14 —The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Nov. 27, 1985 Economic surge not helping agriculture; Pa. not hurt as bad By JAMES A. STEWART Collegian Staff Writer Recent improvement in the econ omy, beneficial to consumers and most industry, has hurt the agricul ture industry, a professor of agricul ture economics extension said. ! “Agriculture was completely by passed in our current economic re covery,” Louis Moore said at an Ag Student Council meeting last night. However, Moore said problems in Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry have not been as severe as in the rest of the country. He said this is due to the diversity of farm products in the state, finan cial conservatism on the part of Pennsylvania farmers and the bene fits of reduced grain prices on the dairy industry, Pennsylvania’s larg est agricultural field. Pennsylvania has risen from 17th to 12th in value of farm products sold since 1980, Moore said. “Today’s agricultural problems have been caused by excesses of farmers and their lenders which were created by the inflationary spiral of the 705,” Moore said. He said farmers borrowed heavily then because of the rise in farm values due to inflation. This increase gave farmers more collateral for loans, and banks were more willing to lend moYiey, he said. Land South Africa blasts injure By JAMES F. SMITH Associated Press Writer JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Two land mine explosions damaged two farm trucks and injured a black driver near the Zimbabwe border yesterday in what was thought to be the first mining of roads in South Africa by anti-apartheid guerrillas, authorities said. A statement from Defense Force headquarters said the black driver suffered leg wounds in the first explo sion on a dirt road. A white farmer’s pickup truck was damaged in the second blast, but he was unhurt. Three Blacks, “presumably Afri can National Congress terrorists,” were seen in the area before the blasts and were believed to have fled back into Zimbabwe after planting the mines, the statement reported. It said two more mines were found and rendered harmless by mine sweeping vehicles on other roads in AT THE GRINDER Bring the family for a relaxed Thanksgiving Dinner Complete traditional holiday dinner includes: TRADITIONAL-ROAST TURKEY WHIPPED POTATOES & GRAVY HERB STUFFING served with Green Salad and Choice of Dressing Yams« Peas & Carrots Cranberry Sauce • Dessert ££3*- In the 1980 s, inflation has dropped, bringing farm values down also, Moore said. Farm values in the Mid west, the hardest hit area, have dropped 36 percent since 1981, he said. Pennsylvania farm prices, he added, have only dropped 5 percent since 1981. With the decrease in farm values, he said, banks have based recent loans on cash flow rather than land collateral, making loans harder to obtain. Another problem facing farmers is the “perennial surplus problem,” Moore said. At the end of 1985, he said, 120 million metric tons of sur plus crop is expected. This amount is about equal to half a ton of surplus crop for every person in the United States, he said. “Farmers produce more as prices, go down,” Moore said. As they try to pay off their bills, farmers increase production, further lowering prices, Moore said. Since 1960, corn, soybean, and wheat pro duction has more than doubled. As a result, he said, consumers now spend only 15 percent of their budgets on food, as opposed to 20 percent in 1960. Agriculture, which is 15 percent of total U.S. exports, accounted for 70 percent of the decline in exports last year, Moore said. mine exp the area west of Messina, Meanwhile, police headquarters re ported persistent scattered rioting in black townships around South Africa. A black councilman shot one man dead in Huhudi township, near. Vry burg in Cape Province, when a mob of Blacks attacked his house, the police report said. In Chesterville, a black township near Durban, two rival bands of Blacks battled on the street yester day, and one black man was killed and two houses set afire, police said. In all, police reported 17 incidents of unrest from Monday evening to last evening. The government has confirmed more than 800 deaths in 15 months of rioting against the apartheid system of racial segregation. A private mon itoring group puts the death toll at more than 900. According to the gov ernment, its forces, killed about two thirds, most of whom were black, while the rest were Blacks killed by at the Grinder Tavern Adults $7.95 Children $3.95 Thanksgiving dinner served 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. reservations, please Regular menu available 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. ENTERTAINMENT NIGHTLY 237-1049 m §& country Tavern 11 am. to 11 p.m. dally • 'III mldnlflht Fildayj and Saturday! 025 crlcklewood drive • toftrees • 237-1049 With the demon comes jst Collegian Reasons for this decline are the increased strength of the dollar and export subsidies by other govern ments, he said. Also, new exporters such as India and China have taken a large portion of export trade away from the United States, Moore said. “Unless there’s a crop failure in the Soviet Union,” Moore said, “the sur plus will remain through the end of the century.” Another disadvantage, Moore said, is the trend toward mergers among major agriculture-related corpora tions. This includes recent buyouts of food companies such as General Foods and Nabisco by tobacco com panies, he said. This consolidation benefits larger farms which deal in volume, he said. Moore said possible solutions are a totally free market, mandatory con trols, voluntary production controls, and a dual price system. A totally free market, favored by President Reagan, would eliminate government subsidies and force prices down to improve competition on the international market, Moore said. Increased U.S. competitiveness on the world market would force other nations to reduce agricultural prices, he said, resulting in a global price war. los ons anti-apartheid groups blamed one , other Blacks who suspected them of collaborating with the white minority government. The government accuses the out lawed African National Congress of stirring up the unrest in an attempt to make black areas “ungovernable.” A police spokesman said yester day’s incidents were believed to be the first time ANC guerrillas mined roads in South Africa. Most ANC sabotage is carried out against gov ernment buildings in urban areas, not in farming districts. Land mines planted on remote roads have been a common weapon in other guerrilla wars against white rule in southern Africa, especially in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and in South-West Africa. Officials of the African National Congress have expressed reluctance about staging attacks near South Africa’s borders for fear of inviting reprisals against neighboring black states. All black countries bordering Telephone Changes information, call the Office of Telecommunications at 5-1940 Mandatory production controls would place strict limits, with gov ernment enforcement, on agricultu ral sales, Moore said. Higher prices and a reduction in national and world agricultural surpluses would result, he said. Under voluntary production con trols farmers would reduce produc tion as a result of reduced prices and crop surpluses, Moore said. A dual price system, Moore said, means a normal domestic price com bined with a reduced export price paid for by government subsidies. Farmers’ preferences, based on a survey in Oklahoma, point to manda tory controls as the most popular solution, Moore said. The greatest support for these controls, he said, comes from grain farmers. “Grain farmers are more desper ate because they have suffered the most," Moore said. Moore said he expects voluntary production controls and the dual price system to be used as short-term solutions. Immediate aid may come from a farm bill being discussed in Con gress, Moore said. The bill calls for reduced acreage in use, a 5 percent decrease in farm loan interest rates and a freeze on target prices for crops. However, he said, the House and Senate have yet to reach a com- South Africa say they will not allow attacks against South Africa to be launched from their soil. The military said three black men crossed the Limpopo River from Zim babwe late Monday night and re turned early yesterday, according to information from black residents of the area. The mines were of Czechos lovak origin. The mining followed government denials of renewed speculation that the nation’s white rulers were about to release jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela from a life sentence. He is widely regarded as the most impor tant black leader in South Africa, 21 years after he was convicted of plot ting sabotage as head of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). Speculation about Mandela’s re lease rose last week because of his three-week stay in a Cape Town hos pital, long after he had recovered from prostate gland surgery. promise on the bill. Moore said he expects the final bill to be passed early next year. In the long range, Moore said the industry will see a consolidation of crops into certain geographic re gions, and lower returns on capital investments for farmers and farm equipment suppliers. Increased em phasis on marketing and manage ment, a decreased margin between prices and costs, and a trend toward fewer and larger farms will also result, he said. Moore listed several steps to help area farmers plan for the coming years. “Farmers must dig in to be survi vors,” Moore said. They must become more efficient in financial areas, he said. To do this, they need to improve record-keeping, develop long-term expansion and im provement plans to present their bankers, arrange needed loans early, and use old equipment longer to avoid new debts while paying off current debt, he said. Farmers should also improve mar keting know-how, Moore said, consid ering the market before crops are harvested. “Pennsylvania farmers need to take an active role in developing (government) farm programs,” Moore said. Service^ (sur»viss)n. 1. work done for others 2. helpful or useful action 3. benefit, advantage 4. friendly help 5. Kinko’s kinko's Great copies. Great people. 256 E. Beaver Ave. 224 W. College 238-2679 237-1317 Mil tHs yL gxfi|>ei and j, pass It cr. U ROTS 99CSALE 999 ■ French Dread 8 Pizza 1994 eadi. Umii: 7 per coupon. 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