Gordon (Continued from Pago A 34) essential, if not more so, to the sur vival of man, much loss a demo cracy, than other special consider ation activities, such as military Butsuch a program would have to be done on a state-wide basis, so as to not have the discrepencies associated with zoning among sev eral neighboring municipalities. Many farms are located in several different municipalities and zon ings differ. Tillable Soils Zoning The concept Hoover proposes is simple. Protection of tillable soils could be mandated through zoning. Legislation could be created to do such a thing. “Zoning as we have it now, does a good job of preserving farmland, or limiting development in farm land. Maybe something handled on a statewide basis, rather than a township basis, might be more stable and maybe cany out public ideas better than local zoning,” Hoover said. “I see that as maybe a little more equitable (than current farmland preservation), because an area that’s in agriculture now, has agri cultural land values, and so by call ing it ‘permanent farmland,’ you haven’t affected the land value of it “And so, it doesn’t really change anything, all things stay relative, so I think something like RAISING CHICKENS NEW H 2 FEEDER A New Way To Feed Broilers And Turkey Poults H 2 Broiler Feeder With Flood Gates Open, Fills Pan With Over* flow Onto The Paper For Quick Starts With Minimum Waste. Hoover that would work. I think you’d still need some kind of a hearing board. There would probably have some kind of exceptions around the place. But if you had something stable ..." Hoover said the value of farm land isn’t accurately reflected in economics. Economics deals with a specific time element However, agriculture is as timeless as mankind. Hoover said that under the cur rent system, at best a few open spaces between large urban deve lopments will be preserved. But those will not last forever, as Hoover sees it In time. Hoover said, these farm areas could possibly be turned to parks, when urban neighbors pro test manure spreading, pesticides applications and general agricul tural drawbacks to urban life. And when it becomes a no-win situa tion to farm near people. Taking that concept further. Hoover said he sees a day when some judge would overturn farm land preservation rights. “Fifty years down the road, I could possibly envision a judge overturning that deed restriction saying that it was preserved to farm. There is no way it can be farmed. We have enough parks as it is, go ahead and develop it,” Hoover said. Dreamer or Logician? 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FLYWAY BUSINESS PARK 139 A West Airport Rd., Lititz, PA 17543 (717) 569-2702 cian is not important; these unsav ory projections of future fanning constitute a base of Hoover’s stance on farmland preservation. However, as a community lead er and social activist. Hoover is not the kind of man who will ignore the world when this one issue is settled. He said there are multiple issues that need farmer attention. He said he would like to see more grass roots farmer-activism. “I guess I feel a need to be involved to kind of steer my own destiny. I think that fanners have to get involved with their industry and things that affect their indus try, in order to carve out a viable future. “And I think the Farmers’ Asso ciation is a strong organization that has done a good job of that over the years,” he said. “And with all these special interest groups out there attacking us from all angles, public educa tion is probably the biggest thing agriculture has to deal with.” There are other reasons for far mers to devote a portion of then time to community involvement. Hoover said. ‘‘Originally. I got involved to kind of keep myself more informed. To get involved, to be involved, is one of the best ways to keep informed; to learn about the issues that are in front of us,” Hoover said. “And I think that to be informed is to be better able to serve.” He said his father’s influence is also instrumental in his own involvement with Lancaster PFA. SYSTEMS, His father was one of the originat ing founders of the Lancaster FFA. However, Hoover isn’t using his position as president of PFA to further his own beliefs. He said his role as president isn’t really a polit ical position, either. “I guess when I think of ‘politi cal,’ I think of running for a local office or a state legislator, or some kind of a commissioner post or something like that. “I guess I feel this is more a ser vice organization to serve farmers and rural persons, in that respect ‘The main purpose of the Far mers’ association is to be a voice for farmers; help organize them, their concerns, and express those concerns to the proper people, whether it be legislators, depart ment of agriculture, other special interest groups . . . basically we’re representing farmers,” he said. He noted that although it may be difficult to represent farmer opin ion for various reasons, and that some people could use such a posi tion to foward their own views, that is not the way of PFA. “It’s very difficult to get a con sensus of opinion from farmers. Really, a group of farmers is a col lection of independent business men who have their own ideas and own unique problems and solu tions to those problems. “And, as you can see over the last few years, some of the hot top ics that have come up some of OR TURKEYS? IS WHAT YOU NEED • ALL-PLASTIC FEEDER consists of 3 simple, rugged polypropylene parts for permanent corrosion-proofing. Pan easily removes for clean-out and hangs from feeder for drying and storage. INC. lancMUr Fanning, Saturday, May 5, 1990437 Not Political STORE HOURS: M>n.-Frl 7:30-4:30 OPEN SATURDAY BY APPOINTMENT the current ones are BST, ag land preservation for as many diffe rent farmers, there’s almost as many different ideas and thoughts on some of these subjects,” Hoov er said. “So, it’s difficult to get a consensus when you go to a ... say, a legislative body or something like that, to by to get something across.” However, Hoover said that when his farmer constituency does reach a strong majority view, there is support to follow. “Farmers tend to rally together, especially in a crisis situation. Then they put everything aside and really come together in a coopera tive spirit But sometimes too, until you get to that point it’s hard to get a consensus.” Agriculture, though vastly diversified in form, is the state’s largest business overall, despite an ever shrinking number of people involved. The shrinking number of people could mean a decreased political power. It used to be that farmer voting records were not very good. Hoover maintains that has changed greatly, but it can’t be verified because voter registration officials no longer record occupation of voters. Nevertheless, Hoover said the days of the leave-me-alone, I don’t-want-to-hear-about-it indi vidual is gone in agriculture. He said that, at least in his experience, farmers are now dependable (Turn to Pag* A 39) -FORMED TUBE is -lized inside end out rust-resistance. kGE within dome ;kly to all birds. ADJUST LEVEL lets you set ienlng to allow for it types of feed you decide to use. TJBLE FEED-SAVER UP on pan limits raking and billing and helps you save every bit of precious feed. FOR YOUR REMODELING NEEDS, WATERING, FEEDING OR VENTILATION EQUIPMENT - CALL US!
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers