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VOL. 35 NO. 24
Yeutter Gives Views At Local Fund Dinner
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
HERSHEY (Dauphin
Co.) —“In my judgment, Ameri
can agriculture will need to pick
itself up by its own bootstraps
more in the future than in the past,”
said Clayton Yeutter, national
agriculture secretary. “And this
need will happen irrespective of
the political party in power.”
Speaking at the 10th annual
F.A.R.M.E.R fundraising banquet
at the Hershey Country Club Tues
day evening, Yeutter said this may
not necessarily be a disadvantage
to farmers. Some segments of agri
culture that do not receive substan
tial help from government are still
quite economically healthy. The
challenge to the national agricul
ture secretary is to make sure
revenues come from the market
place both domestically and
internationally.
The secretary said not much
additional demand can be created
for food in the domestic market.
But non-food uses can be deve
loped. For example, the prospect
of cleaner fuel from crop-related
additives has a potentially bright
future.
Overseas, the potential to nego
tiate and sell ag exports has great
Does Biotechnology Put The Food Supply At Risk?
Editor’s note: The 1990 Food
Safety Conference, held for the
general media in the Northeast,
was an attempt to bring news
paper, radio and TV journalists
together for an orientation to
farm food production problems.
The event was held at Cornell
University at Ithacia, NY, last
week and was sponsored by:
Cornell’s Institute of Food Sci
ences, Cooperative Extension,
The Northeast Farm Communi
cators, the New York State Col-
Dairy Farmer's
Involvement Goes
Beyond FenceUne
GAIL STROCK
Mifflin Co. Correspondent
BELLEVILLE (Mifflin Co.)—Who would
fly to Scotland to give a speech, manage a
450-acre farm with a 70-cow herd, and serve
as local president of Rotary?
A man of many different hats would! And
John Reed Rodgers from Belleville, Mifflin
-County is that man.
In addition, Rodgers is currently serving
his second term as president of the Pennsylva
nia Ayrshire Breeders Association. Rodgers’
committment to being involved and moving
forward is evident in just about all he does.
“If you’re green you’re growing, if you’re
ripe you’re rotting...and being apart of some
thing that is growing is stimulating to me,” he
satd. (Turn to Pago A 36)
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possibilities. In fact, according to
Yeutter, we have no choice to
expand the markets to the five bil
lion people who live outside the
US. boarders.
“Not all the wealth of the world
rathe receiving line at the F.A.B.M.E.R. banquet are, left to right, Richard Newpher,
executive secretary, Pennsylvania Farmers Association; Clayton Yeutter,U.Ssecretary of
Agriculture; Keith Eckel, president, Pennsylvania Farmers Association and Boyd Wolff,
Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture.
lege of Human Ecology and
Agriculture and Life Sciences.
One of the presentations at this
conference follows.
DU. BEERMANN
Associate Professor
of Animal Science
Cornell University
ITHACA, NY This is a
technological age, and the rapid
fire advances in technology are
not limited to development of
Space Shuttle and space explora
tion programs, satellite surveil
John Rodgers presides over the annual meet
ing of the Pennsylvania Ayrshire Breeders Asso
ciation, one of the many positions he holds.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 21,1990
lies within our borders,” Yeutter
said. “Foreigners are investing in
US property. So, maybe they could
spend some of their money on our
food we could export to them.”
Yeutter cited die negotiated
lance of weather or military activi
ties or developing even more pow
erful super computers.
Technology advances in the phys
ical sciences, medicine and agri
culture are also making history.
We refer to this new technology in
medicine and agriculture as
biotechnology because it pervades
nearly all aspects of the biology of
plant, animal, human and other
forms of life.
Biotechnology applications in
agriculture are perceived by some
agreement with Japan that has
resulted in $1 billion worth of beef
to be exported in 1989. That figure
is expected to be exceeded in 1990.
This export market alone has been
credited with adding $2 per
to put our food supply at risk. I
want to share with you today the
rationale or reasons for use of
biotechnology in animal agricul
ture and how it may influence our
food supply. I want to provide
examples of how this biotechnolo
gy can be used, and I want to share
with you how safety and whole
someness of our food supply is
assured when molecular biology
and other tools of biotechnology
are applied to animal agriculture.
My talk is not meant to include a
Veterinarians Hear
BST Research Backround
VERNON ACHENBACH, JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
Although not everything is
known about how bovine somatot
ropine (BST) works to stimulate
milk production in lactating cows,
researchers said they are sure that
use of the product does not injure
cows and does not produce any
health hazard to humans consum
ing the milk.
This message was delivered
during a BST informational semi
nar held Tuesday by representa
tives for BST-manufacturer, Mon
santo Agricultural Co.
Held at Days Inn, the purpose of
the seminar was to provide area
veterinarians and other dairy ani
mal professionals with updates on
BST and to answer technical ques
tions that may have not been asked
in previous seminars on the
subject.
Five Sections
hundred to the price of US fed
cattle, indefinitely for many years
to come.
“I happen to think we could
export dairy products too,” Yeutter
said. “Unfortunately, we have had
a mind set to keep other dairy pro
ducts out of this country. But no
one has thought much about sell
ing dairy products elsewhere. I
hope we can change that mind set
and market dairy products around
the world. We will not know if we
can do it if we don’t try.”
To answer questions from the
participants in the $125 per plate
dinner meeting, Yeutter said:
—We need to curb the federal
budget or we will have another
wave of inflation with higher inter
est rates.
—We need to do a better job of
education in our school system to
keep us up to the standards of other
countries.
—Food embargoes will not be
used as negotiating tools in the
Bush adminstration.
—Food safety laws need to be
changed from zero residue levels
to negligible risk management.
—We need to standardize pesti
cide laws so government agencies
do not make conflictine standards.
(Turn to Pago A 37)
comprehensive treatment of all
issues which could be raised con
cerning food safety. Hopefully it
will provide you a better under
standing of the scope and diversity
of information which must be
sought and included in a balanced
reporting of the impact of biotech
nology on our food supply and
where that information is avail
able. I also want to point out how
new data, information or claims
are evaluated by scientists and
(Turn to Pago A 32)
BST has been the focus of dairy
industry controversy for more than
a year with research showing
promising results toward safe and
possibly profitable application of
the product to increase milk pro
duction in cows that fall within
certain criteria.
However, controversy has
resulted because of several diffe
rent objections to its use.
By holding public meetings and
seminars, researchers, representa
tives and consultants with Mon
santo (and other manufacturers of
BST) have been attempting to lay
to rest fears of BST based on a lack
of information.
Most fears seem based on spe
culation that the product may have
some negative side effect to cows
under BST therapy or humans who
consume the resultant milk. Gen
eral mistrust of manufacturing
(Turn to Pag* A4l)
$l2. 50 Per Year