A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 21,2003
Maryland Poultry Industry Lauds
Environmental Ruling
ANNAPOLIS, Md, The at
tempt by former Maryland Gov
ernor Parris N. Glendening and
his Department of the Environ
ment (MDE) to create environ
mental “co-permitting” between
Maryland’s poultry companies
and the independent farm fami
lies that grow their chickens has
been brought to an end thanks to
a ruling by the independent,
Final Decision Maker of the Mar
yland Department of the Envi
ronment.
The decision means the state of
Maryland will not seek modifica
tions of the poultry companies’
wastewater discharge permits to
make them responsible for on
farm litter/manure handling
practices of the poultry growers. •
The ruling affirms an August
2002 decision by administrative
law judge Neile S. Friedman with
the Maryland Office of Adminis-
Penn Ag Industries Support Part Of Proposed Plan
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) PennAg President,
Robert Gueldner of Best Feed
and Farm Supplies, recently
expressed the Association’s
support of portions of Gov.
RendelTs proposed Plan for a
New Pennsylvania, which in
cludes reducing taxes and
stimulating economic develop
ment in rural Pennsylvania.
In a ceremony conducted at
the Capitol last week, Gueldn
er stood to support the plan
along with the leaders from
the Pennsylvania Department
of Agriculture, the Pennsylva
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trative Hearings who wrote that
MDE did not have the authority
to create the co-permitting.
Poultry industry officials ex
pressed pleasure with the ruling.
DPI President Douglas W.
Green, himself a poultry grower,
said, “This is a victory for farm
families that grow chickens, the
poultry companies with facilities
in Maryland, and the citizens of
the state whose tax money was
wasted in this clearly illegal
scheme by the former governor.”
Delmarva Poultry Industry,
Inc. (DPI) and the Maryland
Farm Bureau, representing then
poultry grower and farmer mem
bers, and Delmarva’s poultry
companies spent nearly two mil
lion dollars to fight co-permitting
while the state of Maryland spent
countless dollars and man-hours
supporting it.
DPI President Green said,
ma Farm Bureau, and the
Pennsylvania State Grange.
Gueldner opened his re
marks by stating, “Times are
tough down on the farm. The
number one industry in Penn
sylvania, agriculture, is
doomed to follow some of our
other major industries if agri
culture and rural Pennsylva
nia aren’t given some kind of
an economic boost.”
Gueldner continued by ex
pressing the farmers’ concerns
with the
current tax
rates. “As
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“This huge amount of money and
resources could have been used
for legitimate water quality im
provement programs instead of
wasting it on this legal fight. This
decision is total vindication for
the poultry industry’s arguments
that co-permitting is illegal. It’s
time to move ahead and work
voluntarily with Governor Robert
L. Ehrlich’s government on mat
ters that will actually improve
the quality of Maryland’s water.”
Already the poultry industry
voluntarily is working to make
better use of chicken litter. These
programs include transporting
the litter to other farming areas
that have need for it and convert
ing raw litter into a pelletized,
fertilizer product. In addition,
Delmarva’s poultry companies
are amending the chicken feed so
fewer nutrients are in the ma
nure.
owners of the largest land base
in the state, farmers are pay
ing a disproportionate share
of taxes to rural school dis-
tricts and other forms of gov
ernment that rely on estate
taxes to sustain them. We be
lieve that the Plan for a New
Pennsylvania will help ad
dress this problem by helping
to alleviate some of the burden
on farmers,” Gueldner said.
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Farm Group President
Criticizes NAFTA
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) During testimony be
fore the Pennsylvania Demo
cratic Legislative Caucus re
cently, Pennsylvania Farmers
Union President Larry Breech
emphasized the adverse effects
that current trade treaties
have had on employment and
income levels at the local and
state levels.
“NAFTA and GATS have
not been good for Pennsylva
nia,” Breech said of the North
American Free Trade Agree
ment and General Agreement
on Trade in Services. “These
treaties have cost us jobs , and
economic growth and endan
ger the rights of our citizens to
govern themselves at the state
and local level.
“Treaty laws trump local
and state laws and give multi
national corporations virtually
unlimited power to wage eco
nomic war against working
people without having to be
held accountable for their ac
tions,” Breech said. “What we
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a calendar of events.
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really need are agreements
that level the field, not tilt it
toward corporate special inter
ests.”
Leon Oboler, state organizer
for the Pennsylvania Fair
Trade Coalition, offered sup
porting data illustrating the
significant loss of Pennsylva
nia jobs and income. Oboler
said that, according to the
U.S. Labor Department’s
NAFTA Trade Adjustment
Assistance program records,
Pennsylvania has lost 30,226
jobs at 274 facilities as a result
of NAFTA.
“The share of Pennsylvania
jobs certified as NAFTA losses
under NAFTA-TAA certifica
tions is significantly greater
than Pennsylvania’s share of
the national workforce,” Obol
er said. Although the layoffs
happened throughout Penn
sylvania, one in five layoffs oc
curred in rural areas and were
concentrated in the manufac
turing sector.