Wayne County Dairy/Ag Day attracts pols

Talk of new farm bill in the air

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA - The Wayne County farm community has been coming to the annual Dairy/Ag Day for 30 years. This year was no exception as crowds of vendors and farmers and their friends packed into the gymnasium of Honesdale High School on February 18.

A new attraction to the day was the presence of a couple of local politicians who are running for office. The other attraction was a discussion of efforts to put forward a new farm bill for the U.S. Congress.

The Republican candidate for the 10th Congressional District, Chris Hackett, a conservative businessman from Dallas, PA, was actively shaking hands of possible voters as was the current incumbent of the position, Congressman Chris Carney. While both were present at the same time, they never met although they passed close to each other. The other politician present, although not running for office this November, was state senator Lisa Baker.

And rumors were flying that the Farm Bill of 2007, which was passed by the Congress, is going to be vetoed by the president.

“That may or may not be true,” said Dave Williams of the Wayne/Pike County Farm Bureau. “What is known is that there are discussions going on now in the agriculture committees of the House and Senate to consider working on a new bill that would be more likely to pass into law.”

The 2007 farm bill was disappointing to local dairy farmers since efforts by U.S. Senators Robert Casey Jr. (D-PA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) to include an amendment that would link the farmers’ cost of production to the amount of money they get from selling their milk was defeated.

“Despite what the media says about record high milk prices, dairy farmers everywhere are still facing an unprecedented crisis and Congress is ignoring it,” said Arden Tewksbury, manager of the Progressive Agriculture Organization.

“If the farm bill is vetoed more than once by the president, it reverts back to the farm bill of 1949 as a safety measure but it would be based on the economics of 1949,” said Marion Schweighofer of the Wayne/Pike County Farm Bureau. “We will get a new farm bill. They’re working on it right now.”