4-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 17,2001
11
Check It Out: You Already Paid For This Year’s Food
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
SOMERSET (Somerset Co.)
On Feb 7, just 38 days into the
year, the average American
household had already paid for
its annual supply of foo< , accord
ing to statistics from the U.S. De
partment of Agriculture. That
figure even includes eating out.
In comparison, to pay local,
state and federal taxes, the same
wage and salary earners must
work until May 3, or 123 days.
Which reveals that food is a
bargain for American consumers
and Food Check Out Day held
by the Women’s Committee of
the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau,
puts that agricultural headline
squarely in the public eye.
Farmers and ranchers in the
U.S. are the most productive in
the world, plus the food they pro
duce is the most affordable in the
world.
To most families Food Check
Out Day is oblivious, but not to
Ronald McDonald Houses
(RMH) who partake of the boun
ty of Food Check Out Day. The
RMHs provide lodging for family
members whose children with se
rious illnesses are being treated
at nearby medical centers.
To rural Pennsylvanians even
Farm Bureau families the
presence of an RMH means a
home away from home in times
of stress and uncertainty. The
rural population in Pennsylvania
is greater than in any of the SO
states. The comfort of having an
RMH nearby cannot be mea
sured by those from out of town
who stay in them.
In relation to the five RMHs
located inside the Keystone
States borders, the participating
county Farm Bureaus sought co
operation from their respective
communities. Rising to occasion
with drives for food commodi
ties, household Supplies, and
monetary offerings whereby
RMH pantries could be stock
piled, were various clubs, church
es and schools that were eager to
Want to Get Rid of Trash Quicker? Just Add Water
COLUMBUS, Ohio Trash
in a municipal landfill could de
compose about 10 to 20 times
faster than it normally does
through a system that keeps the
trash continuously wet, new re
search suggests.
Landfills are normally dry en
vironments, and the lack of ade
quate moisture doesn’t allow bio
degradable trash to decompose
as quickly as it should, say re
searchers at Ohio State Universi
ty-
In fact, keeping a landfill satu
rated means it could stabilize in
five to 10 years, instead of taking
the average 100 years or longer
to do so, said Ann Christy, an as
sistant professor of food, agricul
tural and biological engineering
at Ohio State. In a stabilized
landfill, the majority of trash has
decomposed.
“Quicker decomposition rates
mean more room for more trash
in the same landfill, which would
cut down on the need for addi
tional landfill space,” she said.
“This also feeds into recycling
once the biodegradable material
decomposes, we can extract re
cyclables from the landfills, then
the landfills aren’t filling up as
quickly.”
Christy is currently experi
menting with moisture levels in
two laboratory-scale wet-tomb
bioreactors. A wet-tomb bioreac
tor is a self-contained unit with
Members of the Somerset County Farm Bureau pack the van with 30 and a half
crates of food and supplies collected through community support for Food Check Out
Day on Wednesday, Feb. 7. From left, Kurt Walker, SCFB vice-president; Phil Lehman,
SCFB director; Harold Shaulis, SCFB president; Fred Boucher, SCFB director; Denise
Rohrbaugh, SCFB secretary, and Food Check Out Day spokesperson for the Somerset
to Erie region and Oscar Market, SCFB director. Donations from the PFBs 18-county re
gion, to Pittsburgh Ronald McDonald House were estimated at $lO,OOO.
adopt a community service proj
ect.
Marlin Miller, manager of
member relations at the PFB of
fice in Camp Hill reported the
following initial (donations are
still arriving) statistics from Food
Check Out Day: Danville RMH
$15,870; Philadelphia RMH—
515,250; Pittsburgh RMH
$10,000; Hershey RMH 059,502;
$9,502; Scranton RMH $4,429.
These are estimates of the
combined food, supplies, cash
and gift certificates in each re
gion.
“We are getting a lot of cover
age in the media,” Miller said.
“The point is being made more
water purposely pumped in
the water creates an environment
suitable for bacteria to actively
decompose waste. The water is
recirculated throughout the sys
tem.
Christy’s research appears in a
recent issue of the journal Ap
plied Engineering in Agriculture.
She co-authored the study with
Olli Tuovinen, a professor of mi
crobiology at Ohio State, and Mi
chael Myers, an engineer with
the North Carolina Department
of Environment and Natural Re
sources.
Christy and her colleagues
monitored the experimental bio
reactors for 15 months. Each bio
reactor or bin was filled
with approximately 3,300
pounds (1.5 metric tons) of non
shredded municipal solid waste
collected from a local sanitary
landfill. (While many small-scale
landfills require waste to be
shredded in order for it to fit,
shredding is not economically
feasible for a full-scale landfill,
Christy said.) The bins were 3
feet long, 6 feet wide and 3 feet
tall. The researchers could watch
the decomposition through a
2-by-2.5 feet Plexiglas observa
tion window installed in each
bin.
The waste in one bin was cov
ered with a single layer of sludge
sewage already decomposed
by bacteria. Sludge has been used
dearly that food is inexpensive in
comparison to taxes.”
When representatives in the
district from Somerset to Erie ar
rived at the Pittsburgh RMH,
spokesperson Denise Rohrbaugh,
who is secretary of the Somerset
County Farm Bureau, said that
in Somerset County alone, more
than 30 and a half crates were
transported in the produce van
of Farm Bureau director, Phil
Lehman. Lehman runs a vege
table operation with his son on
the Garrett Shortcut near Berlin.
The groups that responded to
Rohrbaugh’s letter of invitation
to participate were the Rock
wood Chapter of the National
in landfills to help increase the
rate at which trash decomposes.
At the beginning of the study, re
searchers poured distilled water
into each bin, until they saw the
water draining into the liner
under the bins. The used water
or leachate was continuously
pumped through the bins again
via leachate recirculation pipes.
While the researchers did not
get the decomposition results
they had hoped for the mass in
the bin with the sludge layer de
creased by one percent (to 3,009
pounds) in 15 months, and the
mass of the other bin decreased
by 1.3 percent (to 2,989 pounds)
they are confident that keep
ing a relatively high level of
moisture in a landfill would in
crease the rate of decomposition,
Christy said.
She attributed the lower-than
expected decomposition rates in
this study to the lack of adequate
amounts of bacteria and also the
lack of heat production. Paper
and plastic comprised 70 percent
of the solid waste in these bins,
while the two most readily biode
gradable products, yard waste
and food waste, comprised less
than 5 percent of the total mass.
‘The disproportionate amount
of recyclables (paper and plastic)
in the bins were undoubtedly a
hindrance to the bacteria’s suc
cess in breaking down the trash,”
Honor Society, St. Peters School,
Somerset Boy Scout Troop 131,
the Country Clovers 4-H Club
and the county commissioners
office in the courthouse.
Crawford County’s 2,700
items were collected by one
school and one church, Rohr
baugh reported.
“We did excellent this year,”
Rohrbaugh said in
“We unloved, <Wtd
unloaded.
The bounty well exceeded that
of Food Check Out Day 2000.
‘While Food Check Out Day
celebrates the efficiency and pro
ductivity of America’s fanners
and ranchers, the current tough
Christy said. “In a full-size land
fill, the types of trash would be
more evenly distributed.”
Christy is continuing the ex
periment, and says the next step
is to take the technology to a full
scale landfill.
Because it is a self-contained
system, constructing a full-scale
wet-tomb bioreactor would be
Sculotor Jim Victor displays his buttery creation of a
sprint car, a work in progress at the recent Pennzoil Mo
torsports Show, Fort Washington Expo Center. The Phila
delphia sculptor used 100 pounds of butter donated by
Land O’ Lakes, Carlisle, to mold the car modeled after
Port Royal’s 2000 sprint car champion owned by Lance
Dewease. Victor will create another butter sculpture at
the Motorama Indoor Races and Speed Show at the Farm
Show Complex, Harrisburg, Feb. 16-18.
economic times that agriculture
faces,” said Guy Donaldson,
president of the Pennsylvania
Farm Bureau, “cannot be over
looked.
“Low commodity prices,
shrinking foreign markets, and
escalating regulatory cost are
threatening the very fabric of the
American farm.”
He added: “Prices at the su
permarket certainly don’t reflect
the historically low commodity
prices producers are receiving
today. The farm to retail price
spread is at a record low,” he
concluded.
Somerset County Farm Bu
reau president Harold Shaulis
commented: “As Farm Bureau
members, we provide a wide va
riety of services, not only to
farmers but also other members
of the community. We all have a
vested interest in our commu
nities and work hard to make
them a better place to live,” he
added.
Besides being the state vice
chairman of the Dairy Promo
tion Program and a member of
other dairy-related state organi
zations, Shaulis is an active 4-H
leader, church member, and a
member of several panels rele
vant to local government.
About 28,000 farm and rural
families in 54 county units are
represented in the PFB.
The non-governmental, volun
tary farm organization is affili
ated with the nation’s largest
general farm organization, the
American Farm Bureau Federa
tion, which is comprised of
5-million members.
In conclusion, Marlin Miller
expressed his thoughts about
Food Check Out Day having
bsen the third time, with
TOMRhfi?t f-%,
T think it’sk wonderful proj
ect, a gtpat networking of rural
communities,” hie said.
“It causes us to interact more
with our neighbors out there.
People are willing to work for the
common good of aIL”
costlier at the outset, Christy
said. Unlike current landfills, the
bioreactors need the machinery,
such as pumps and pipes, to re
circulate leachate. But they
would save money in the long
run, because there would be no
need to collect leachate and take
it to a treatment facility, as is
necessary with current landfills.