V 01.47 No. 12
James and Shirley Hershey are both lifetime farmers. The couple farms 350 acres
and has a 3,400-head hog finishing unit and 120,000 broilers. With them is their dog,
Pebbles. Read more about their operation in Corn Talk this issue.
Photo by Michelle Kunjappu
Va. Farm Show Scheduled
In The Heart Of ShemStthah galley
GAY BROWNLEE
Virginia Correspondent ■
FISHERSVILLE (Augusta
County, Va.) On Jan. 22-23
at Expoland, the 2002 Virginia
Farm Show is set in the heart of
the Shenandoah Valley, in prox
imity to much* of the state’s di
verse farming operations,
primarily poultry, beef, sheep,
dairy, and horses.
The event also attracts atten
dance from producers in- sur
rounding states.
“We did the show in Rich
mond several years and it was a
good crop show,” said Ken
Maring, trade show manager for
Lee Publications which owns
and operates the show.
“But we couldn’t draw farm
ers from the Shenandoah Valley
Md. Teen Crowned Miss American Angus
MICHELLE KUNJAPPU
Lancaster Farming Staff
SYKESVILLE, Md. Nov.
12 will always be an anniversary
day for Cortney Hill-Dukehart.
A sort of a second birthday, a
day that marked a major event
in her life.
On the last day of the North
American International Live
stock Exposition (NAILE), she
was given the national title of
Miss American Angus in Louis
ville, Ky.
A freshman at Howard Com
munity College, Cortney, 18, is
the daughter of Robert Hill and
Marlene Dukehart, owners of
18-acre Sunrise Sunset Farm,
Sykesville, Md.
www.iancasterfarming.com
because it was a 2‘/2-houf tfrivf.
On request from
said, “we moved the show to the
Shenandoah Valley. It is a great
location. The show encompasses
all agriculture in Virginia.”
The relocation means an ad
vantage for eager famers who
are anticipating the opportunity
to make comparisons between
products that will run the gamut
from machinery and equipment
to heating and irrigation sys
tems to recycling, chemicals,
genetics, fertilizers, seeds, and so
on.
On tap, also, will be a skid
steer rodeo.
“The new technology will get
their brains going,” commented
Steve Saufley. Saufley repre
sents six counties in the Virginia
“So far I’ve met so many
people. I want to represent the
Angus breed the best way 1
can,” said Cortney.
To Compete
She began her quest for the
crown by filling out a scholar
ship application. “You can only
apply your graduating year of
high school,” she said. “You
apply at your state auxiliary and
then the winners are sent to the
national auxiliary. From there,
the top five scholarships are
chosen and those five compete
for Miss American Angus.”
To compete in the contest, the
three girls, applicants who had
first won at state level, came
Five Sections
Farm Bureau Association
ana hopes the farmers will allow
the concepts they see to enlarge
the scope of ideas they hold
about running their operations.
Speaking of new ideas, Mike
and Susan Philips from outside
Broadway in Rockingham
County will beigelding questions
about a product they recently
became with and are
using called Ber
mudagrass. . ?
Susan said they are well
aware it will take a lot of con
vincing for Bermudagrass to
catch on. Since the couple
stepped out in faith to plant Ber
mudagrass (it does well in hot
weather), they hope to prove
something in the rotational
(Turn to Pago A 39)
Saturday and filled in a three
page fill-in-the-biank and essay
test about the Angus industry.
The auxiliary had previously
sent the girls a large packet of
information for them to study,
said Cortney.
A few weeks before the con
test the girls received the topic
for their five-to-seven minute
public speech.
The speech was followed by a
20-minute interview with judge,
and then an impromptu ques
tion in front of the public, where
the girls answered why they
would want to be Miss Angus
America.
The American Angus Auxili
(Turn to Page A 37)
Saturday, January 19,2002
Survey Reveals Consumers
Don’t Understand Biotech
N.J. Vegetable Meeting
Unveils Surprising Results
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.
Less than half only 41 percent
of Americans are aware that
foods with biotech ingredients
are on supermarket shelves, ac
cording to a recent survey.
And 75 percent of those
polled rated their understanding
of food production as “excel
lent,” while only 5 percent rate
their understanding as “poor,”
said Dr. William Hallman.
Hallman, associate director of
the Food Policy Institute at
Rutgers/Cook College, spoke
about the public perception of
ag biotechnology in the U.S. in
2001.
Hallman spoke to about 100
growers and agri-industry repre
sentatives Wednesday at the
New Jersey Annual Vegetable
Meeting at the Trump Taj
Mahal in Atlantic City.
The survey, conducted in
April last year through the insti
tute, included 1,200 adults in a
carefully constructed phone in
terview that addressed many
biotech issues.
What they found: the Ameri
can public is woefully unin
formed about exactly what
biotechnology means and its
impact on how food is produced.
Hallman said of those inter
viewed (made up of half male
and half female respondents),
“Many people have a poor grasp
of basic ecological and environ
mental concepts,” he noted. Re
sults pointed out: only half of
those interviewed even heard
Newly-crowned Miss American Angus Cortney Hill-
Dukehart, Sykesville, Md., stands at the halter of Savan
nah, one of her show ring heifers.
Photo by Michelle Kunjappu
$34.00 Per Year
ANDY ANDREWS
Editor
75c Per Copy
about traditional crossbreeding
methods.
In the educational section of
the testing, only 40 percent of
Americans got seven or more
out of nine questions to pass the
test. One of the questions was: if
a person eats genetically modi
fied (GM) fruit, will they also be
modified? The correct answer,
false, was answered correctly by
two-thirds of those polled. Yet
on a similar question conducted
in 2000 in Europe, only 40 per
cent answered correctly.
The answers from the true or
false questions were “off the
cuff,” and typically showed the
analysts, according to Hallman,
that the respondents’ opinions
are “not well thought out, not
strongly held, subject to change,
and are heavily influenced by
the wording of the question.”
For those in the U.S., Hall
man said, biotechnology is “an
abstract concept for many. It’s
not high on the agenda, and they
are not focused to make per
sonal decisions about it.”
Hallman noted one question,
“for tomatoes genetically modi
fied with the catfish gene, would
they taste fishy?” The answer
clearly is false, yet “one-third of
the Americans were not sure if it
was false,” said Hallman.
The terms “GM,” “biotech
nology,” and “genetic engineer
ing” all refer to the effort to use
technological methods to speed
up traditional crossbreeding
techniques to promote value
added or enhanced ag products.
(Turn to Page A3B)