joint Ag-Ed Curriculum 504 Per Copy Exclusive . Series a $lO.OO Per Year Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry: and Cheryl Desmond, president of the League of Women Voters of Lancaster (Turn tb Pag* A 26) is a member of the American Dairy Association, the national group that developed the workshop’s basic guidelines. Together with their counterparts at the Syracuse, N.Y.-based American Dairy Asso ciation hnd Dairy Council Inc., and the Columbus, Ohio-based Mid- East United Dairy Industry Asso ciation, MAMMA staffers conduct management workshops for groc ery store personnel across (Turn to Paga A 23) The vo ag program reflected the changing community from which Manheim Central draws its stu dents. The countryside surround ing the high school in northwestern Lancaster County has changed drastically over the past 20 years. As development devoured farms, fewer students needed a —production-oriented vo ag prog ram, because fewer students were returning to the farms after gradua tion. The vocational agriculture (Turn to Pag* A 22)
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