You ’re Saving The Planet
(Continued from Page A 24)
pressed to be self-sufficient in
food production as their afflu
ence increases.
India is running away from
vegetarianism. Though they
won’t eat meat from cows, the
Indian McDonald’s serves
“mutton burgers.”
Removing trade barriers to
allow western technology to feed
the developing countries will be
critical, according to Avery.
And people critical of western
civilization should take note.
America and other developed
countries only use about 1.5 per
cent of the land surface for cities
and urban development.
But what about the environ
mental effects of high
production agriculture,
particularly animal confinement
housing?
Though it was hard to get in
formation, Avery discovered
that in North Carolina, along
the Black River (the center of
the state’s hog industry), there
has been a 500 percent increase
in the hog population in a 10-
year span, from 1985-1995.
Though critics suspected that
the hog industry was the culprit
in water quality, in actuality,
looking at state-supplied fig
ures, the water quality actually
improved after the hogs were
brought in.
Trouble is, the general media
is to blame for stirring the con
troversies, Avery noted.
“We’re in a war, and report
ers are not on our side,” he said.
Producers and the agri
industry that supports them
need to dispel the myths of the
“evils” of confinement agricul
ture and “factory farming,” he
noted. Those developments in
large-scale, family farms ensure
improved food quality and
safety and use less land.
“The Spotted Owl wouldn’t
be here without high-output ag
riculture,” Avery said. “And
Your One-Stop Hydraulic Shop
Better Hydraulics is a Full Service Facility Specializing in:
• Engineering , F U || y Eq U ip pe{ j Service Truck
All types of hydraulics & pneumatics Hydraulic installations
• Air Compressors Maintenance
Complete Rebuilding of all brands Repair
Road service • Truck Systems
Lots-of parts in stock Wet | ine mstallation
• Cylinders Trouble shooting
Complete rebuilding . HoS e Assemblies
New parts machined Made t 0 order
Custom built cylinders . f» ■■
. -I Hydraulic Power Units
• Machinery conversions Custom built to your specifications
Hydraulic & pneumatic Gas or electric
• Pumps & Motors Stationary or portable
Complete rebuilding of all brands
Lapping & resurfacing
Authorized build center for Permco
440 Concrete Ave • Leaks PA 17540 • 717-GSB-4878 • fa* 717-858-4888
let’s not let the public forget
that.”
Agriculture industries must
do their part to support their
message, also, that food quality
and safety are number one.
John Marcy, extension food
scientist with the University of
Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.,
noted that food safety, like mar
keting, is not really a science.
“It’s really perception,” he told
those at the poultry conference.
The National Academy of Sci
ence and other organizations
that study food safety noted that
it is impossible to develop com
pletely risk-free foods. “Chick
ens will continue to poop,”
Marcy said. Along with animal
manure come real concerns
about protecting the safety of
the food.
Fortunately, a national egg
producing model is being devel
oped from the Hazards Analysis
Critical Control Points
(HACCP) program begun by
Pennsylvania egg producers.
The Pennsylvania Egg Quality
Assurance Program (PEQAP) is
being used as an industrywide,
national model.
Because of the HACCP pro
grams, the Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta, Ga. have
noted that foodborne illnesses
are down dramatically. “The
government regulations are
working,” said Marcy.
Though PEQAP assures con
trol programs regarding Sal
monella enteritidis (SE), a real
concern is dealing with Campy
lobacter, a pathogen that can
cause human illness, from
broilers, according to Marcy.
Marcy said listeria is “going
to be an issue, much more than
ever before.” As a result, more
nursing homes, hospitals, and
additional care facilities are
adopting precooked foods to
provide improved control of
human pathogens.
“They have gone to a whole
Our 20,000 Sq. Ft. Facility Enables Us To Serve You Better
lot of cooked product,” Marcy
said.
Though salmonella requires
heavy doses (in the millions) to
begin to have a dramatic human
health effect, Campylobacter re
quires only 500-1000 cells total
to be effective and cause human
sickness. To combat these prob
lems, a couple of companies
IBP and Tyson have adopted
electron beam irradiation tech
nology developed in California
to ensure product safety. It
won’t be long before irradiated
poultry and other products will
be on store shelves.
For listeria, which is fairly
deadly for the old, young, or im
munocompromised, noted
Marcy, many cases included
sudden abortions. The bacteria
are present in the production fa
cility, coming through the raw
material, so it’s almost impossi
ble to prevent contamination to
tally.
But restaurant and food prep
aration managers have already
been told: the number-one cause
of foodborne contamination is
the Norwalk-type virus, from
human feces, which can be
present in a handshake. When
people get infected with the
pathogen, they can experience
diarrhea. For control, the key is
to “get people to wash hands
before preparing food or after
eating chicken,” said Marcy.
“That would take care of 60 per
cent” of the problem, he noted.
“There’s nothing you’re doing
that an 18-year-old cook can’t
undo,” Marcy said.
GMO Update
Genetically modified organ
isms, or GMOs, have become the
center of controversy in agricul
ture lately.
According to Michael A.
Elliot, Wenger’s Feed Mill direc
tor of technical services, genetic
enhancement of food has been
occurring since the 1860 s when
Gregor Mendel, an Austrian
monk and botanist, crossbred
garden peas.
Geneticists since then have
done the same, in a variety of
ways, selecting for desirable
product, improved size, better
production, increased yield, and
other items promoted by
“hybrid vigor.”
GMO technology has allowed
a dramatic increase in plant pro
ductivity. GMO techniques
allow the use of plant recombi
nant DNA to provide more
precise plant characteristics.
The changes can be made more
rapidly “than traditional selec
tion methods,” Elliot said.
There are several GMO prod
ucts that the world would be
hard-pressed to do without.
They include human insulin
(more than 95 percent of the in
sulin is produced by GMO bac
teria), more than 80 human
pharmaceuticals derived from
biotechnology, and lots of con
ventional seed.
There are 17 varieties of GMO
corn, including herbicide
tolerant and insect-resistant
(Bt); six varieties of tomatoes,
including those that improve
taste, color, texture, shelf life,
and even frost tolerance; one va
riety of pepper (for improved
taste, texture, and other factors);
one for potatoes (Bt); one for
peanuts (extended shelf life,
other factors); five for soybeans,
including herbicide tolerance
and reduced levels of saturated
fats; one canola (herbicide toler
ant); and one sunflower (re
duced saturated fats).
There are five milk fermenta
tion GMO products. Seventy
five percent of all cheeses are
made from GMO bacteria (more
than likely, most people eat
cheese fermented with GMO
bacteria) and one milk (BST).
Most of the soybean oil uses
GMO grains. Without Bt corn,
20 percent of the total crop
would be lost at a total of $lO
billion worldwide. Bt-based mi
crobial insecticides have been
used for more than 40 years.
The Bt toxins are very spe
cific. The Bt corn, introduced by'
Monsanto in 1996, has allowed
3.5 million pounds less of the
pesticide to be used in 1999. U.S.
cotton producers have reduced
OPPORTUNITY
for ADDITIONAL FARM INCOME
Win Association With
FNIiFR pleasant
njju VALLEY
U^H3_foods
/^lwineV
/NURSERY & FINISHING^,
/ CONTRACTS
/ are available for the following counties: > I
a •" ' vV '-v r
• ADAMS •LEBANON
• CUMBERLAND • NORTHUMBERLAND
• FRANKLIN •PERRY
• FULTON . SCHUYLKILL
• HUNTINGDON • SNYDER
• JUNIATA
If you are interested
in developing a swine production operation,
Wenger’s Feed Mill, Inc.
can offer you:
✓ The support necessary to begin the project,
✓ Technical support to maintain an efficient and
environmentally-conscious operation,
✓ Feed programs to provide profitable results.
To further explore this opportunity, please contact:
BILL NEILSON , 1-800-692-6008
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, April 8, 2000-A2S
pesticide use by 85 percent be
cause of Bt cotton varieties.
Bt corn is healthier, with more
nutritional value, and less likely
to be contaminated with molds
and mycotoxins, Elliot noted.
All GMO products are identi
cal to the conventional versions
of the product with the sole ex
ception of a modified protein.
The modified plant DNA is not
in the meat, milk, or eggs, and
the animal and human digestive
system is a hostile environment,
which rapidly degrades any
DNA. Animal research trials
show no difference on animal
performance with the GMO
crops.
To prove the safety, on a 14-
day trial, a mouse was fed Bt
protein with no negative effects.
A 220- pound animal would
have to consume 70 tons of Bt
corn in one sitting to have the
same effects.
In April last year, the research
team that created the Bt tech
nology was given a presidential
award, the National Medal of
Technology, for their achieve
ments, according to Elliot.
What caused the controver
sies, noted Elliot, was the suspi
cions the public have to new
technologies from the animal
producer industries in general.
The biotech companies did not
feel the need to educate the con
sumers before the products were
released.
There are additional, benefi
cial GMO crops to soon hit the
pipeline that could have dra
matic effects on feeding the
world. One is a GMO “golden
rice” that has enough vitamin A
to keep thousands of children in
developing countries from going
blind. Despite all that, the Euro
pean Union is pulling the plug
on their investment in the
golden rice technology “because
of political correctness,” Elliot
said.
Critics wonder whether it is
“ethical to restrict development
of genetically modified products
to improve the nutritional status
of malnourished people around
the world,” said Elliot.
Meanwhile, the biotech com
panies have to improve their ed
ucational efforts to promote
GMO foods to the public.
(Turn to Page A 45)