AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 29,1989 Uaa«^l*Bs>M OPINION Nagging Question The U.S. Department of Commerce made its final ruling last week that Canadian pork product subsidies qualify to be addres sed by a countervailing duty. The decision places a duty of 3.6 cents Canadian (approximately 3 cents U.S.) per pound on ship ments of fresh, chilled and frozen pork as soon as today’s deci sion can be published in the Federal Register. The new duty is up 0.1 cent from the preliminary Department of Commerce deci sion issued in May. The case now returns to the International Trade Commission (ITC) which is expected to make its final ruling in early September. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and co-peti tioners filed for the countervailing duty on subsidized Canadian fresh, chilled and frozen pork on January 5. The ITC made a pre liminary ruling in favor of the U.S. in February. The Department of Commerce issued a preliminary decision in May, placing an original bond of 3.5 cents Canadian per pound of Canadian pork product shipped into the- United States. “We are pleased that we won this latest decision because it moves us closer toward having fair trade between the United States and Canada,” said NPPC President Don Gingerich. “If we get a positive final decision from the International Trade Com mission, U.S. pork producers can look forward to a more level playing field with Canada on trade. We are still concerned, how ever, that the duty be sufficiently high to do the job it’s intended to do. We’ll just have to wait and see.” U.S. pork producers receive no pork subsidies. Meanwhile, they compete against Canadian producers who are currently re ceiving an equivalent of $3l (U.S.) a hog in subsidies. A count ervailing duty petition addresses unfair subsidies and not quo tas. tariffs or trade barriers. Therefore, it does not conflict with the Free Tade Agreement signed in January between the United States and Canada. NPPC supports the Free Trade Agreement, according to Gingerich. Because of trade inequities between the two countries, a countervailing duty was placed in 1985 on subsidized live Can adian hogs. An effort by NPPC to extend that duty to Canadian pork products was not successful at that time. U.S. pork produc ers expressed fears at the time that Canadians would attempt to bypass the duty on live hogs by processing the animals into pork products and then shipping the product into the U.S. duty free. According to NPPC, that is what has occurred. Canadians have increased their exports of pork products to the United States by more than 52% swince 1984. Last year, approximately 470 million pounds of Canadian pork was exported into the United States. Glenn Grimes, University of Missouri agricultural econo mist, calculated that hog and pork imports cut U.S. pork produc er revenues by as much as $3.37 per cwt. last year. Overall, the exports cost U.S. producers as much as $697 million in 1988. We’re pleased that the U.S. pork producers have won this round in the countervailing duty case on Canadian pork pro ducts imported into our country. But the nagging question re mains. Why wasn’t the loophole to bypass the duty on live hogs rlnspri hack in 1985? Farm Calendar Saturday, July 29 Maryland Brown Swiss field Day, Frederick fairgrounds, Freder ick, Md., 10:00 a.m, Sunday, July 30 Pennsylvania Angus field day. T&J Farm, Dover, Mercer County Grange Fair, Mer cer, runs through August S. Union County West End Fair, Lancaster Fanning Established 195$ Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 E. Main St Ephrata, PA 17522 by Lancaster Farming, Inc. A SMwnan ErmrpritS ' Robert G. Campbell __ General Manager Everett R. Nawtwangar * Men aging Editor ewW Itoa ky InM, Laurelton; runs through August 5. Cecil County Fair, Cecil County fairgrounds. Fair Hill, Elkton, Md.; runs through August 4. Carroll County 4-H/FFA Fair, Carroll County Ag Center, Westminster, Md.; runs (Turn to Page A3l) OTl£>, DID THAT STORM HITVOOR PLACET THE OTHER NIGHT? > NOW IS THE TIME By Jay Irwin ■Lancaster County Agriculture Agent To Be Aware Of Blue Mold This hot and humid weather is ideal conditions for virus infection on plants. And one bad infection that’s rapidly spreading in the county is Blue Mold on tobacco. Tobacco is a $2O million cash crop to our farmers so we really need to be alert for it. Blue mold can be identified by a purplish mold growing on the underside of the leaf and can be observed early in the morning. Control measures would de pend on the age of the plants. For young tobacco plants, use 1 quart of Ridomil per acre and cultivate it in. For larger tobacco plants, use mancozeb 80WP at the rate of 1.5 to 2 pounds per acre. Mancozeb would include Dithane M4S; Manzate 200 or Manex. We are experiencing ideal con ditions for the spread of Blue Mold. . .let’s do all we can to pro tect this $2O million crop. To Attend Ag Progress Days Most farmers do not need much prodding to visit an agricultural show whether it is in the county or halfway across the state. Each year thousands of people have jammed Penn State Univer sity’s Rock Springs Agricultural Research Center, nine miles west of Boalsburg on Route 4S, to at tend the Annual Ag Progress Days. The dates are August IS-17. Activities will start at 9:00 a.m. and end at S:00 p.m. each day. This year’s theme, “Improving Your Life Through Education,’’ celebrates 75 years of Cooperative Extension work in the United Slates. Bus tours to the research farms always have been a high light of Ag Progress Days. A popular new addition last year the special topics research tours will return. Machinery demonstrations, which had to be curtailed last year because of the drought, will return with a full schedule. Take a day out of your busy schedule. ..you’ve earned it. . .and plan to attend Ag Pro gress Days. Parking and admis sion are free. To Practice Farm Safety I want to remind everyone, dur ing this busy hot harvest season, that safety is very important at all times. Reports show that human errors are responsible for about 85 per cent or more of all farm accidents. Many accidents that are blamed on mechanical failures could have been prevented if someone had VOP, AND DID QUITE A. OF DAMAGE checked and repaired the equip ment as the need arose. It is hu man to make mistakes but it can also be dangerous. I’d like to offer some sugges tions to help eliminate many of the problems associated with acci dents: ** Give extra supervision to in experienced operators. ** Permit only the operator on equipment while it is in use. Un der no conditions should children or adults be permitted to ride along. ** Keep small children out of work areas unless accompanied by a responsible adult. ** Give teenagers work which they can handle safely. ** Avoid excessive fatigue take a mid-moming and mid-after noon break; it could be the most important time of your day. Br IAWKINCf W AIIHOUSI | ismsiLs CHOOSING THE BRAMBLEBUSH July 30,1989 Background Scripture: Judges 8:22 through 9:57. Devotional Reading: Ezekiel 28: 1-10. The story of Abimelech and Jotham is not so obscure as it may seem. Gideon, the successful gen eral, is offered the first kingship of Israel, but refuses, not only for himself but for his 70 legitimate sons as well. Why did he do this? Inasmuch as God had clearly indi cated his choice of Gideon as lead er of Israel’s army, wasn’t he the logical choice? Rightly or wrongly, Gideon refused, ostensibly because the idea of a kingship he regarded as a Canaanite practice: “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you” (8:23). This point of view is reflected at various other places in the early Old Testament narrative. We call it a theocracy: rule direct ly by God. Gideon obviously believed that if he were to become king, he would be interfering with the rule of God. Is that what God wanted, or was Gideon just being too cautious again? PLAYING THE HARLOT The next part of the story is very obscure. As an altmative to accepting the kingship, Gideon asked the people to give him a portion of their booty from the fighting and he used these gifts to make an ephod. No one today knows just what an ephod was, but it is suspected that it was some kind of graven image, for the wri ter of Judges indicates that “it became a snare to Gideon and to his family” and even the rest of Israel “played the harlot after it there.” It is hard to believe that Gideon would have followed his IN FACT IT'S) FOUR POLLS v . eerevEPYTF Let’s be safety conscious and practice safety every day. Be Aware of the Pollen Count The “hay fever” season is here. Despite its name, “hay” is not nor mally the cause of hay fever. Rag weed is the chief cause. Ninety percent of all allergic reactions to grass and weed pollens are due to ragweed. Hay fever is a seasonal disease. It’s a disease that many people tend to minimize despite the fact that one out of every three suffer ers develop its serious form chronic asthma. In Lancaster County it is wide spread from early August through September when the weeds flow er. The best way to destroy rag weed over large areas is by the use of a weed spray such as 2.4-D. Cutting the plant low, near the roots is recommended for small areas. great accomplishments with dis loyalty to God, but, of course, with human nature, anything is possible. Even though he refused to be their king, it appears that Gideon continued to give some leadership until his death. Because of him, .the people reminded relatively faithful to God so long as Gideon lived. Once he died, however, “the people of Israel turned again and played the harlot and the 8aa15...” (8:33). Not only did they forget their covenant with God, but the people of Israel forgot the debt of gratitude they owed to Gideon and his family. SP| THE WRONG REASONS Gideon had 70 legitimate sons, but he also had a son, Abimelech, by his concubine, who was prob ably not an Israelite, but a Canaan ite. Gideon’s family turned down the kingship, but Abimelech sought it aggressively and shrewd ly. He is a master at selling him self. They wanted a king and he is willing to be their king. They wanted someone from the house of Gideon and he was Gideon’s bastard son. Yet, he was also one of them, a Canaanite, so that Jt|jey said, “He is our brother” (9:3b). And, in all probability, he shared their religion, named as he was: “son of Melech,” one of the Canaanite gods. So, for all the wrong reasons, they rallied to Abimck o make him king— just as of us still choose our leaders t> day. Jotham, upon learning of Abimclech’s murder of his 70 brothers, climbs atop Mt. Gerizim and tells his listeners the fable of the trees and the bramblebush. Because the trees and the vine were “too busy” with their own affairs to serve as king, they ended up with the bramblebush, whose only qualification was that he wanted to be king. - Jolham is obviously referring to Israel and Abimelech and pro nounces a curse upon them. But he need not have done that, for when we choose the bramblebush to lead us, that is curse enough. • (Based on copyrighted Outline* produced by the Committee on the Uniform Series and used by permission. Released by Community A Sub urban Press.) AKE THREE-OP
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