Letters to the Editor Policy

Stop The War

Our Commander in Chief has over a year to finish the war. That should be plenty of time. Find bin Laden, settle who owns the oil in Iraq, and to establish our oil rights set up a base camp, on a hill in Iraq and drill thousands of oil wells and finally pay back the American people.

I am sure if polled, the American people could come up with a catchy new name for our part of Iraq – maybe Ameriranirq, or something like that, or Bushwhacked, or Welcome to our Republican Red White Sand Oil Co.

Please finish the war in Afghanistan too, so that our new leader won't have to worry about it. I am tired of watching America go down the slippery oil slope. Then maybe diesel oil, which is a by-product of gasoline will be priced below gasoline, so the truckers and farmers can do the work they need to do without borrowing money from China. After all, we don't want China to take all we gained in Iraq.

The poppy plant that grows so well in Afghanistan could be squeezed into bio diesel, and we can claim against America, too. We were invited to stay for 100 years, right? Legalize drugs and tax them; ok don't tax them, just make them legal.

The bright side of this, in my opinion, is someone will need to take command of the new oil countries we will conquer so there is a job opening; anyone need a job next year? Make a new benchmark, finish the job, and don't screw this one up, before you leave office.

It’s time to stop the blaming and wondering who will make a good leader with this war. Just stop the war, finish it, don't cut and run, before you leave.

Sincerely,

Peter A. Seman

Thompson PA

Riding A Roller Coaster

Earlier we had predicted that the prices paid to dairy farmers could decline by $5.00 per cwt.

If you take the $25.16 per cwt Class I price in Order 1 for September, 2007 and subtract the $19.95 per cwt Class I price for March, 2008, you find a price drop of $5.21 per cwt. The highest statistical price paid to dairy farmers in that timeframe was $23.14 per cwt. The lowest price paid to dairy farmers was $19.54 per cwt in February, 2008 or a difference of $3.60 per cwt. However, the value of March milk will decline by at least $1.00 per cwt, which will place the loss to dairy farmers at nearly $5.00 per cwt.

One thing is certain; the only people who do not estimate dairy prices incorrectly on occasion are the ones who do not estimate prices at all!

The value of some of the manufacturing prices will increase on March milk, thus keeping the loss to dairy farmers’ prices to a lower degree (but still inflicting serious damage).

On the brighter side, the increase in the value of cheese for March has now set the April Class I price in Boston at $21.86. However, do not get comfortable, because the May Class I price in Boston will probably go down into the $20.00 per cwt range.

All of this is going on while the input costs on the dairy farms continue to escalate to unprecedented levels. This is the reason why many dairy farmers across the United States want something positive done and done soon to deal with this unacceptable situation.

Certainly, the Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Senator Robert Casey, Jr. (D-PA) dairy bill, S1722 (the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2007) is a great place to start.

I was appalled to read recently that at least one dairy economist seems to be comparing supply management practices to programs run by the former Soviet Union. One does not have to be an historian to recall the horrors and great human suffering endured by people in Russia during that time. Yet, let me ask how we should rate the current US federal raw milk pricing system developed under Order Reform in 2000 that would allow all dairy farmers’ milk prices to plummet to the 1981 level? I call it barbaric!

For many years, the former Federal Order 4 (Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore) had a base-excess plan. The real problem with the plan was that the base-excess price was too high. The Specter-Casey Dairy Bill eliminates the problem with an excessively high base-excess price.

Remember the milk diversion program? At that time, all dairy farmers were assessed a high amount of money and would receive some rebate if they kept their production in line. However, when the program was done, the production problem continued. Again, S1722 would eliminate this problem.

Remember the Dairy Herd Termination Act? The high cost of this program to dairy farmers included seeing adverse raw milk prices return when the program ended. Again, this would not happen with S1722.

Haven’t dairy farmers witnessed enough supply management programs that were not allowed to continue? Don’t dairy farmers deserve to have the opportunity to have their milk prices determined fairly? Don’t dairy farmers deserve an opportunity to produce milk for the real market?

Shouldn’t milk processors have the opportunity to know in advance what they are going to pay for raw milk?

Furthermore, shouldn’t our consumers have the right to buy fresh, local milk and dairy products without the prices jumping all over the place? S1722 will address all of these problems. Let’s give it a chance!

Pro Ag can be reached at (570) 833–5776 or proagorg@yahoo.com

Sincerely,

Arden Tewksbury

Meshoppen, PA

Thank God

I agree with the leadership of the democratic party that this year’s campaign for the White House is demoralizing! The media must change, or it will finally destroy its consumer-based public with violence, ignorance, and hatred. Is it any wonder the candidates don’t seem to have much to offer in the way of moral convictions?

It’s obvious to most people that our economic downsizing is the result of our demeaning of God’s law, upon which our nation was founded and to whom as yet we place our trust and so are blessed. But we are increasingly ignorant and disobedient to our supreme commander, Jesus Christ.

The laundry list of our nation’s sins cries out for justice. The number one destroyer of humanity that we, as a nation, perform on ourselves and promote abroad is abortion. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Our integrity is going down the drain with our money, and Planned Parenthood is the world’s leader in this most violent and dehumanizing act against mother, father, and their baby, another of God’s children who come into the world to love and be loved.

Sincerely,

John M. Mann

Brandt, PA

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