A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 22, 1996
ADC, Dairy Partnership Network Use Bay Tr
(ContlniMd from Pago A 1)
fror.i the Dairy Network Partner
ship, a group of people consisting
of representatives from Rodale
Institute, PASA, CBF, Penn State
Extension, the EPA and ADC.
The group met for the first time
last July and, according to Lori
Sandman, with Rodale, and Les
Lanyon, with Penn State Exten
sion, an effort has been underway
to create a financial reward prog
ram for dairy producers whose
farming practices are environmen
tally sound and maintained.
The program idea is to get as
close as possible to a direct
consumer-producer relationship of
financial reward.
The basic theory is that consum
ers will not only select a product of
equal value over another if that
product carries with it the promise
of helping to protect the environ
ment, but that the consumer will
pay slightly more for it, because it
has an environmental enhance
ment value.
Examples of existing products
and product lines whose company
promotions have marketed them in
association with environmental
stewardship were discussed.
Lanyon talked about how Ben &
Jerry’s Ice Cream have associated
themselves with helping the survi
vability of the family fanner, and
also, through flavor names, with
environmental concern.
He also talked about people’s
selections of products, and appa
rent willingness to pay more for
them, that advertise.such things as
being kosher foods, natural foods,
etc.
Small, almost unnoticeable
logos, or seals (such as the Good
Housekeeping Seal of Approval,
Underwriter’s Laboratories,
USDA approved, and registered
with the Pa. Dept of Ag) have
been used for years in United
States to distinguish products and
sway consumer choice.
One product Lanyon displayed
even touted its milk as imported
from Lancaster County a tact
that relies on the general public’s
tourism affections and Lancaster
County’s reputation for plain peo
ple who portray wholesomeness.
The reason for the involvement
by ADC is that through a coopera
tive, a promotional, labeling and
over-retail price program would
probably have a better chance of
success with the general public
than with a private processor, but
private enterprise isn’t ruled out
On the left, longtime Chesapeak Bay waterman Earl White stands next to a dredge
and tells of his experiences of years of collecting oysters in the bay. He blames human
greed for destroying most of the oyster beds In the bay, along with pollution from
adjoining cities and large urban sprawl along tributary waterways.
The other reason is that ADC
controls a large portion of the milk
in the Middle Atlantic States and
that produced in the Susquehanna
River drainage of the Chesapeake
watershed.
The concept is defined further in
the assumption that an environ
mentally concerned consumer
would be willing to pay an incre
mental amount more for the milk
they purchase and that extra
amount would then be allocated
back in direct compensation to
dairy farmers who practice good
stewardship.
Rating dairy producer environ
mental stewardship would possib
ly be done by the cooperative’s
milk inspectors in addition to other
inspection actions they take and
record.
A rating card has tentatively
been devised that would rate the
amount of best management prac
tices used by a producer.
It is also considered that, givep
public support and funding, that
some of the money could be used
to help dairy producers, otherwise
reluctant to enter into cost-share
agreements with government,
design and construct facilities or
changes to their operations that
limit the effect of the dairy on the
environment.
Lanyon and others said that part
of the concern is that while efforts
have been underway to increase
environmental stewardship
through cost-sharing for manure
storage, stream fencing, cattle
crossings and other practices, that
doing so does not necessarily
increase the profitability of the
farm.
Further, there arc many small
streams running through farms that
are contributors of sediment, per
haps the biggest threat to the entire
river and bay system. Sediment
smothers aquatic life, including
oysters, but even closer to home, it
destroys the ability of small water
ways to sustain beneficial aquatic
life, such as sprat and edible fishes.
Those whose farming opera
tions depend on rented farmland
also have no inherint incentive to
install protective measures, and
landowners leasing farmland are
provided no market incentive for
doing so.
A survey was reportedly mailed
recently to ADC fanners request
ing their thoughts on what was
important and what additional
information they wanted to know.
Blake Glaeser, captain of the Stanley Norman, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s
educational vessel, sits on a boat hatch cover and, using detailed map talks about the
bay and its character which makes It unique among the Earth’s estuaries.
Education via a short cruise in the Chesapeake Bay on the Chesapeake Bay Found*
atlon’s skipjack sailboat Is a hands-on experience. Here fingers touch the leathery
shell of a small blue crab in recent post-molt also called the soft-shell stage.
Included was a list of references.
While there is an effort to con
tinue farm-based education and
farmer-to-farmer efforts, and an
effort to evaluate current cost
share programs, surveys are also
(Turn to Pago A 36)
ip To Discuss Strategy
From the left, Lee Lanyon and Chesapeake Bay Founda
tion educator Stewart Harris empty the catch from one of
the two small hand dredges used on the Stanley Norman.