Vol. 43 No. 13
ARMPPA Presents Case
To Amish Farmers
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
CHRISTIANA (Lancaster
Co.) More than SOO Amish far
mers with a handfiill of “English
men” mixed in, packed church
bench style into Peter Shams’ cow
mattress manufacturing building
Wednesday evening. By nightfall,
the normally deserted rural road
that winds west of town over small
hills and vales, was lit up like
Grand Central Station with horses
and buggies, Amish transport vans,
farm trucks, and cars of every dis
crip tion. They came to hear offi
cials of die new American Raw
Milk Producers Pricing Associa
tion (ARMPPA) bring a case fora
national grass-roots effort for far
mers to take back pricing of their
milk into their own hands.
ARMPPA is structured as a non
profit. non-stock cooperative
which supporters say has its base in
the Capper-Volstead Act of 1921
This gives farmers the right to
organize as a cooperative and puts
the rules in place to govern the
pricing and moving of milk. In a
telephone conversation with the
organization’s vice {Resident, John
Kinsman. LaValle, Wisconsin,
Lancaster Farming learned that
An Mtlmated 600 Amish dairy farmers crowded Into a Christiana manu
facturing facility Wednesday night to hear officials of the American Raw
Milk Producers Pricing Association (ARMPPA) discuss the merits of this
new milk pricing cooperative. Many of the farmers were already members,
Calif. Dominates Southeast, Mid-Atlantic Peach Market -
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
HERSHEY (Dauphin Co.)
At the annual meeting of the slate
vegetable and fruit growers here at
the Hersbey Lodge and Conven
Four Sections
the roots of the movement are in
the fanner efforts to mobilize far
mers in what was known here in the
East as RCMA. Kinsman said a lot
was learned from this effort six
years ago and said the present
effort started two years ago is a
pricing-only cooperative aimed at
doing esentially on a national basis
what RCMA tried to do regionally.
Because of the national scope,
Kinsman believes this effort will
succeed where the regional effort
did not
“Our goals ate to keep fanners
on the land and help the industry,
not work against it,” Kinsman said.
“We plan to work with Marketing
Agencies In Common (MAIC's)
and other supportive handlers and
cooperatives to negotiate prices
that the market will bear. We do
not want to come across as being
against present cooperatives, but
we want to act as an umbrella
cooperative to help them and to
help independent handlers get
more otUhe consumer’s dollar back
to die dairy formers.”
The cooperative has designated
12 regions for the nation. Each reg
ion has a director on the board, and
each region will be researched for
(Turn to Pagt A 23)
don Center, the managing director
of the National Peach Council told
growen that California is gaining,
and everybody else is losing.
What’s being lost? It’s the battle
for peach crop maiket share.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 31, 1998
Amanda DeSto was named the 1998 Pennsylvania Fair Queen at the state fair asso
ciation's annual meeting last week. In her court are from left, April Brylngton, retiring
queen; Ms. DeSio; and Jessica Watson, first mnner-up.See story page A 22.
According to Charles Walker,
managing director of the National
Peach Council, Columbia, S.C.,
California will ship about 750-770
million pounds of peaches this sea
son, nearly double the amount of a
hers to show solidarity. Many others became members at the close of the
meeting. One Amish dairy farmer who attended the meeting estimated that
85 percent of those attending the meeting are now members. Photo by
Evaratt Nawawangar, managing adltor.
decade ago. Peaches will be hauled
to store shelves in the Southeast
and Mid-Atlantic, where tradition
ally seasonal crops in the heart of
summer from local growen domi
nate store displays.
$28.50 Per Year
Walker spoke to more than 100
peach producers and agri-industry
representatives Wednesday at the
139th Annual Meeting and Trade
Show of the State Horticultural
(Turn to Pag* Alt)
600 Per Copy