AIQ-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 19, 2000
OPINION
Fear Becomes Fact
Now that we have reduced the risk of environmental
contamination from pesticides in our cornfields with
biotechnology, you would think all would be well on
the farm front. Not so. Now farmers are getting a new
set of federal governmental regulations because geneti
cally modified corn killed monarch butterfly caterpil
lars in a lab experiment.
Known as Bt corn, it carries a gene from a bacter
ium, which produces a toxin that kills pests that eat the
corn plants. Because of public fear, farmers are now to
plant traditional corn around the edges of Bt cornfields
and plant 20 percent of their corn as non-Bt com.
We know of one farmer who had an extreme prob
lem with corn stalk borer until he started to use Bt
corn. Now he will need to go back to his old problem.
In addition, the seed companies in the last several
years have put forth their best effort for increased
yields into the Bt varieties. Farmers have seen better
resistance to high winds and a yield of eight to 10 bush
els per acre more than traditional corn.
But a perceived fact, even one that is generated by
fear, becomes a fact that must be recognized. The fact:
farmers will now need to go back to non-Bt corn varie
ties for at least part of their crop.
Western Pa. Gardening and
Landscaping Symposium,
Pittsburgh Zoo, Pittsburgh, 8
a.m.-3:45 p.m.
Beginning Beekeeping Seminar,
Beaver County Cooperative
Extension, Beaver, 9 a.m.-3
p.m.
2000 Sorghum Industry Confer
ence, Omni Bayfront Hotel,
Corpus Christi, Texas, thru
Feb. 22.
Pa. Game Breeders and Hunting
Preserves Meeting, Nittany
Lion Inn, University Park,
thru Feb. 22.
Adams County Fruit Growers’
Meeting, Biglerville High
School.
Dairy Disease and Biosecurity
Practice, Hoss’s Steak and
Sea House, Elizabethtown, 10
a.m.-3 p.m.
Bradford County Dairy Day,
SRU Middle School, East
Smithfield, 9:30 a.m.-3:30
p.m.
Solanco Young Farmer Dairy
Herd Health and Manage
ment, Solanco High School,
7:30 p.m.
Capitol Region Advanced Crop
Weed Management School,
Lebanon Valley Ag Center, 9
a.m.-4 p.m.
Lykens Valley Dairy Day,
Gratz.
Schuylkill County Regional
Vegetable Meeting, Schuylkill
County Ag Center, Pottsville,
9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Dairy Disease and Biosecurity
Practices, Washington Inn,
Boyertown, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Pesticide Update Six-Pack,
Blair County Extension, Al
toona, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Advanced Crop Weed Manage
ment School, Lebanon Valley
Ag Center, Lebanon.
Regional Beef Producers Meet
ing, Otterbein United Meth
odist Church, Sunbury, 7 p.m.
Lancaster DHIA PC Dart
Workshop, Kreiders Restau
rant, Manheim, 10 a.m. - 3
p.m.
Mid-Atlantic Direct Marketing
Conference 2000, Parsippany
Hilton, Parsippany, N.J., thru
Feb. 27.
Capitol Region Introductory
Crop Weed Management
School, Franklin County Co
operative Extension, 9 a.m.-
3:30 p.m.
Farm Financial Health
Checkup, Cochranville Com
munity Center.
Southeast Pa. Vegetable
Growers’ Day, Family Heri
tage Restaurant, Franconia.
Dairy Disease and Biosecurity
Practices, Sunny Crest Home,
Inc., Morgantown, 10 a.m.-3
p.m.
York/Lancaster County Tree
Fruit Growers’ Educational
Meeting, Lancaster Farm and
Home Center, 8:15 a.m.
Northeast Region Landscape
Seminar, Holiday Inn, Bar
tonsville, 8:45 a.m.-4 p.m.
Managing Weeds in Field
Crops, 4-H Center, Creamery.
New York State Farm Show,
Syracuse, thru Feb. 26.
Ag Outlook Forum, Crystal
Gateway Marriott Hotel, Arl
ington, Va., thru Feb. 25.
Mid-Atlantic No-Till Confer
ence, Four Points Hotel,
Hagerstown, Md., continues
Feb. 25 at the Holiday Inn,
Grantville, Pa.
Berks County Vegetable
Growers’ Meeting, Kutztown.
York Garden and Flower Show,
York Expo Center, thru Feb.
27.
Centre County Cooperative Ex
tension meeting, Logan
Grange Hall, Pleasant Gap, 7
p.m.
Dairy Disease and Biosecurity
Practice, Russellville Grange
To Look At Land Rent
When renting land, the income
potential of the land is a critical
consideration when determining
rental rate. To determine this the
renter needs to know the
production capability of the land,
the value of the product at market
time and the cost to produce the
crop. For example, the soil will
produce 165 bushels of corn, 51
bushels of soybeans and 4 tons of
alfalfa hay per year m a 3 year
crop rotation.
The value of corn is $2.35 per
bushel, soybeans is $5.75 per
bushel and alfalfa hay is $llO per
ton. The gross income is $387.50
(165 x $2 35) for corn, $293.25
for soybeans and $440 for alfalfa
hay for an average income of
$373.59 per acre. With production
costs of $230.13 per acre for corn,
$145.85 per acre for soybeans and
$276.88 per acre for alfalfa hay or
an average cost of $217.65. This
leaves an average net income per
acre of $155.94. The farmer then
needs to deduct the value of his
time and management and the
balance is the maximum amount
that may be paid for land rent. A
poultry, dairy or livestock
operation may be willing to
subsidize the land rental rate from
the animal enterprise in order to
have the necessary land for proper
manure utilization.
To Check Us Out On The
Web
As technology continues to
permeate into our daily lives, we
are presented with an ever
increasing access to information,
goods and services, thanks to the
internet. We invite you to join us
on the net and bookmark your
favorite pages. To start with, here
are addresses to some of Penn
State's web pages: Penn
Statewww.psu.edu,
College of Agricultural Sciences
www.cas.psu.edu
Lancaster County Cooperative
Extension
lancaster extension.psu.edu
College of Agricultural Sciences
Publications
www.cas.psu.edu/news.htm
Dairy and Animal Sciences
www.das.psu.edu
Dairy Outlook and Market
Update
www.aers.psu.edu/DairyOutlo
Dairy Cattle Nutrition
www.das.psu.edu/dcn
Drought Related Information
www.cas.psu.edu/docs/issues/
drought
PENpages
www.penpagespsu.edu
Hall, Oxford, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
2nd Annual Altoona Tree,
Shrub, and Turf Conference,
Altoona.
Crop Master’s Farming After
fTurn to Page A3l)
Veterinary Science
www.vetsci.cas.psu.edu
Agronomy
www■agronomy.psu.edu
Poultry
poultry.cas.psu.edu
To Practice Child Safety
Thousands of children are
injured and hundreds killed each
year by hazards found on the
farm. Some of these children were
working on the farm, while others
wander into trouble on their own.
Implement injury prevention
strategies to protect agriculture's
greatest resource - the children.
Design a fenced safe play area
near the house away from work
activities. Do not allow children
to roam freely on the farm.
Inspect your farm regularly for
hazards that can injure children.
ESCAPING THE CROSS
February 20,2000
Background Scripture:
Matthew 27:32-61
Devotional Reading:
John 19:16-30.
Mean-spirited though it was,
the challenge the spectators
hurled at Jesus on the cross
would seem to be a valid one:
“You who would destroy the
temple and build it in three
days, save yourself! If you are
the Son of God, come down
from the cross!” (Mt. 25:40).
They did not expect that Jesus
would be able to meet this chal
lenge, for the Son of God does
not belong on a cross. Therefore,
a person hanging on a cross
cannot be the Son of God, for he
would have the power to call
down from heaven legions of
angels to overcome the military
might of even Rome.
As they saw it, these agoniz
ing hours on the cross com
pletely nullified any legitimate
claims he might have made. His
helplessness at the hands of the
secular rulers meant that he
never had the power that had
been ascribed to him. “He saved
others; he cannot save himself;
he is the King of Israel; let him
come down now from the cross,
and we will believe in him”
(25:42). This is a taunt, not an
offer; they are not offering to
follow him if he can descend
from the cross. They believe he
cannot “save himself’ and
therefore that he never really
“saved others.” It was a trick,
an illusion-virtually what we
would say if Jesus came working
his miracles in our midst today.
Was God Not Able?
So, if not to free himself of
this terrible ordeal, why, if Jesus
was the Messiah, the Son of
God, did he not save himself in
order to prove to these scoffers
that he was God’s appointed
Son? What a demonstration of
the power of God and the valid
ity of Jesus of Nazareth if God
had delivered him from the
cross. Did Jesus not want to be
saved from this terrible death?
Was God not able to save him?
Actually, the gospels lead us
to believe that there was nothing
inevitable about the cross. He
had numerous alternatives to
Golgotha. He could have
avoided coming to Jerusalem.
What was there in his mission
that determined that he had to
go there? Wouldn’t it have been
better to build up support in
Galilee before risking a clash in
Jerusalem? Having come there,
Equip all bams, farm shop,
chemical storage area, livestock
pens, etc. with latches that can be
locked or secured so children
cannot enter. Children who are
physically able to perform farm
work should be only assigned age
appropriate tasks that they are
fully trained to do. They should
only perform these tasks under
close adult supervision. Do not
expose children to hazards. Never
carry them on tractors and
equipment or invite them into the
farm shop, livestock barn, grain
bins, etc.
Science
Feather Prof, 's Footnote:
"Without change there can be no
breakthroughs. Without
breakthroughs there can be no
future."
he also could have left when the
conflict with the authorities
began to heat up. Or he could
have answered their probing
questions a little more judi
ciously than he did.
If he had to be in Jerusalem,
why not keep a lower profile?
Did he have to make that Palm
Sunday procession and drive the
moneychangers out of the
temple (they were probably back
at their old places a few days
later). If he knew that Judas’s
loyalty was suspect, shouldn’t he
have avoided the Garden of
Gethsemane? Even at the last
moment, why didn’t he answer
Pilate in a way which might
have persuaded the Roman gov
ernor to find him innocent and
release him? Actually, he had an
opportunity to do so because the
charges against him could have
been demonstrated to be false, at
the most the product of misun
derstanding.
Who Drove The Nails?
These and similar questions
lead some people to conclude
that Jesus and the Father
wanted the cross in order to ful
fill prophecy and a grand plan of
salvation. I submit to you, how
ever, that the cross was attribu
table solely to human sin, not
the will of God. Those were men
who nailed Jesus to the cross,
not angels.
You see, the question was
never whether God was able to
save Jesus from the cross, but
did these people have the free
will to perpetrate this terrible
crime? And, if they did have
that free will, would God’s pur
pose be better served by saving
him from death by crucifixion or
by letting men do their worst
and giving God the opportunity
to show once and for all that the
best of God is more powerful
than the worst of men?
Jesus was actually confronted
with two choices: remaining
faithful to his mission and ac
cepting a cross if it mean that, or
seizing the opportunity to
escape the cross and failing the
Father. Jesus chose not to fail
the Father and so he accepted
the cross. So, Jesus does not
expect that we will seek crosses,
but that neither will we shirk
them when the purpose of God
is at stake.
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Stemman Enterprise
William J. Burges* General Manager
Everett R. Newswanger Editor
Copyright 2000 by Lancaster Fanning