A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 28, 1998
(ConttniMd from Pag* A 1)
First Union Bank's agri-finance
department. The award is named to
honor George C. Delp an industri
alist who helped lead the New
Holland Machine Company from
its early beginnings. The award is
given each year to a resident of
Lancaster County who has made a
significant personal contribution
to the agriculture community.
For Boyd, the honor had spe
cial significance in that 36 years
ago, Delp at the request of Max
Smith, retired county agent,
helped raise the money so Boyd
could go to Korea on a National
4-H exchange program. With Delp
in the audience, Boyd said he was
humbled and honored to receive
the award, especially in light of
the influence as a mentor, Delp
had on his life. "The honor is so
great because of who you are,"
American Farm Bureau Federation
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
CAMP HILL (Cumberland
Co.) Dean Kleckner, an lowa
fanner with 350 acres of cropland
and a 100-sow farrow-to-finish
operation that produces about
2,000 market hogs per year, wants
Americans to understand one
thing: farmers are not the enemy.
Kleckner has been president of
the American Farm Bureau Feder
ation for 12 years and, as such, has
been involved in a number of polit
ical issues over the years, all
involving agriculture or impacts
upon agriculture.
On Tuesday, while in the area to
serve as featured speaker for the
evening Lancaster Chamber of
Commerce Ag-Industry Banquet
(a Farm-City observation), he
stopped at the Camp Hill head
quarters of AFBF-affiliate Pen
nsylvania Farm Bureau to meet
with state leaders, and to entertain
questions from state media.
After a brief introductory
speech* Kleckner addressed the
media’s issues of concern; mostly
hog farms and farmland
preservation.
However, he was also able to
talk about trade issues and the
impacts of the Food Quality Pro
tection Act and the regulatory
direction the Environmental Pro
tection Agency has attempted to
take in implementing the law.
“I have crisscrossed the nation
in the past few months and it’s
clear that farmers face the same
issues, confront the same problems
(and) conquer the same chal
lenges,” Kleckner said.
“Farm Bureau’s top priority
everywhere, it seems to me, is
obtaining relief from sometimes
needless, always burdensome,
government regulations.”
He said two current primary
concerns both involve the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agen
cy. Specifically, he referred to the
Food Quality Protection Act
(FQPA), and the Clean Water Act
(CWA).
The FQPA was created as a
replacement for the defunct Dela
ney Clause, which set a “zero”
tolerance for pesticide and other
chemical residue testing in foods.
The outdated Delaney Clause
failed because it was designed dur
ing a time when testing wasn’t as
sensitive to minute amounts of
chemical residues. Chemical
residues tested for are chemicals
leftovers or pieces of pcsti-
Darrin Boyd, Eby Family Honored
At Ag Industry Banquet
Boyd said. "I have always admired
your character and vision."
Boyd also said the honor would
spur him on to give even more
back to agriculture and the com
munity.
Another special honor went to
Melvin and Joyce Eby, Gordon
ville, as the recipients of the 1998
Lancaster County Century Farm
award. Their farm along Queen
Road in Paradise Twp. has been in
the family since 1814. The Ebys
introduced members of their fam
ily in the audience and spoke of
their heritage found in the farming
and religious history of their farm
and family. "Our ancestors were
real people," Melvin said. "They
passed on to us values not just
farming. They worked the land
knowing God was the creator.
They worshiped God."
Joyce told of her dependence
cides or other chemicals used in
the production of food. (The pre
sence of a chemical residue is an
indicator that a more complex
chemical was present)
With dramatic improvements in
the ability of testing procedures to
detect the presence of chemical
residues in more recent years, con
tinued use of the Delaney Clause
could have forbade the use of any
farm chemicals.
In other words, under the less
sensitive older testing methods,
chemical residues wouldn’t have
been detected in foods, and would
have been cleared under the Dela
ney Clause. Those same foods
would be banned today, using the
more sophisticated methods.
But the Delaney Clause didn’t
take into account that foods aren’t
naturally chemically pure.
As a reasonable alternative, the
Food Quality Protection Act was
passed with the understanding that
acceptable testing limits on chemi
cals and/or chemical residues
would be determined according to
risk.
From an agricultural standpoint,
the picture is clear through the
elimination of some chemicals
over the years, through improved
education about the handling and
safety of chemicals, and because
of the high cost of chemicals and
low profitability of farming in the
United States, farmers here are
using many times less and fewer
commercial chemical tools to farm
than they did under the Delaney
Clause.
The EPA however, has
threatened to remove several fami
lies of chemicals from use by
United States farmers, such as
organophosphates, which would
significantly reduce the quantity
and quality of food produced.
The farm Bureau and others
object because of the impact it
would have on production and
competitiveness, but even more so,
because it doesn’t consider the
EPA to have been objective in its
perspective, and that it stands
accused of ignoring acceptable sci
entific standards.
Vice President A 1 Gore ordered
EPA to back off banning the fami
ly of pesticides this year, but that
hasn’t eliminated concern about
the next action taken by the
agency.
If organophosphates would be
banned, the affect on production
and competitiveness the eco
nomic impact brought on are
on the Lord and the challenge of
living each day as though it is the
best day of your life. "The chal
lenges we face build character,"
Joyce said.
If all goes as planned. The
eighth generation of the Eby fam
ily will be farming soon when
their son Mike and his family take
over the farm. "I am appreciative
of the opportunity to farm I was
given from the prior generations,
and I would like to give the same
opportunity to the next generation
if dial is possible," Melvin said.
Dean Klechner, president of the
American Farm Bureau Federa
tion, was the keynote speaker. He
said the economic gap is gone be
tween farm and city. But a knowl
edge gap exists because most
segments of society have no
memories of the farm. Very few
considered to be devastating, since
there is no substitute available to
farmers.
The Farm Bureau is not seeking
to pevent unmanageable chemi
stry from being used, but it is seek
ing to prevent fear of chemistry
and science (topics of which
detailed knowledge is not com-
monly enjoyed by the general
public) from being the overriding
concern in establishing govern
ment regulation.
It has been hoped by many that
risk-based analysis would be
implemented in determining publ-
ic policy.
Related to the issue is the fact
that regulatory banning of pesti
cides in the United States
which does not protect its agricul
tural production as do other
nations competing to *ll com
modities in the United States
would essentially force United
States farmers out of business, and
yet do nothing to actually reduce
the use of agricultural chemicals
from the food chain.
The EPA doesn’t have control
over agricultural practices in other
nations.
According to Kleckner, it
shouldn’t.
While talking about the effects
of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (he said it is working,
and has done good for agriculture
with increasing exports, along
with increasing imports, although
there arc some problems to be
worked out), in terms of parity of
environmental restrictions cm pro
duction, Kleckner said the issue
should remain out of negotiations
for free trade between nations.
While the United States does
have some of the most restrictive
regulations on production in the
world, there are a few other nations
that have more strict restrictions on
chemicals used in the production
of certain commodities.
He said that attempting to set
trade restrictions by proposing that
the United States standard is the
best and safest because it has the
most restrictions on production is
setting the agricultural and trade
world up for creating unrealistic
standards that mean nothing, but
certainly pose a threat to the ability
of the less fortunate to purchase
food, and to reduce food’s availa
bility overall.
Domestically, Kleckner said it
is his opinion that the EPA is deter
mined to eliminate all agricultural
chemicals and convert all United
issues are of interest to farmers
alone.
Klechner held a news confer
ence at the Pennsylvania Farm
Bureau offices in Camp Hill at
noon and more of his thoughts on
important national issues are re
ported as a sidebar to this report.
John Schwartz, Lancaster
County agent, introduced the Eby
Century Farm with a series of
slides showing the historic bam
and house. Schwartz said centuiy
farm families contribute much to
Pennsylvania. He said one of the
major strengths of Lancaster
County agriculture is our multi
generational family farms.
Samuel Hayes Jr., Pennsylva
nia secretary of agriculture, pre
sented the century farm awards
from PDA and the Lancaster
Chamber. He said century farm
families represent the best in agri
culture and provide the social ce
Fights For Rights
—mmm mm mm&mm mni mmm mmmwmmm
From the left, AFBF President Dean Kleckner stands with
Pa. Farm Bureau President Guy Donaldson in front of the
PFB headquarters building in Camp Hill. Kleckner visited
the PFB and met with media while in the area to speak at the
Lancaster Chamber of Commerce Ag Industry Banquet
about issues of concern to United States agriculture.
States agricultural production to
“organic."
He noted that while there is a
market for organic products, and
some of the quality is good and the
market has been growing for that
niche, that type of production can't
feed the current population of the
United States, much less feed the
world.
Kleckner said that he used to say
that such agriculture couldn't feed
a future population, but he was
corrected by a fellow lowian who
said that the future population of
the world will be fed, it’s just a
matter of what 50 percent of the
current population will survive or
have children who survive to be
fed if such policies are adopted.
For the EPA to determine how
much risk a pesticide poses, the
agency has to know how much is
being used.
“But they don’t ask farmers how
much we apply," Kleckner said.
"Instead, EPA bureaucrats extra
K K K Kl
merit that helps hold Pennsylvania
together. They provide a rich tradi
tion well-known in Lancaster
County for having a value system
and for their dedication to the wel
fare of Pennsylvania and America.
Jim Shirk, agriculture services
manager, reviewed the year's ac
tivities that include educational ef
forts for both farmers and for non
farm citizens of the community.
The ag committee also partnered
with other organizations to help
municipalities deal with the grow
ing interdisposition of agriculture
and urban settings.
Michael L. Brubaker, chair
man of the Chamber's agriculture
committee and Dave Keller,
chairman of the Chamber's board
of directors provided the welcome
and greetings. A 1 Pell, the anchor
of the nationally syndicated televi
sion program, AgDay, was master
of ceremonies.
polatc a number by assuming that
we use the tniximnm dosage per-
mitted on every acre of a crop.
“No farmer does that," he said.
“It’s too expensive. It’s unneces
sary. We use pesticides safely to
protect ourselves and our
environment
“EPA also says that agriculture
is the major culprit in polluting our
rivers and streams. In the next
breath they issue more rules and
regulations. The agency want to
treat animal waste like nuclear
waste seal it up somewhere and
keep it out or the environment
“Rather than finding new and
more profitable ways to use animal
waste, EPA wants it scaled off
somewhere.
“The results of federal intrusion
into agriculture are lower farm out
put, lower net incomes for farmers
and higher food costs for
consumers.
“These desk-bound elitists are
(Turn to Pago A3l)