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Vol. 48 No. 7
Milk Production Must Keep Up With Burgeoning World Demand
Dairy Awards Program Features Wilson, Honors Industry Contributors
ANDY ANDREWS
Editor
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) For now, forget love.
What the world needs more of
in the coming years desperate
ly is milk.
In the view of one dairy leader,
the global milk supply is losing
ground at a time when popula
tion is expanding and major pro
ducer countries are cutting back,
according to Doug Wilson, chief
executive officer, Cooperative
Resources International, Shawa
no, Wis.
Wilson spoke to about 125
dairy producer and industry rep
resentatives Wednesday evening
at the annual Pennsylvania Dairy
Stakeholders Banquet and Penn
sylvania Dairymen’s Association
awards program at the Holiday
Inn East in Harrisburg. Included
were several award presentations.
Wilson quoted statistics from
USDA and other sources that
point to the need for the U.S. and
other global dairy producers to
increase production. In fact, with
Farm-City Exchangees Experience Life On The Other Side Of Fence
After spending the day on the other side of the fence,
Gary Lentz, Tony Buckholz, Mary Miller, and Cheryl Horst
reveal the good and the bad about city versus farm
jobs. Photo by Lou Ann Good, food and family features editor
Food And Farms Summit
Focuses On Hunger, Health
DAVE LEFEVER
Lancaster Farming Staff
WILMINGTON, Del. The
U.S. needs to deal with problems
in its food system in order to at
tain a healthier population and a
“truly democratic society,”
according to a keynote speaker at
the 4th Annual Future of Our
Food and Farms Summit here
Dec. 5 and 6.
“We are in a really major crisis
in our country,” said Dr. Des
mond Jolly at the event attended
by some 300 people from the
Mid-Atlantic area.
Jolly, ag economist and direc
tor of the University of California
Small Farm Program, said that
the U.S. is caught in a “paradox
of ptantywhere food is avail-
www.lancasterfarming.com
the steadily increasing world
population, producers must dou
ble overall food production by the
year 2035.
That’s going to prove challeng
ing, according to- Wilson. The
world produces about 1.04 tril
lion pounds of milk, with an an
nual increase of only .1 percent
per year during the last five years
all while the population has in
creased 10 times faster.
“The global milk supply is los
ing ground,” noted Wilson. He
said that Western Europe pro
duces 23 percent of all the milk
in the world, but production is
slated to decline 5 percent in the
next five years, with cow num
bers headed downward to the
tune of 5-10 percent in key coun
tries. Latin milk production, at
10 percent, is declining. Argenti
na, a major global ag producer,
has seen numbers decline 20 per
cent during the past 12 months.
“Twenty-six percent of the peo
ple in that country are unem
ployed and the Mafia is in charge
of the government,” said Wilson.
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able in abundance, yet upward to
50 million living Americans suf
fer from hunger or “food insecu
rity” at some time in their lives.
Meanwhile, many people are
suffering from obesity and “the
whole .array of health problems
that go with it.”
This dilemma of overconsump
tion and underconsumption of
food, the most basic need of hu
mans, Jolly said, needs to be re
solved in order to build a “truly
democratic society.
“Visitors from other countries
are awed by the abundance and
variety of foods in our supermar
kets,” he said. “Our food system
presents this dazzling array of
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Four Sections
Berneta Gable, center, was honored with the 2003 Distinguished Woman Award. At
right, John Rodgers was honored with the 2003 Charles E. Cowan Memorial Award. Not
present is Clyde Myers, Berks extension agent, the 2003 Pennsylvania Dairymen’s As
sociation Extension Award winner. At left is David Norman, president of the Pennsylva
nia Dairymen’s Association. Photo by Andy Andrews, editor
LOU ANN GOOD
Food And Family
Features Editor
LEBANON (Lebanon Co.)
Working on the farm versus an
office job has perks and disad
vantages, according to four par
ticipants in Lebanon County’s
annual job exchange program.
During the Farm-City Banquet
Tuesday evening at the Lebanon
Valley Expo Center, the exchang
ees shared highlights from their
experiences. Dairy farmer Gary
Lentz spent a day working with
Tony Buckholz, chief executive
Are the tracks in the snow mysterious crop markings? Snowmobile tracks? San
ta’s sleigh? Winter made its earliest presence felt by an 8- to 10-inch snowfall, the
largest this early in at least four decades, last week throughout the southeast re
gion. The photographer captured this image on the comer of Maple and Peace
roads near Leola. Photo by Andy Andrews, editor
Saturday, December 14, 2002
operator of Goodman’s Vending,
where he learned to maintain
their motto, “Clean, Full, and
Working.”
Lentz said he realized that the
company is in the same boat as
farmers they have to get bigger
to adjust to the economy.
At least in one area, Lentz is
greatly relieved to be a farmer,
“Tony needs to go through six
steps when he has an unproduc
tive employee, but it doesn’t take
me long to get rid of an unpro
ductive cow.”
Buckholtz said that he was
$36.00 Per Year
jazzed up for his day on the farm
until the alarm went off at 3:30
a.m. In the bam, he was in for an
other rude awakening when he
faced walking down the middle
between two rows of the 70-head
herd.
“It was like walking in a water
park trying not to get wet,” Buck
holtz joked.
Buckholtz learned to put on
milkers, mix feed, dehorn calves,
and breed cows. “That was the
biggest plastic glove I’ve ever see-
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