AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 21, 2000
OPINION
Biotech And The Silent Majority
In a recent poll released at the World Food Prize Awards in Des
Moines, lowa, more than two thirds of the Americans polled sup
port the use of food and agricultural biotechnology as a tool to help
solve world hunger.
According to the Alliance for Better Foods, of 1,000 adults sur
veyed, hunger and malnutrition are considered an urgent problem
by 75 percent of American adults. That compares to 68 percent who
believe disease and epidemics are urgent problems, 66 percent for
pollution and environmental damage, and 43 percent for global
warming.
By a margin of two to one, according to the Alliance (69 percent
to 26 percent), Americans support biotechnology use in food and ag
riculture. About 71 percent believe biotech can help resolve prob
lems of world hunger and malnutrition.
From the rice that is grown and fed to third-world countries with
enough Vitamin Ato prevent blindness in children... to fruit crops
engineered to fight off deadly fungus, which can destroy them... to
biotechnology to stop bugs from destroying a grower’s bread-and
butter crops... the poll also found strong support for biotech.
The survey, conducted by KRC Research and Consulting, consis
ted of a random sample of 1,000 adults in the U.S., with interviews
conducted from Sept. 15-18 this year. The full survey is available on
the Website, www.betterfoods.org.
Other findings from the poll:
• 80 percent support using biotech to make foods more nutri-
tious.
• 81 percent support using biotechnology to develop crops requir
ing fewer chemicals.
• 81 percent support using biotech to develop crops that need less
land and water.
• 82 percent support using biotech to develop trees that grow
faster.
• 75 percent support biotechnology to develop foods that stay
fresh longer.
• 71 percent support biotech to develop foods containing natural
vaccines.
“The response by Americans in (this) poll is heartening,” said Dr.
C.S. Prakash, director of the Center for Plant Biotechnology Re
search at Tuskegee University. “It affirms what most agricultural
scientists and policymakers have been saying all along. Science and
technology can continue to make a positive contribution in alleviat
ing world hunger, and Americans overwhelmingly support initia
tives to increase agricultural productivity and the use of biotechno
logy in addressing concerns of global food and nutritional security.”
Science has proven biotechnology to a safe, assured way to benefit
growers and those who benefit from it. The silent majority seems to
approve of it, too.
Pasture Walk, Dave and Maggie
Johnson, Provident Farms,
Liberty, 10a.m.-3 p.m.
Keystone Autumn Klassic,
Waynesburg.
Harvest Fest, York Central
Market, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Delmarva Forestry Seminar,
Wor-Wic Community Col
lege, Salisbury, Md., 8 a.m.
Pa. State Grange Convention,
Clarion Hotel (formerly
Embers), Carlisle, thru Oct.
24.
Lebanon County Extension
Annual Meeting, Schaeffers
town Fire Hall, 7 p.m.
Pa. State Grange Recognition
Banquet, Clarion Hotel (for
merly Embers), Carlisle.
Susquehanna and Wyoming
Counties Cancer Coalitions
presentation on “Living
Downstream,” Wyoming
County Courthouse, 6:30
p.m.-8:30 p.m.
First Annual Lancaster County
Pace Event, Lancaster
County Central Park and
Rockford Plantation, 10 a.m.-
C Pouli Ba r '
.ancaster County Poultry Ban
quet, Willow Valley Conven-
* Farm Calendar ♦
tion Center, 6:30 p.m.
Alfalfa Intensive Training Semi
nar, Wooster, Ohio, thru Oct.
26.
York County Ag Land Preserva
tion Board meeting, County
Annex Building, 7 p.m.
Pa. Council of Cooperative’s
Annual Meeting, Nittany
Lion Inn, State College, 10
a.m.
Horse Pasture Workshop, Cam
bria County extension office,
Ebensburg, 7 p.m.-9;30 p.m.
Northampton County Coopera
tive Extension, Conservation
District, USD A FSA and
NRCS banquet meeting,
Gateway Holiday Inn, Bethle
hem, 6:30 p.m.
SusquehannaAVyoming coun
ties annual meeting, Montrose
Bible Conference’s Torrey
Lodge, Locust Street, 7 p.m.
Southeast Regional Christmas
Tree Growers Meeting, Berks
G r— ihr " G r ~ Sho r '
reenhouse . iort
Course, Lighthouse Restau
rant, Chambersburg, also
Nov. 1 and Nov. 8
Luzerne County Cooperative
Extension Meeting, Best
Western Genetti Hotel, Wilk
es-Barre, 6:30 p.m.
(Turn to Pogo All)
To Plant
Winter Cover Crop
Growing winter cover crops is
a low-cost management tool
which provides many benefits,
according to Leon Ressler, Lan
caster County extension agricul
tural agent.
One of the overlooked benefits
is the contribution to soil organic
matter levels. The root systems of
small grain cover crops provide
for a significant contribution of
organic matter to the soil system.
Soil organic matter contributes
to soil quality in a number of
ways. As the organic matter de
composes, nutrients are released
to the following crop. Well-de
composed organic matter be
comes humus and this contrib
utes to the ability of the soil to
store important nutrients such as
calcium, magnesium, and potas-
WHAT SHALL I DO?
Background Scripture:
2 Samuel 2 through 5; 1
Chronicles 11:1-3.
Devotional Reading:
Psalms 78:67-72.
During this past week, two dif
ferent people came to me for
counseling. Although they ver
balized it somewhat differently,
both said their greatest concern
at this point is to determine what
God wants them to do. I think
that both of them already know
what God wants of them and
that they just wanted to try out
their understanding with some
one else.
We begin and process through
life with goals to start school,
graduate from high school, get
into college, graduate from col
lege, find a job, wed a mate, and
settle down to raise a family. We
may also aspire to getting
promoted in our business or
achieve a certain financial status.
But then somewhere along the
line, we seem to run out of goals
and we get to the point where we
do not live for something; we just
live. No longer seeking a goal, we
begin to drift.
In the church we have the be
lief that people who want enter
the Christian ministry must have
a call of some kind. We had to be
convinced that God was calling
us and be able to convince others
of that call. But we realize now
that not only does God call peo
ple to the ordained ministry, but
that he calls everyone to be and
achieve something.
All Christians have a calling.
So all of us need to ask God what
he wants us to do
sium.
Soil organic matter also con
tributes to the good physical con
dition of the soil needed for
growing crops, known as soil
tilth. As . soil organic matter
breaks down, it produces sticky
substances that help bind soil
particles together in aggregates.
These aggregates are important
to promote soil drainage, aera
tion and improved water holding
capacity.
To Use Cover
Crops As Part
Of Nutrient Management
Cover crops are a very impor
tant part of nutrient manage
ment, according to Leon Ressler,
Lancaster County extension agri
cultural agent.
Many farmers need to empty
their manure storage units dur
ing the fall season. This means
these crop nutrients are applied
to cropland at a time of year
when they are not needed by a
growing crop. Therefore these
nutrients may be lost to the envi
ronment because of soil erosion
and leaching.
Winter cover crops can help
farmers prevent the economic
loss of nutrients and reduce the
environmental damage caused by
movement of nutrients to the
water supply.
If you are applying manure to
cropland this fall, consider plant
ing a small grain cover crop such
as rye. The rye will take up the
available nitrogen and hold it in
the plant, preventing its loss to
the water supply. If the rye is
harvested, the nutrients will be
utilized as high-quality feed. If
the rye is killed or plowed down
in the spring, the nutrients will
become available to the following
crop.
What Now, Lord?
“After this (the memorial for
King Saul and Jonathan), David
inquired of the Lord” (2:1).
David did this because he be
lieved that God had been guid
ing and directing his life from
the day he sent Samuel to anoint
him. So David was not asking
God for his guidance for the first
time. God told him to go to He
bron, beginning a long and con
voluted path from King of
Judah to King of all Israel. But
the path was begun because
David inquired of the Lord.
Shouldn’t we all? The death
of Saul did not make David king
of all the tribes of Israel. First, it
was only the people of Judah
who anointed him. The other
tribes looked to Saul’s surviving
son, Ishbosheth, as their mon
arch. It was only after years of
fratricide and cruel warfare and
the death of Abner, Ishbosheth’s
commanding general and power
behind the throne, that at last all
the tribes of Israel finally came
to David at Hebron and said,
“Behold, we are your bone and
flesh. In times past, when Saul
was king over us, it was you that
led out and brought in Israel;
‘You shall be shepherd of my
people Israel’” (5:2).
What brought them around?
Everyone must have been sick
and tired of the unceasing war
fare and bloodshed. Just as in
Northern Ireland today people
on both sides of the struggle are
joining together to try to bring
peace there, so there must have
been Israelites and Judeans who
at long last decided enough was
enough. Besides, David contin
ued to act in an exemplary man
ner.
They saw that he was the kind
of ruler who could recognize and
appreciate the efforts of even op
ponents. Told that the men of
Jabesh-gilead had buried Saul
and saved his body from further
indignity, David sent a messen
ger to them: “May you be bless
ed by the Lord, because you
showed this loyalty to Saul your
Lord and buried him!... And I
will do good to you because you
The rye will also prevent envi
ronmental damage by slowing
soil erosion. Rye’s extensive root
system will improve soil tilth.
Rye can be planted as late as No
vember, but the earlier it is plant
ed the more nutrients it will take
up and the more it will produce
in the spring.
To Understand
Ear Fill
Incomplete ear fill is not nec
essarily a bad thing.
According to Dr. Joe Lauer,
University of Wisconsin agrono
my professor, you may expect
about one inch of underdevel
oped kernels at the ear tip when
plant populations are at the
proper level for optimizing grain
yield.
If conditions are optimum
early in the crop’s development,
a corn plant can produce about
600 to 1,000 ovules. Unfortunate
ly, only 400 to 600 ever actually
pollinate and develop into ker
nels.
Growers have a corn plant
with the optimum number of
ovules. It pollinates as many
ovules as it can, resulting in more
kernels produced than it has re
sources to fill. The plant adjusts
by filling as many as it has re
sources for, and leaves the rest.
Since the process starts at the
stem and works out to the tip, an
unfilled tip means the plant has
given its all.
Deformed cobs or unfilled ears
back much more than an inch
may indicate real problems at
silking or in ear development or
too high plant populations.
Feather Prof’s Footnote:
“The currents that determine
our dreams and shape our lives
flow from the attitudes we nur
ture every day. ”
have done this thing” (2:6). They
were not his supporters, but he
was not too proud to praise
them.
Greater And Greater
As he became more powerful,
David became an even more ex
emplary king.
“And David became greater
and greater, for the Lord, the
God of hosts, was with him” (2
Sam.s:lo).
Many leaders have started otp
with the intention of being serv
ing their followers, but as they
gained more and more power,
they became corrupted by that
power. Historian Arnold Toyn
bee’s schoolmaster had this
motto emblazoned in Greek on
the foot of his bed as a reminder.
In English it read: “Rule (mean
ing power) will reveal the man.”
The way a person wields power
shows what kind of person he is.
Another passage that tells us
what kind of person David had
become is 2 Sam. 5:12, “And
David perceived that the Lord
had established him king over Is
rael, and that he had exalted his
kingdom for the sake of his peo
ple Israel.” David acknowledged
that it was God who had brought
him to this state of power and
that God had done so, not to
exalt David, but the people of Is
rael. We are stewards of the
power he gives us and we are ex
pected to wield it for his purpose,
not our own engrandizement.
Keep that in mind when you
ask the Lord, “What shall I do?”
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 Burgess General Manager
Everett R Newswanger Editor
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