A36-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, August 17, 1886
PSU President Spanier
(Continued from Page A 1)
of the academic colleges will be
changed to reflect the broadened
mission that includes extension
liaison and coordination of each
college. Hie Academic Council for
Continuing and Distance Educa
tion will now be called the Coordi
nating Council of Outreach and
Cooperative Extension. And reg
ional councils will be formed in
addition to the county directors
who now operate at the local exten
sion offices.
This new plan is intended to gain
University-wide support for exten
sion and ephance collaboration
between extension and the other
academic units within the Penn
State,” Spanier said. “In addition, it
will create a more integrated coor
dinated state-wide presence for
Penn State outreach overall. Ulti
mately it will improve extension’s
capacity to provide for the needs of
the state. Social issues can be
addressed, and the state’s access to
Penn State’s knowledge resources
will be increased.”
Ted Alter, interim dean, spoke at
the government luncheon and to
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Fanning Staff
ROCKSPRING (Centre
Co.) Though limited in time,
Richard Rominger, the deputy sec
retary of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, visited Penn State’s
Ag Progress Days activities this
week, touring the site and speaking
at the event’s annual government
and industry day luncheon.
While he addressed the body
attending the luncheon and dis
cussed the new farm bill and
changes affecting agriculture, he
said during a brief interview that
the role of the agency will be to
continue research and other efforts
to assure food quality and leading
production technology, and it is to
also to continue coordination and
oversight of some conservation
programs.
He said the agency is also to
focus on doing what it can to sup
port the strength of the infrastruc
ture that allows crops and livestock
to be moved to market, including
consistent and reliable exports.
Though Rominger didn’t dis
cuss issues in depth, the gist of his
comments were that the United
State consumer can be expected to
pay up to 3 percent more for food,
and that farmer income should
increase.
The future of the independent
family farmer under the direction
of the current governmental out
look is to be even more his own
making, and it includes taking on
more risk of failure without gov
ernment bailout help.
He said that while the USDA is
to work closely with the U.S. Jus
tice Department to ensure that col
lusion and too few companies are
created through mergers that pre
vent competition, the independent
family farmer will probably be
more a niche farmer and perhaps
produce for local markets, or be
part time farmers.
“I think overall, we’ve got an
optimistic outlook for agriculture
and family farmers in this coun
try,” Rominger said.
“Even though we’ve seen the
commodity program payments
from the federal government
declining over the years and they
will continue to decline, we do
have a situation now especially
with the grains and soybeans
with a better balance of supply
and demand. We don’t have the
the alumni luncheon Tuesday.
Alter’* College report included
what he called wonderful news.
“We are fortunate and grateful that
the appropriations by the Com
monwealth legislature increased
funding for both Penn State’s
research and extension budgets by
11.4 percent,” Alter said. “Because
of this increase. I am able to report
that as of last Thursday, I have
lifted the hf freeze that hay
USDA Deputy Secretary Visits
surplusses that we had in past years
that held prices down.
“We do have some good prices
for those commodities. In fact,
most things except cattle have
pretty good prices right now,” he
said.
“So. I think the long-term out
look for agriculture is good. We’ve
got some programs in the new
Farm Bill to assist farmers, espe
cially family fanners in coping
with some of the problems they
face.
“We’ve got some good environ
mental programs in the new farm
bill that will provide cost-share
assistance and technical assitance
for addressing some of the prob
lems on farms, whether they are
livestock waste disposal, pest
management ... we have some
good new programs that will be
helpful.
“We’ve also got some good rur
al development programs to help
small rural communties. We have
to have that infrastructure out there
if we are going to continue to have
a lot of family farms in this coun
try. Those small communities have
to survive too,” he said.
“And we’ve got a good research
program working in conjuction
with land-grant universities like
Penn State so we can keep the
knowledge level and technology
level of agriculture up right on the
forefront so our farmers will have
the latest technology to be able to
compete worldwide, because we
do have a global market these days
and we have to be able to compete
with other countries and their agri
cultural production.
“All-in-all, I think the outlook is
optimistic. It doesn’t mean that
we’re not going to have problems
and we’re not going to have tough
times for farmers, because this
Farm Bill also puts more of the risk
on farmers as far as pricing goes,
because we don’t have the big
commodity stabilization programs
that we used to have in farm
policy.
“Now, there could be more fluc
tuation in commodity prices based
on what’s taking place in the mark
et on the supply and demand situa
tion, so it does make it more
important that farmers look at all
the ways they can to manage this
additional risk and certainly crop
insurance plays a big part in that
“So, farmers need to pay close
Unveils New
been in effect for the last several
years.”
Alter said the present $2O mil
lion in grant awards is nearly at an
all-time high. Extension efforts in
education covering critical areas
such as profitable Canning and
agribusiness, strengthening family
and community life, sustaining our
natural resource base, and enabling
people to reach better decisions in
public policy issues.
Also making a guest appearance
was U.S. Deputy Secretary of
Agriculture Richard Rominger. He
flew in to Ag Progress Days by
helicopter, and his remarks in both
a special interview and at the gov
ernment luncheon ate covered at
another place in this issue of Lan
caster Fanning.
Many state and local govern
ment officials usually attend the
annual government luncheon at Ag
Progress Days. This year the crowd
was enlarged by many others with
in the Penn State system who were
anticipating President Spanier’s
outline for Penn State Extension
Service’s new direction.
Richard Rominger, U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture, right, visited the Pennsyl
vania House Ag Committee meeting held at Ag Progress Days Wednesday. With Rom
inger are from left, Charles Broshis, Pennsylvania ag secretary, and Ray Bunt, chair
man of the House ag committee.
attention to their needs as far as
crop insurance goes.”
Rominger said that the USDA
will also be working as a watchdog
to try to ensure that global and
national corporations don’t take
over food production and control
consumer prices and farmer prices.
“We do have concerns about
where we are going in concentra
tions in all segments of agriucl
ture,” he said. “It’s really come to
the forefront most recently in the
livestock industry, partly because
of the fact that we have low cattle
prices and when you have low
prices of a commodity, you look
around to see what’s happening
that might be causing those low
prices.”
He said the department has been
concerned with the concentration
of livestock slaughtering opera
tions in the United States.
Those in the industry blame fed
eral regulations, high labor costs,
and consolidation of retail oppor
tunities for eliminating the diversi
ty in that arena.
“There is a lot of concern in
livestock slaughter concentra
tion,’’ he said.
“We’ve had a study by a com
mittee of farmers and other parti
cipants in that industry looking at
that We’ve come out with some
proposals on what we’re going to
do to try to alleviate that situation
Direction For Extension
Ag Progress Da;
with more price reporting, better
price reporting, more timely price
reporting, so at least the farmer
will know what dther people are
paying for livestock.
‘That was a first step. We’ll
have some more recommendations
coming out later on, on ways that
we can improve the enforcement
that we have authorized.
“We’ve also been working with
the Justice Deparment because
they have authority over anti-trust
activities, that the combination or
consolidations that (appear as
though they) are going to be anti
competitive, the Justice Depart
ment will be involved, so we’re
working closely with them.
“There has been a consolidation
of railroads, just like there has
been in other industries," he said.
“The latest proposed merger of
railroads taking place west of the
Mississippi River is one that we in
the Department of Agriculture
opposed because we thought it
would lessen the competition and
increase costs of transportation for
farmers in the West
“We are concerned about rail
service, barge service and making
sure we do have the infrastructure
to move the crops in this country.
“That’s one the strengths that
we’ve had in this country com-
Graham Spanler
pared to a lot of other counties in
the world where they don’t have
the infrastructure to move crops
around their country or move their
crops to an export facilities,” he
said.
“We do have that We want to
make sure we keep those facilities
and they have to be competitively
priced.
‘Those industries are looking
for efficiencies too, and we want to
have those efficiencies, but not get
to the point where we don’t have
the infrastructure and enough
capacity to move our products.
“We look for slates like Pen
nsylvania to continue to be impor
tant producers and exporters,” he
said. “Pennsylvania has been an
important exporter of agricultural
products.”
He said that for 35 years United
State agricultural world trade has
been the positive aspect of world
trade. He said the USDA will con
tinue to work to reduce trade
barriers.
“lean see Pa. farmers participat
ing in that There will be more
emphasis, I think, on farmers
working together, whether it’s
through cooperatives or other
arrangements so that they can be as
efficient in processing and moving
their products.”