AlOLancaster Farming, Saturday, December 27, 2003
OPINION
BSE In News
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is once again in the
news, but this time is not discovered in Canada, but here in the U.S.
Lancaster Farming learned Tuesday evening that USDA diag
nosed a presumptive positive case of BSE in an adult Holstein cow in
the state of Washington.
Why is BSE in this country?
Why, when feeding animal ruminant products is illegal in both the
U.S. and Canada, we still have these BSE cases popping up?
BSE sf mid have been eradicated a long time ago. Why do we still
see it?
The USDA needs improved enforcement of the anti-animal rumi
nant legislation. An old saying still applies: DON’T MAKE ANY
NEW LAWS UNLESS YOU CAN ENFORCE THEM.
And they should enforce them well. The fines, if necessary, should
be excessive and jail time severe for feeding blood meal, bone meal,
and those types of products.
Better yet, why doesn’t USDA go on the attack regarding BSE acti
vely seek out the agent, rather than having it come to them? Why not
make BSE elimination THE mandate?
BSE is a public health problem. We need to have a secure food sys
tem.
Not only that, with BSE in the U.S., what will become of the stellar
year for beef prices, of more than $lOO CWT? The feeder cattle mar
ket could be in jeopardy if USDA doesn’t act decisively.
Saturday, December 20
Monday, December 22
Adventures in Agriculture Plan
ning Meeting, Northampton
County Extension, Greystone
Building, 6:30 p.m., (610)
746-1970.
Thursday, December 25
Merry Christmas!
F ' office cli
ppy
Farming office closed,
Friday, January 2
Lancaster Youth Dairy Day (ages
8-18), Lancaster Farm and
Editor:
Farm families of Pennsylvania
thank and applaud the General
Assembly for passing legislation
(House Bill 1222) on Dec. 18 that
will discourage townships from
adopting illegal farm ordinances.
How To Reach Us
To address a letter to the editor'
• By fax. (717) 733-6058
• By regular mail.
Editor, Lancaster Farming
P.O. Box 609,1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
• By e-mail
farming@lancasterfarming.com
Please note; Include your full
name, return address, and
phone number on the letter
Lancaster Farming reserves the
right to edit the letter to fit and
is not responsible tor returning
unsolicited mail
X
(Turn to Page A3l)
* Farm Calendar ❖
i ' ssH,
Home Center, Lancaster, 9:30
a.m.-2:30 p.m., (717) 394-6851.
Saturday, January 3
AFBF (Farm Bureau) Conven
tion, Hawaii, thru Jan. 17.
Sunday, January 4
Ice Cream Short Course, Nittany
Lion Inn, University Park,
thru Jan. 10, (814) 863-2959.
Lancaster
A.
Monday, Jandary 5
Maryland Dairy Meeting, Chest
ertown Fire Hall, 10 a.m.-2:30
p.m., (410) 778-1661.
Tuesday, January 6
National Potato Council Conven-
❖ Farm Forum ❖
The problem is that a few local
officials have been legislating be
yond their authority by adopting
regulations that exceed existing
state laws.
During the nearly three-year
discussion of the problem by law
makers and the public, the mis
representation by a few groups of
both the issue and the remedy
has been disappointing.
Here are the facts. The legisla
tion enables courts to require
townships to pay a farmer’s legal
costs after challenging an illegal
ordinance if the officials know-
ingly or recklessly violated state
law when adopting it. Similarly,
a farmer can be required to pay
the township’s legal fees if a law
suit is found to be frivolous.
What can be more fair and rea
sonable? Claims that the legisla
tion removes or changes any
5J* * *
(Turn to Page A 29)
(Turn to Page A3l)
To Celebrate The
New Year With
Your Family
The beginning of a New Year is a
great time to stop and remember the
blessing we have enjoyed in the past
year. With the heavy demands of our
work and busy family schedules,
time for reflection is in short supply
in our society.
This makes it all the more impor
tant to simply choose to set time
aside to evaluate where we are and
where we want to be. Each New
Year’s day we are given a reminder
of how fast our life is moving. In my
household, we are reminded by the
fact that our first born will soon be
graduating from college, representing
a major transition in his and our
lives. Life is short, so do your best to
make the most of each opportunity
with family, friends, and your com
munity.
While you are reflecting on your
past year's activities, evaluate with
your family whether your business
activities supported your family goals
or made it hard to reach them. If the
consensus is that changes are needed,
begin to explore what alternatives are
available that could better meet both
OUT OF
THE MANGER
Background Scripture:
Luke 2:40-52.
Devotional Reading:
John 5:19-24.
You may be surprised to leam that
the birth of Jesus was not celebrated
in Christianity until at least 400
years after his birth, and then only in
scattered locations.
The establishment of Easter pre
ceded that of Christmas by several
hundred years. Today, Christmas is
by far the more popular Christian
observance, although Easter remains
the most important. The name
“Christmas,” a contraction of
Christ’s Mass, did not appear until
the 12th century.
As Christians, we need to under
stand that both Christmas and Eas
ter are part of a single life and can
not be fully understood and
appreciated when separated. It is
hardly a secret that some of us would
like to focus solely on the birth of
Jesus and keep him in the manger.
That is partly because we know that
the story of Jesus the adult is one of
acceptance and rejection, acclaim
and bitter opposition, loyalty and
Lancaster Farming
An Award-Winning Farm Newspaper
• PDA Friend of Agriculture Award, 2003
• Keystone Awards 1993, 199 S • PennAg Industries 1992
• PACD Media Award 1996 • Berks Ag-Busmess Council 2000
• Recognized for photo excellence throughout the years by the
Northeast Farm Communicators
your financial needs and your per
sonal goals. If you have some ideas
on new ventures you want to explore,
seek some help in developing your
plans.
There are two major trends in ag
riculture. One group of producers
will be successful by seeking to be the
low-cost producer of a particular
commodity and produce it at a large
scale. Another opportunity exists for
those who seek to specialize in niche
markets, where they will try to gain
higher margins for a more special
ized product. To be successful in that
arena, one needs to understand mar
keting and how this is different from
producing a commodity. See the arti
cle below for some thoughts on mar
keting.
In the meantime, start off the New
Year by supporting the livestock and
horticultural industries by enjoying a
hearty meal of pork, sauerkraut, and
mashed potatoes!
To Understand
What Customers Want
James G. Beierlein, professor of
agricultural economics at Penn State,
tells us that until recently in agricul
ture, the demand for food seemed
endless. Most people were thankful
to find enough to eat. Because of this,
marketing in agriculture focused on
moving the most products through
the system as efficiently as possible.
Customer needs did not really
matter since people where just glad
to get something. About the middle
of the 20th century, supply caught
and passed demand for most items in
U.S. agriculture.
When this happened, what it took
to be successful changed. Now cus
tomers had choices and did not have
to settle for what they could find.
Americans developed sophisticated
tastes for exotic foods (ethnic foods),
became more health conscious (cho
lesterol, fat, and so on), and used
food to help express their social con
cerns (dolphin-safe tuna fish).
Producers also learned that cus
tomers were not in love with the
products they buy but with the satis
faction received from the products
they buy. If the food products are not
prepared for sale in a way that helps
them gain this satisfaction, they buy
something else.
treachery and Jesus died the death
of what society would hold to be that
of a defeated, discredited man.
Christmas, however, is not just a
story that got off to a good start and
then went bad. As Allan Hauck puts
it, “In the total perspective, Calvary
and Bethlehem complement each
other. Calvary represents the fulfill
ment and the final goal of the Incar
nation. The Cross is the reason for
the Incarnation and the Cross would
not have been possible without the
Incarnation.”
Out Of The Manger
Also, many of us would like to
keep Christ in his manger because
we have observed that, for some, the
birth of a baby may be the highest
moment in life.
Birth is a time of exultation and
high hopes, many of which are never
realized, and some of which are
dashed in disappointment. In the
minds of some, the trouble with kit
tens, puppies, and little babies is that
they quickly grow up into cats, dogs,
and human beings! Or, as one
woman put it, “1 love babies, but not
children, especially when they grow
into teen-agers.”
None of us, however, can repeal
the life cycle; much as we might like
to, we cannot keep our babies from
becoming children and growing up
into adults. That is the way God de
signed us and Jesus was no excep
tion. And, although we hold Jesus to
be the Son of God, we must not rob
his childhood and youth of his hu
manity. Jesus was not spared the
trials and tribulations of childhood
and adolescence because the light of
God was shining deep within him.
He was not a god, nor even an
adult human being, hiding in the
body of a child and teen-ager. Before
the New Testament was closed, there
The beef industry has seen a rise in
beef consumption recently. This in
crease comes in part from packaging
beef in ready-to-eat forms that re
quire just a quick warm-up in a mi
crowave oven. Studies have shown
that customers want meals that take
less than 30 minutes from start to
serve. No matter how great the meal
is, if is it is not in the right form to
meet the customers' needs, it does
not sell.
Beierlein points out the marketing
secret to better success is to focus on
customer satisfaction, not on making
a better product. This difference is
important. Many businesses have
failed because they focused on mak
ing a better product rather than re
membering they are satisfying cus
tomer needs.
The proper marketing goal of
every firm is to meet the needs of its
customers more efficiently, effective
ly, and completely than its compet
itors. The level of their profit is di
rectly related to how well they do
this.
The profitable satisfaction of cus
tomer needs should be the driving
force behind everything a business
does. This approach will succeed
when every part of the business ac
cepts this notion. The biggest chal
lenge is to accept this reorientation of
the way your business looks at itself.
The business should exist because it
plays a role in the profitable satisfac
tion of it customers’ needs. Every
body on your farm works in custom
er service. Your customers can buy
from many sources be sure you
give them many reasons to buy from
you by offering the right products, at
the right price, and at the right time.
If you don’t, your competitors will.
Quote Of The Week:
“There is no institution more
vital to our nation’s survival than
the American family. Here the
seeds of personal character are
planted, the roots of public virtue
first nourished. Through love and
instruction, discipline, guidance
and example, we learn from our
mothers and fathers the values that
will shape our private lives and
our public citizenship. ”
Ronald Reagan
were many other competing writings
circulating among the churches, in
cluding some apocryphal gospels glo
rifying Jesus with accounts of super
natural powers exercised by him even
as a child. Fortunately, these gospels
did not make the cut into canon.
They would have distorted the hu
manity of Jesus therefore his rele
vancy to us for the sake of pres
enting Jesus as God in children’s
clothing, an interpretation renounced
as heresy.
Listening And Asking
Johann Heinrich Hofmann’s pop
ular painting, “The Finding of Christ
in the Temple,” is a distortion of
Luke’s account, for it depicts the
youthful Jesus standing erect in the
midst of the elders gesturing as
though he were teaching the teach
ers.
But in Luke 2:40-52 we see a more
balanced depiction. Luke tells us
that, when his family returned to Je
rusalem seeking him, they found him
“sitting among the teachers, listening
to them and asking them questions”
(2:46,47.)
Yes, the elders “were amazed at
his understanding and his answers,”
and Mary was stunned by his re
sponse to her and Joseph, but the
picture Luke paints for us is that of
an open-minded youth, respectful of
the teachers in the temple courtyard,
and yet enough of an adolescent to
confound his parents. It was as a real
child and youth that “Jesus in
creased in wisdom and in stature,
and in favor with God and man”
(2:52).
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc
A Steinman Enterprise
William J Burgess General Manager
Andy Andrews. Editor
Copyright 2003 by Lancaster Farming