A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 21, 1998 (Continued from Page A 1) membership. He said that all six of the regions into which PFB divides state mem bership reached goals. New membership hit a record with 3,820 joining, setting a record. While 70 percent of the new membership was attributed to indi viduals joining to take advantage of discounted services, such as health insurance, and liability insurances through Nationwide with which PFB has a cooperative relationship, Donaldson said the organization is what it is today because of ngembers contacting other individuals. He said that, as of Tuesday, the PFB was 18 members shy of hav ing 20,000 members with dues paid for 1999. He said the organization’s goal of 30,000 members by the year 2000 is achievcable. All they need is about 4,000 more members. “We need to keep working to make this happen,” Donaldson said. The all-time high membership for Farm Bureau was 26,665, sev eral years ago. Donaldson said that, for him, the PFB has come of age as an organi zation representing the grassroots majority consensus among practic ing agricultural business owners and entrepreneurs. He said that fact was made clear in the spring, when the state Legis lature formerly recognized the Farm Bureau’s works and rep resentation of the agricultural community. Further, he said the strength of Farm Bureau is reinforced in that From the left, Guy Donaldson, president of the Pennsyl vania Farm Bureau, presents an appreciation award to Paul Morgan of Firestone Tire Company, for its outstanding sup port of the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation. From the left, Guy Donaldson, president of the Pennsyl vania Farm Bureau, presents the organization’s All-Star Award to Arland Schantz, representing the winning Lehigh County Farm Bureau. Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Continues To Grow the American Farm Bureau, of which the PFB is an affiliate, has been rated the 17 th most influen tial lobbying group in Washington D.C. To illustrate some of the effec tiveness of the whole Farm Bureau organization from kitchen table meetings, to county groups, to state and national Donaldson said members should consider that Farm Bureau was responsible for helping to gain a change in federal tax reguallions for this year that allows income averaging, lower capital gains tax es, and other reductions. The income averaging, he explained, allows paying taxes from one good year spread out over three years. Also, he said that farmers will be eligible for a 100-percent tax deduction on health care costs. “The higher tax exemptions go a long way to keeping the family farm in the family," Donaldson said. He said there were some disap pointments, such as in not yet achieving a program called Far mers and Ranchers Risk Manage ment Accounts. That program, he explained, would allow fanners to “salt away” income from one year and claim it during a later year (over a five-year period) and pay taxes on it at the later date. He also said that while Pennsyl vania’s first effort at local tax reform applies only to school dis tricts and school boards, and is vol untary, and if it is to be used, it needs members of the community to meet with school district boards, as well as others involved with the The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau selects the winner of Its Young Farmers and Ranchers program. From the left are program chairman Brian Dietrich, winners Donald and Joanne Stoltzfus, George Roberts representing award sponsor Dodge Truck, and PFB Vice President Carl Shaffer. school board and community and civic issues, to develop relation ships and awareness, and coalitions. A major problem facing agricul ture is the U.S. Environmental Pro tection Agency’s interpretation of the intent of the Food Quality Pro tection Act, which replaced the zero-tolerance Delaney Clause, according to Donaldson. With the dramatic precision of testing that has been developed in the years since the Delaney Clause was established, the ability to test products far exceeds the precision required to determine levels of consequence to human safety. However, the Delaney Clause didn’t address the significance of any results of testing, just that test ing show zero results. (Compared to today’s testing, it has been wide ly reported that a lot of testing available when the Delaney Clause was created would show “zero,” while today’s tests would indicate some level.) With the precision testing tech nology currently possible, it has been successfully argued and understood by the U.S. Congress that the Delaney Clause was an unrealistic ideal of purity of natur al substances. In response, the U.S. Congress and the president made the Food Quality Protection Act, with the understanding that risk assessment would be included. According to Donaldson, the FQPA was passed with the under standing by Farm Bureau and Con gress that currently used chemicals would stay on the shelf. He said that in following up the new Act, the EPA wrote the reg ulations promulagting the Act, twisting it into a potential night mare for production agriculture in the United States. The first sign of trouble, he said, was the EPA’s threatened ban of organophosphates, a widely used family of pesticides for which there is no substitute. He said that EPA people are not using sound science to detennine scientifically-sound allowable levels, and are in essence turning the new act into a repeat of the Delaney Clause. According to Donaldson, if there is a risk to health that exists, beyond a reasonable risk, the farm ing community would be ready and willing to accept the loss of such a widespread chemical. But the fact is the EPA is not using sound science to determine levels, and that fact threatens the ability of American agriculture to survive increasing agricultural From the left, Discussion Meet winner Mark Warnshuis receives a $5OO prize from George Roberts of Dodge Truck, while Brian Dietrich, committee chairman, helps with the presentation. From the left, Guy Donaldson, president of the Pennsyl vania Farm Bureau, presents the organization’s Distin guished Service Award to past PFB president Keith Eckel. imports not produced under the same set of controls and testing as would be imposed only on Ameri can agriculture by the current EPA. Donaldson said the Vice Presi dent A 1 Gore did issue a memoran dum directing the EPA to not eli minate any family of pesticides until receiving adequate input from the agricultural, chemical and other concered industries. Therefore, for 1998 there was no banning action against organo phosphates, but that doesn’t mean the battle to establish and follow reason and good science-based policies is over. “This thing (FQPA) does not cover just fruit and vegetables,” Donaldson said, who with his fam ily operates a 550-acrc orchard and vegetable farm and direct market in Orrtana. “It affects all of agri culture across the nation. Every mmm sector needs to contact their legi slator and urge them to write EPA, and say they need to interpret (the FQPA) using good sound science based information..." as Congress had intended. “They also need to speed up registration of new products,” Donaldson said, so that replace ment products can be available should any family of products or specific product be proposed for elimination. As an example of the discrepen cy between EPA and real life, Donaldson said that on his farm he uses about SO percent of label recommendations of certain chemicals. But in making its decisions, the EPA hasn’t been concerned with actual uses, but intrepets actual use from label recommendations. He said that Farm Bureau mem bers need to call the American (Continued from Page.A2B)
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