Vegetable Growers To Vote
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.)
Agriculture Secretary Samuel
E. Hayes Jr. announced this week
that a referendum on the continua
tion of the Pennsylvania Vege
table Marketing and Research
Program began yesterday, March
20.
“Gov. Tom Ridge and I encour
age all growers, who are elilgible,
to vole in this important referen
dum,” Hayes said. “This is an op
portunity for growers to express
their thoughts on the future of this
important marketing program.”
Established in 1989, the Penn
sylvania Vegetable Marketing and
Research Program conducts pro
motional activities at farm mar
kets and retail stores, and funds re
search projects on vegetable pro
duction practices.
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All vegetable producers who
grow one or more acres of vege
tables are eligible to vote, as are
all producers who grow vege
tables for sale in 1,000 square feet
or more of greenhouse area. All
criteria must have been met by
Oct 31. 1997.
The referendum will be held
from March 20 to April 3. Com
pleted ballots should be mailed or
hand delivered to: Office of the
Secretary of Agriculture, Room
211,2301 N. Cameron SL, Harris
burg. PA 17110-9408.
Hand-delivered ballots must be
received by. 4 p.m. on April 3.
Ballots mailed must be post
marked no later than April 3 and
received no later than April 8.
For more information, or for a
ballot, contact Mike Varner at
(717) 787-6901.
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Dr. Beegle Clarifies
(Continued from Pago A3l)
standing or a change in
position on this issue,
but rather the intense
public and political
attention that has been
focused on it by the
problems withPfiesteria
in Maryland, Virginia
and North Carolina.
This attention has
made phosphorus a
front-page story in a
very short period of
time, whether we like it
or not.
The purpose of my
presentation to the
Nutrient Management
Advisory Board was not
to present a “complete
turnaround on what has
been considered scien-
tific fact” and suggest a
radical change in our
position on phosphorus
versus nitrogen, but
rather to help people
understand this emerg
ing issue so that we can
make sound, science
based policy decisions.
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While some may be uncomfort
able with raising the issue, the
issue has already been raised, and
if we choose to ignore the problem
we will not have the opportunity to
participate in developing reason
able and practical solutions to the
problem before we arc forced to
deal reactively to outside
mandates.
All we have to do is look at what
his happening in Maryland and in
the federal government as covered
in this article to see that there are
people ready to impose solutions
on agriculture.
Writer’s note:
Lancaster Farming apologizes
for any perceived misrepresenta
tion conveyed in the March 14 arti
cle as to the presentation of Dr.
Douglas Beegle to the SCS Nutri
ent Management Advisory Board.
Dr. Beegle has been, and con
tinues to be, a very respected agro
nomist and researcher. He was
integral in the development of reg
ulations implementing Pennsylva
nia’s Nutrient Management Act,
serving as a consultant.
He also headed up, and oversaw
the Penn State role in educating
the public about nutrient manage
ment. He continues to serve the
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Board in an essential advisory
role.
We believe the perceived misre
presentation came from the mixing
of contexts and the emotional reac
tion to the subjet matter.
The article on the meeting con
tained information from two diffe
rent reports, both concerning
phosphorus.
While Beegle’s report was to
update the NMAB on develop
ments in research on the activity of
nutrients in soils, the other report
was to make the board aware of
Maryland’s proposed change in
nutrient management laws, speci
fically to make phosphorus the
nutrient of most concern.
Beegle in no way suggested that
Pennsylvania follow Maryland’s
lead, nor acquiesce to the knee
jerk reactions connecting pho
sphorus with toxicity of Pfiesteria
that are coming from Maryland
and the Clinton Administration’s
Environmental Protection Agency.
Information on both reports to
the board were included in the
article because they were made the
same day to the same board, and
because they were both about
phosphorus.
In explaining before-and-after
illustrations of the land being stud
ied, Beegle said the researchers
were ‘surprised" that the flow of
phosphorus from the research plot
did not subside not as much as
expected after erosion and
sedimentation controls were
applied.
It is very clear that
there is a distinction
between scientific
* fact " and scientific
‘assumption. ’’Assump
tions are made before
an experiment. Facts
are discovered after
repeated experiments
demonstrably result in
repeated outcomes.
In his presentation,
Beegle said, “We
always assumed pho
sphorus can be con
trolled ... however, in
soils with high pho
sphorus levels ... some
of our nice assumptions
from the past are falling
apart. ”
We apologize for the
use of scientific * fact ”
when scientific
“assumption ” should
have been used
As Beegle noted dur
ing his presentation, the
main concern with pho
sphorus has been that
too much can lead to
eutrophication of water
bodies, which is essen
tially an over
abundance of nutrients.
To knowledge, in and
of itself, phosphorus is
not considered an ele
ment dangerous to
human health.
We regret if the
report in any way sug
gested that Beegle’s
report indicated that
phosphorus
emphasized nutrient
managment was immi
nent for Pennsylvania.
His report did not, and
he did not.
On the other hand,
from our perspective,
what is happening
nationally and in Mary
land strongly suggest
that a band wagon has
arrived and we are cer
tain that anything that
can be used against
agriculture will be.