voices july 2012 food and farms issue

Columns and Opinion:Deutsch, Hertert, Birdwatch, Cosmo and more!

Independent News Since 1993 Thoughtful. Fearless. Free.

July / August 2012

The true cost of

cheap food

Food & Farms IssueBuy Fresh Buy Local Guide PG 16PG 16

PP AA GG EE 11 22

w w w . v o i c e s w e b . o r g

COMMUNITYGreen thumbs, bighearts: locals growproduce for food bank

Food cooperativecoming to town

PG 8

Veronica Winters

Pg 24

POLITICSGrim prospects foreducation majorsPG 3

VOICES OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

We live in a

time of unprece-

dented access to

information—our

gift and our bur-

den.

As I researched

this month’s cover

story on cheap

food, I felt over-

whelmed by the

range and scope of

the problems I discovered.

America’s dysfunctional relationship

with food isn’t merely a matter of people

making bad choices at the grocery store.

History and culture influence those deci-

sions. They’re shaped by the economic

interests of agribusiness, the aspirations of

politicians and the ever-evolving values of

consumers.

The progress we make in some direc-

tions (such as more women entering the

workforce and scientific discoveries lead-

ing to higher and more reliable crop yields)

contributes to regression in other directions

(such as fewer homemade dinners and loss

of biodiversity).

The problems I explore in my article are

systemic problems—pervasive, tangled

and infinitely complex. The temptation is

to think: “These problems are too big. How

can I—one person—make a difference?”

But as I knelt in the dirt yesterday, har-

vesting turnips as part of a work-for-pro-

duce exchange, it occurred to me that

meaningful change can come from any

direction—the bottom or the top, or the

side for that matter. Our food system an

intricate machine, and change anywhere

can affect everything.

I can’t re-write the Farm Bill or rearrange

the shelves of every grocery in America,

but I can grow tomatoes and herbs in my

back yard. I can buy locally grown vegeta-

bles. I can eat less meat. I can pay attention

to what’s in season. I can try new recipes. I

can choose restaurants that serve locally

grown food. I can talk to my friends and

family about food systems, and I can write

about food issues for publications like

Voices.

If everyone in Centre County were to use

his or her limited resources to make small

changes to our

food culture, I

think something

amazing would

happen.

This is my

final issue of

Voices, and I am

extremely grate-

ful that I’ve got-

ten to serve as its

managing editor

for 14 months. I

leave with

tremendous con-

fidence in this

community and

the mission that

Voices serves

within it. I know

the passionate

leadership of Elizabeth Timberlake-Newell

will enrich this publication.

I plan to continue serving Voices as I am

able, and I ask that you do the same.

Remember that a small contribution—

whether it be an article, an hour spent copy

editing or a commitment to delivering

papers to a new location—can make a big

difference.

Voices will not hold staff meetings in

July. Meetings will pick back up in August,

every Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Webster’s

Bookstore. Drop by and find out how you

can help!

© 2012 Voices of Central Pennsylvania, Inc.

July / August 2012

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Thoughtful. Fearless. Free. Help Centre County by helping Voices from the desk of managing editor

Lucy Bryan GreenBOARD OF EDITORScontact the managing editor at

[email protected]

Managing EditorLucy Bryan Green

Politics and EconomicsElizabeth Timberlake-Newell

Community and LifestylesAndrea Rochat

UniversitySierra Dole

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Voices Advisory

CouncilNick Brink

Jamie Campbell

Jane Childs

John Dickison

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Bonnie Marshall

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Bonnie K. Smeltzer

Susan Squier

Maria Sweet

Kim Tait

Mary Watson

Sue Werner

Lakshman Yapa

POLITICS and ECONOMICS pages 3-7Education majors face grim job prospects by Kenneth Bui................................................3

COMMUNITY and LIFESTYLES pages 8-11Locals grow produce for food bank by Allison Robertson.....................................................8

ENVIRONMENT pages 12-21Dependence on cheap food proves costly by Lucy Bryan Green..................................12

UNIVERSITY pages 22-23Dorms enforce policies for summer guests by Jessica Beard...............................................22

ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT pages 24-28Cartoon holds final performance by Elizabeth Timberlake-Newell................................24

OPINION pages 29-31Some alternatives to ‘cut & gut’ spending policies by Paul Dombek..............................30

Top Stories in This Issue

2 July / August 2012

Pennsylvania House Bill 2150 addresses

corporate tax loopholes, which can be a

problem in Pennsylvania. The legislation

restructures the tax system of the state and

cuts business taxes by almost a billion dol-

lars by 2020.

There are concerns that the House Bill

does not solve the problem of the

Delaware Loophole because it creates a

new loophole. HB 2150 may allow large

businesses to not pay the taxes they

should, through saying any expense has a

‘valid business purpose,’ according to the

House Appropriation Committee.

The Delaware loophole allows business-

es to have companies in Delaware that

benefit the corporation when it is time to

pay taxes. The business expenses paid in

Delaware is deducted from the state

income tax.

The legislation was introduced by Rep.

David Reed (R-62nd).

“The idea behind HB 2150 is to close the

so-called ‘Delaware Loophole’ and to use

the increased revenues generated from the

closure of this ‘loophole’ to provide busi-

ness tax reform,” Rep. Bernie O’Neill ( R-

29th) said.

Opponents of the bill have fears that the

bill will end up costing Pennsylvania more

than it is worth. Because the bill favors

Pennsylvania companies and may add

another loophole, some believe it will not

benefit the state.

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy

Center, a statewide policy research project,

claims that bill is not worth the risks it cre-

ates.

While the Center’s website states the

legislation takes the step in the right direc-

tion towards closing a corporate tax loop-

hole, the bill would restructure the tax sys-

tem in the state in a negative way. The

website notes that the bill would close the

loophole with almost one billion dollars in

tax cuts by the end of the decade.

According to the center, that lost tax rev-

enue could have supported education and

healthcare. Past tax breaks have caused

cuts in services that the state supports, and

have lost jobs in public sectors such as

education.

Proponents of the bill believe it would

create an even playing field for businesses,

and do the job it is supposed to do: cut out

the Delaware loophole.

The bill not only cuts out the Delaware

loophole, but also minimizes corporate net

income taxes in the state. This means the

bill reduces the taxes on a company’s total

profit in the state. The net loss deduction

would rise and the corporate net income

tax rate would fall each year starting in

2014.

The bill was passed by the Pennsylvania

General Assembly on May 2.

While the bill may successfully close the

gap in the system at present, it may be at

too great of a cost to put into place. The

bill was referred to the Finance Committee

of the Senate on May 11.

Gov. Tom Corbett’s 2011-2012 budget

proposal cut more than $1.5 billion from

the pubic education sector, underscoring

the grim career prospects confronting

education majors in Pennsylvania.

Critics of the budget have focused

much of their attention on cuts to higher

education and the possibility of rising

tuition at Pennsylvania’s public colleges

and universities. Last year’s budget cuts

inspired student rallies and protests, and

in anticipation of Corbett’s 2012-2013

budget proposal, students from several

universities, including Penn State,

protested on the steps of the Capitol

Rotunda in Harrisburg on Jan. 31.

Within that population is a group of stu-

dents facing a particular set of concerns:

education majors.

As school districts face budget con-

straints, education majors anticipate

entering a field with very few jobs to

offer.

“The job field for teachers is not prom-

ising,” said Ron Cowell, president of

Pennsylvania’s Education Policy and

Leadership Center (EPLC).

Sebastian Castaño, an undergraduate

pursuing a degree in secondary math edu-

cation at Penn State, said that the lay-offs

in the Allentown District, where he went

to high school, worry him.

“When I was younger and wanted to be

a teacher, I was told of the job security in

education,” he said. “Now, I see how

many teachers in my own school district

lose their jobs, and it makes me unsure.”

Last June, a total of 265 Allentown

teachers received layoff notices. This was

an 18 percent cut from the school dis-

trict’s teaching staff at the time.

“In respect to the Corbett cuts, who

knows how many more positions from

Allentown will be cut in the next year,”

Castaño said.

A number of teachers from the State

College Area School District also

received layoff notices in the wake of last

year’s cuts. Last June, 21 employees of

the school district lost their positions.

These layoffs were part of a fiscal plan to

bridge a multi-million-dollar budget gap.

Though the number of layoffs varies

depending on the school district, educa-

tion layoffs are occurring throughout the

state.

According to PAreap.net, a

Pennsylvania school applications net-

work through which school employers

can advertise jobs, 147 available teaching

positions were posted between September

2011 and April 2012.

The schools participating in this service

have higher demands for teachers of cer-

tain over others. Of the available posi-

tions, about 18 percent were science-

related teaching positions, about 15 per-

cent were special education positions, and

about 10 percent were math-related posi-

tions.

3July / August 2012

Education majors face grim job prospectsby Kenneth Bui

see Education, pg. 6

“The job field for teachersis not promising.”

Ron Cowell, Education Policy and

Leadership Center

HB 2150 may decrease state tax revenuesby Kristen Jakubowski

“The idea behind HB 2150 isto close the so-called‘Delaware Loophole’ and touse the increased revenuesgenerated from the closure ofthis ‘loophole’ to provide busi-ness tax reform.”

Rep. Bernie O’Neill

Due to recent accidents between water-

fowl and aircrafts at University Park

Airport, measures have been taken to

decrease the population of waterfowl in

the area.

The Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) Wildlife Strike Database dates the

first incident at University Park Airport

between an “Unknown bird – small” and a

SAAB-340 aircraft to 1999. In that inci-

dent, no damages were sustained. A few

incidents occurred in 2000, 2002, 2006

and 2009.

Recently, there has been an increase:

three accidents in 2010, five accidents in

2011 and two in April of 2012.

The most serious of all of these acci-

dents was between a mallard and Eclipse

500, a small private jet. The plane sus-

tained approximately $45,000 of damage.

The remarks included in the report issued

by the FAA Wildlife Strike Database note

the strike involved two to ten medium

sized mallards.

The recent accidents triggered the need

to conduct a wildlife assessment for the

University Park Airport as mandated

through the FAA.

“We ended up hiring the USDA and they

worked closely with the FAA,” said Bryan

Rodgers, University Park Airport director.

“They did this assessment over a twelve to

eighteen month period where they came

in…conducting surveys, monitoring

wildlife activity. They had various survey

points around the airport that they went out

to on regular scheduled intervals both day

and night outside the airport.”

The study was conducted on the five-

mile radius of land surrounding the airport.

Survey points included the fish hatchery at

Pleasant Gap, the wetlands surrounding

Beaver Stadium, ponds and farms along

Route 550, the agricultural fields around

the airport that are owned by Penn State

and the East College Avenue pond.

After the assessment was completed, the

FAA mandated the University Park Airport

have a wildlife hazard management plan.

Potential solutions proposed for the area

directly around the airport were published

in the January 2012 Airport Newsletter.

Solutions include “maintaining a better

and more consistent recommended grass

height, which makes the area less attrac-

tive to many bird species” as well as other

actions.

Despite articles about the proposed solu-

tions published in the Centre Daily Times

and Penn State Newswire, people living

around the area do not feel like they

received enough notification of the new

plan.

The wildlife hazard management plan at

the East College Avenue pond was to put

up the warning signs requesting visitors

not to feed the waterfowl, followed shortly

after by the installation of gates to deter

members of the community from coming

to the pond to feed the birds.

But Jason and Naomi Smith, who live

with their children in a house next to the

pond, didn’t know why the FAA and

USDA were imposing such measures.

“There was no name [neither the FAA or

USDA were named on the signs], just

‘don’t feed the waterfowl.’ No indication

who put these up or for what reason. I

think we just felt like we were in the dark.”

Due to the frequent visits made by mem-

bers of the community to feed the ducks


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Photo by Jason SmithNaomi Smith with her daughter Gloria and son Reuben visit the East College Avenue duck pond. TheSmiths fed the ducks there until recently.

Say You’re One of Them: The Less-

Intelligent-than-Average American Guide

to Being Corporate.

Statistics show that the average

American spends roughly 62 hours a week

on help lines attempting to clear up corpo-

rate misconceptions. About 1 in 600,000

calls succeed.

Statistics aside, my cousin Marvin had a

rough week. Have you met Marvin? He is

shaped liked a fire hydrant, with much the

same range of motion and grace. But he is

kind, slow to anger and uncomfortably

honest.

Marvin’s 87 year old mother-in-law

hired a Van line to move her belongings

here from Florida. She was told the truck

would arrive in three to four days and

wisely planned for 10. It’s been two weeks

and, sadly, no one seems to know where

her truck is. In the interim, she is living

with Marvin and his wife, has run out of

meds, and practices the flugelhorn for 6

hours a day.

If you navigate the Van line’s phone sys-

tem, you eventually meet a charming

young person, Marcie, who promises to

call you back. She doesn’t. Right now, we

are waiting for a call from Marcie. She

apparently sits out on the median divider

of Route 95, just north of Richmond, and

watches the trucks go by. She’ll call when

she spots ours.

Marvin’s health insurance company

pays a recovery firm to find out if anyone

can be held liable for his health care

expenses. They asked Marvin to call so

they could gather additional information

about his recent back surgery. He called

and had a laugh with a nice young woman

named Marcie about their mistake. Marvin

didn’t have back surgery, he had cataract

surgery. Marcie promised to change his

records. She didn’t.

Yesterday, Marvin got a strongly worded

letter accusing him of not responding to

their request. They smell fraud and are

coming down on him like a load of bricks.

His lawyer feels that only by having the

back surgery will Marvin’s life ever be

bearable again.

When Marvin’s mother died this

February, he kept their joint account open

for a few months, as he is a good citizen

and very naive. Since there are no bank

branches near State College, he left with a

phone number to call to cancel the

account. He checked in April to verify all

the automatic payments had been stopped

and called to close the account in

May. Stay with us here, it’s complicated.

Their phone rep, Marcie, told him he

couldn’t cancel an account with a balance

($40.12) over the phone. Simple enough—

he sent a letter asking to close the

account. When Marcie didn’t respond in

10 days, he called and was told that the let-

ter must be notarized. Cleverly, he took

$40.12 out of the account to get to a zero

balance. Game over!

Unfortunately, that was the very day the

power company made an unauthorized

automated transfer from the account.

Counting the fee, he was overdrawn

$70.37. So Marvin sent a notarized letter

and a certified check for $70.37, only to be

told he actually owed $68.37. And with a

balance of $2, they couldn’t close the

account. Marvin raced to the bank to cash

a check for $2, but unfortunately, the

account didn’t have an adequate balance

for May. That fee was $20 and the account

balance is currently -$18.00. Marcie tells

him that real bank officers might be able to

help, but they are all in Monaco playing

Texas-hold-em with pension funds.

With no way out, Marvin did what any

rational person would do. He called the

insurance recovery firm and told them that

he had ruined his back dodging a brakeless

Allied Van Line truck, tripped over an

unmarked bicycle rack outside a Wells

Fargo Bank and went head first through

their plate glass window. “Let them work it

out,” he told me with an evil grin.

Why suffer as a person any longer? The

Supreme Court has declared that, for all

practical purposes, corporations are peo-

ple. And that is the reason, we at

Stevieslaw are proud to publish “Say

You’re One of Them: The LAGuide to

becoming a Corporation.

In the guide, you will not only be taken

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remarkable benefits you can receive as a

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see LAG, pg. 6


On the other hand, English, history, for-

eign language and music made up about 9

percent, 6 percent, 6 percent and 5 per-

cent respectively. About 20 percent of the

available postings were for Elementary

K-6 or general classroom instruction

positions.

According to Penn State’s College of

Education website, there are 2,532 under-

graduate students pursuing education

degrees at its 20 campuses, including

University Park. Many of these students

may not be able to find teaching work in

Pennsylvania.

Education majors realize that the com-

petition for positions is further complicat-

ed by the reduction in spending for teach-

ing positions.

Lauren Johnson, a Penn State

Elementary and Special Education Major,

graduated with her teaching degree this

May.

“It’s hard because older teachers stick

around because they can,” Johnson said.

“All of us leaving school have no jobs.”

Johnson also said “about 400-700

resumes are looked at for one teaching

position” and that it’s “hard to be patient

as an education major.”

In light of this, Johnson has made sure

to build her resume and take classes for

her Master’s Degree in Education.

She said that she built her resume with

credentials like summer jobs related to

the field, being in a sorority, volunteering,

and being a Resident Assistant and

Teaching Assistant for Math Class.

Due to the competition for scarce

teaching positions, out-of-state positions

may be the only choice for some

Pennsylvania education majors.

“Current education majors will have to

start looking at teaching options outside

of the state,” said Lawrence Wess, the

executive director of the Pennsylvania

School Study Council.

Cowell says that Pennsylvania has been

a major exporter of teachers for the last

twenty years.

“I’ve never thought about teaching out

of state because I always had the idea that

I could easily choose to stay in

Pennsylvania and teach,” said Castaño.

Fortunately for Kate Skowronski, a

newly certified Pennsylvania teacher,

her qualifications were enough to land

her a teaching position at Ridley High

School in Folsom, Pa. last January.

Skowronski graduated in 2010 from

Bloomsburg University and completed

her Master of Education in 2011, also at

Bloomsburg.

“I definitely wanted to stay in

Pennsylvania to teach,” she said. “I can’t

even guess how many positions I applied

for…over 100.”

Skowronski said she finally applied for

a position on the Ridley district’s website,

which first led her to an interview with

the Director of Human Resources, then a

second interview with three principals

and the English Department head. She

was runner-up for the position but was

then offered the job after the first-pick

applicant changed her mind.

She explained that to build a strong

resume as an undergraduate, she “made

sure any activity [she] did was somehow

related to children or young adults or edu-

cation.”

Her activities included teaching Sunday

school, being a nanny, tutoring, part time

substituting and getting involved at mid-

dle schools.

“I wanted to show my potential

employers how passionate I feel about

children and young adults and working

with them,” Skowronski said.

As a money saving measure, Corbett

has also suggested mandate reliefs, which

would reduce school district requirements

for professional development, certifica-

tions, workshops and training of current

teachers and school staff.

Wess said the budget cuts and mandate

reliefs discourage the best and brightest in

the field of education from pursuing the

career, even those considering education

majors who are still in high school.

“Instead of teacher training that is

required within five years, it would be

like that same training required within

eight years,” Wess said of the potential

mandate reductions.

To educators, actions like these send a

different message.

“It shows that the state doesn’t under-

stand how the education system works,”

said R.J. Beck, a fifth semester Music

Education Major. “The education of those

who educate is, in some respects, just as

important as the education that we pro-

vide to our students.”

Beck said he was offended at the news

of the mandate relief proposal on profes-

sional development.

“They have to understand that you get

out is what you put in,” said Beck. “How

can we put a dollar sign on our children’s

education and future?”

Emily Horvath, a Penn State under-

graduate pursuing a degree in secondary

education, said she took Corbett’s propos-

al personally.

“The state is leaving me with the

impression that they don’t care about the

future of education, teachers and current

students,” she said.

Photo by Kenneth BuiEmily Horvath, Undergraduate-Secondary education, cannot be sure she will land a job in her field,despite her attention to her academic work.

from Education, pg. 3

corpperson. For example, imagine your

fun when you start your own automated

phone system, using the voice of the tod-

dler next door with the adorable speech

defect and that of your neighbor down the

street who only speaks Swahili.

You will get to answer informative let-

ters with automated responses asking for

the very information you have just

received and to offer free gifts for an

expensive membership in a trial program

that can be cancelled at any time with only

a notarized letter from the Chief Justice of

the Supreme Court.

Picture yourself joyfully sending auto-

mated phone messages to random numbers

to tell strangers that their passwords have

expired and they must call mumble, mum-

ble, mumble, immediately to preserve their

credit rating. With practice, you can be as

inept and annoying as Verizon.

Become part of the problem. It’s all in

this month’s guide! And if it isn’t, just call

833-456-305 and ask for Marcie. If she

can’t help you, no one can.

from LAG, pg. 6

7July / August 2012

and geese, the birds have become accus-

tomed to accepting handouts from

humans.

When the signs and gate first appeared,

the Smiths hypothesized that they were

installed for the sake of Penn State Office

of the Physical Plant workers who were

often approached by the birds while they

were working.

“The duck pond was one of those [loca-

tions] where they get big concentrations of

waterfowl, and one of the issues is feeding

them,” explained Margaret Brittingham,

Penn State Professor of Wildlife

Resources. “Because then they’ll get the

mallards and the Canada geese to stick

around.”

The public can assist accident preven-

tion efforts by not feeding the birds,

though they are still welcome to visit the

pond and enjoy the scenery and wildlife.

Some residents feel informing the public

may increase cooperation.

“With a little bit of education, they

would have found more cooperation

among the public,” said Smith.

Smith suggested providing another sign

with an explanation of the problem.

“I think people could respect that more

than ‘don’t do this,’ ” said Naomi Smith.

The goal of the wildlife hazard man-

agement plan is not to hurt or dramatical-

ly disrupt the bird population.

“We think over the course of a number

of years, we’ll be able to stabilize the

population and make it a less attractive

place for the ducks,” said airport director

Bryan Rodgers.

Professor Brittingham believes the goal

would be to get the birds to reside else-

where around State College.

“There are lots of other ponds… so

they would just be more spread out across

the area,” explained Brittingham. “And I

think that’s the ultimate goal.”

Brittingham separates State College

geese into two different categories. First

are the resident geese that are causing the

problems with the airport. The second are

migrants that live and nest in the green

spaces surrounding State College.

A final step to get the waterfowl popu-

lation under control is to oil the eggs that

the birds have recently nested. Oiling is

the process of coating the eggs in corn oil

in order to stop carbon dioxide leaving

and oxygen entering the egg.

Subsequently, the embryo would suffo-

cate but the nesting parent would be

unaware and continue to incubate.

“They do that instead of destroying a

nest, [because] the birds would re-nest.

So what this does is, the birds think

they’re nesting…they’ll keep incubating

the eggs but you won’t get anymore

nestlings.”

After the nesting season is over, the

eggs would be removed to prevent the

birds from remaining in the area to wait

for eggs to hatch.

“This is a pretty humane way of doing

it compared to other ways,” said

Brittingham.

Airport director Rodgers also supported

the egg oiling plan, stating that the USDA

is utilizing the least invasive or severe

interventions.

Besides the April 2012 mallard inci-

dent, the FAA Wildlife Strike Database

does not note any other crash causing

damage.

from Waterfowl, pg. 4

Over the last six months, a group of com-

munity members has been developing a

plan to bring a food cooperative to State

College.

Food cooperatives, or co-ops, are mem-

ber-owned grocery stores that serve as

alternatives to larger chains and typically

offer local, organic and alternative prod-

ucts.

Operating under the motto “food you can

trust,” the Friends & Farmers

Cooperative’s mission is to be an inviting

community grocery store committed to

showcasing the best local products in sup-

port of a strong local economy.

Those organizing the co-op want it to

become a one-stop shop, providing every-

thing a family needs. It will offer locally

grown and prepared foods as well as fair

trade and organic bulk items.

According to organizers, local producers

will be given priority on store shelves.

Moreover, the co-op will use labeling and

shelving intended to inspire healthy eat-

ing—not, as is common in many grocery

stores, to draw the attention of children to

sugary treats.

“The cooperative hopes to offer a whole

food experience—a place where you can

get to know your local farms and farmers,

take cooking classes, help stock shelves,

more fully connect to the food that sustains

you,” explained Sarah Potter, a local food

advocate, educator and leader of the

Friends & Farmers steering committee.

Potter said she loves food and that she

wants to help others in this community see

the value in good food.

“I like feeling connected to the food I

eat... knowing the story of who raised and

tended the food and how has it come to my

home,” she said.

Driving members of the co-op’s steering

committee, Elizabeth Crisfield, and her

husband, Doug Henry, said they have spent

years talking about how they could open a

grocery store focused on local food.

“We dreamt big and small, but nothing

seemed possible,” said Crisfield. That was

until the couple joined forces with a group

of community members who wanted the

same thing.

“This is the power of the co-op,”

explained Crisfield. “A lot more is possible

when a whole community chips in and

makes it their own.”

The discussion about opening a food

cooperative got underway at a potluck din-

ner hosted by the Spring Creek

Homesteading Fund, a nonprofit focused

on local self-sufficiency, last November.

Over 100 people attended. When attendees

were asked to share a few ideas about what

Centre County “foodies” could do to

strengthen the local food system, starting a

co-op proved to be a popular notion.

“A bunch of the people interested in co-

ops met each other that night—or if they

knew each other already, got to know each

other better,” said Katherine Watt, a com-

munity organizer and founder of the Spring

Creek Homesteading Fund.

After the potluck, Watt reached out to

Sarah Potter and Daryl Sinn, a past mem-

ber of the Our Store Food Co-op which

In late May, Mary Watson, the newest

grower for the State College Area Food

Bank, stood proudly over herbs no bigger

than a thumbnail, and said, “These are

like my babies.”

This spring, Watson joined a group that

grows and donates fresh produce to the

State College Area Food Bank.

When Watson went to visit her daugh-

ter in Long Island last Christmas, she met

a man who grows and donates food to his

local food bank. Watson, a Chicago

native, decided to implement the idea her-

self, despite a huge challenge: she didn’t

know the first thing about growing veg-

etables.

“I’ve never even started seeds before,”

she said.

Bill Zimmer, director of growers for the

State College Area Food Bank, assigned

Watson a mix including herbs and fruits

that are rare at the food bank, such as mel-

ons and concord grapes.

In her back yard, Watson has a 34- by

86-foot plot in which she plans to plant

melons. To the right of the plot, along a

curved stone walkway, Watson has eight

whiskey barrels and some smaller pots

filled with herbs like basil, rosemary,

lemongrass, chamomile and chives.

Watson said she has attended confer-

ences and read books to learn about farm-

ing. She’s also using the internet to find

organic fertilizers and ways to keep the

bugs off her plants, like using a liquid

soap to spray the plants, she said.

“Why start out a farming project in the

21st century and use chemicals? I’m not

going to do it,” Watson said.

Watson said one of the hardest parts

about farming and growing plants from

seeds is having patience.

“I’m a really, really impatient person,”

she explained, adding that once the

excitement of planting seeds was over,

she thought, “What?! You mean I have to

wait four weeks for these little things to

show up?”

But when she began to see results,

Watson said she was shocked.

“I didn’t have any confidence that I was

going to be able to do it right,” she said.

“I didn’t trust the seed.”

Zimmer, too, faced challenges when he

began growing for the State College Area

Food Bank five years ago, even though he

had some gardening experience.


Locals grow produce for food bankby Allison Robertson

Photo by Allison RobertsonBill Zimmer, director of growers for the State College Food Bank, stands in front of his potato plot.

see Food Bank, pg. 9

Food cooperative to come to Centre Countyby Carolyne Meehan

see Cooperative, pg. 10

When he and his wife first moved to

Centre Hall from Long Island, he expand-

ed his garden and took a few college

courses on horticulture. They soon decid-

ed to begin donating their extra produce

to the food bank.

In the beginning, he planted too many

potatoes to harvest himself by hand, he

said. He ended up buying farm equip-

ment to make it easier. Now Zimmer

also uses the help of volunteers that the

food bank sends him to help harvest his

crops.

The first year, Zimmer donated 100

pounds of produce. This year, he said he

expects to donate over four tons.

Zimmer said he worries about local

children going hungry.

“I don’t know how much peas and car-

rots the kids will eat, but at least I’ll do

my best to give it to them,” Zimmer said.

“If the parents can get their kids to eat it,

I’ll grow it.”

Zimmer said he also tries to grow kid-

friendly produce, like apples and straw-

berries. For Halloween, he is growing

small pumpkins for children to celebrate

the holiday.

Zimmer said he knows kids will love

the grapes and other fruits that Watson

will grow.

Since Zimmer began donating his extra

produce to the food bank, he has expand-

ed his plot from .25 to 1.5 acres, and this

year, he has an intern helping him. He

also directs seven other growers who

have followed his lead.

When someone wants to grow pro-

duce for the food bank, Zimmer surveys

his or her land and makes recommenda-

tions based on the land’s capabilities

and the food bank’s needs. Zimmer said

he also keeps in mind what the grower

wishes to grow, as long as it’s not com-

mon vegetables like peppers or toma-

toes.

Zimmer said this year, his intern will

monitor how much produce is used from

his growers and how much the food bank

can accommodate based on its refrigera-

tion capacity.

Ernest Boyd, operations manager at the

State College Area Food Bank, said that

the produce programs are greatly appreci-

ated.

“Our clients often say that fresh pro-

duce is the thing they want most but can

afford the least,” Boyd wrote in an email.

“They have to choose between an apple

and 3 boxes of mac and cheese, for exam-

ple.”

Another group of volunteers takes a

different route to providing food bank

clients with fresh produce.

Norm Knaub, who is one of Zimmer’s

growers and a master gardener, leads a

group of master gardeners that grow and

provide free plants for people who use the

food bank.

Every year, the master gardeners hold a

plant sale for the general public. Knaub

said that four years ago, the group decid-

ed that at the end of the sale they should

donate the plants to the food bank.

“We grow extra plants, so we know

there will be plants left over to distribute

at the food bank,” Knaub said.

For people in apartments who don’t

have garden plots readily available,

Knuab said the master gardeners use

compost donated from the university and

plant the vegetables in large pots.

This year, Knaub added parsley, onions

and cabbage to the variety of plants the

master gardeners donate.

For the last two years, about 57 people

from food bank used these plants, Knaub

said.

Zimmer has also started several initia-

tives to keep donated produce fresher

longer. He said he is developing a cold

cellar in a friend’s barn basement to

increase food storage and wants to freeze

some of the fresh food.

“The cold cellar is a big deal,” Zimmer

said. “We can supply [people in need] the

whole winter.”

With the cold cellar, Zimmer says he

can expand the production of different

crops and get more growers.

Freezing the vegetables will also great-

ly help the food bank because of the lim-

ited amount of refrigeration space, said

Zimmer. The first

crop Zimmer wants

to try is corn.

“The food bank has

a number of freezers

that from time to time

they need, and time to

time they don’t,”

Zimmer said.

“Sometimes they sit

there idle. If we could

stock them with

frozen corn, that

would be cool.”

The food bank is

trying to make

arrangements with

another nonprofit

organization to use a state-approved

kitchen to boil the corn and then freeze it

for the food bank, said Zimmer.

“If we can do it with corn, we can do it

with beans, tomatoes and applesauce,”

said Zimmer. “Sky’s the limit.”

9July / August 2012

from Food Bank, pg. 8

Photo by Allison RobertsonMary Watson said she learned to grow seeds in egg shells at a conference.

Spotlight: Boalsburg Farmers’Market cooking demonstrations


operated in State College between 1975

and 1981, to further the conversation in a

January meeting.

At this time, a group of students from

Penn State’s Community, Environment and

Development class, led by student Greta

Righter, got on board and designed a sur-

vey to measure community support.

Survey data showed that State College

consumers prioritize local and organic

foods in their buying choices. Data also

showed that most individuals are willing to

pay membership fees in the amount of

$100 to $200 or more.

“Right now our primary goals are build-

ing capital and membership,” said Potter.

Under her leadership, the steering com-

mittee has broken into membership and

legal/financial committees. According to

Potter, there is a store logo in the works and

bylaws in the process of being written.

“The steering committee has a great mix

of people with different experiences with

food and food business, but there is room

for more,” said Crisfield. “In particular we

keep hoping someone with law or finance

experience will be inspired about the possi-

bility of a food co-op and join us.”

There are nearly 300 food co-ops nation-

wide. The organizers have been in commu-

nication with other food co-ops around the

country, researching start-up strategies,

operations and membership processes.

“We hope to be ready to accept member-

ship applications in early 2013,” said

Elizabeth Crisfield.

For more information about membership

or how to help, please send an email to

[email protected].

from Cooperative, pg. 8

Photos by Tina GrashaAt a Chef’s Kitchen demonstration on June 20 Chef Mark Johnson cut brined pork for patrons (top left),market goers sampled food (top right), and chef Grace Pilato prepared four pesto recipes (bottom).

One of the primary challenges I face as

a health care provider is helping people

overcome their misunderstanding that

taking care of themselves is a selfish act

and is somehow wrong.

This perception is deeply ingrained in

many cultures—national, familial and

religious—and as with any other value or

belief, it can be challenging to reeducate

ourselves into a healthier and more free-

ing view.

There are practical arguments for tak-

ing care of yourself in terms of the ener-

getic, financial and service costs of not

doing so—as if we should need an argu-

ment to allow us permission to feel good.

In service to better balance, better

health, being happier and feeling well it is

important to take time for honest self-

inquiry about how much you value your

health and how you take care of you (or

don’t).

I have noted over time that a few reli-

gious traditions in particular focus on

guilt, especially around time taken for

one’s self, and certainly many families

pass this unfortunate learning down from

generation to generation. This is also a

prevalent cultural pattern, evident in how

we work, how we parent, how we take

care of others.

We have all had the experience of giv-

ing too much, finding ourselves exhaust-

ed, catching ourselves expressing resent-

ment for the boss or the kids or whomev-

er, when in fact much of that upset is

probably frustration with ourselves for

not speaking up or making time for us,

upset we then project on the other.

One of the most amazing examples I

have seen in practice was a newspaper

employee who came to my practice sever-

al years ago, unable to straighten her low

back past 90 degrees, facing the floor as

she walked. After several visits she was

only 15 degrees from vertical and rated

her pain at 4/10 instead of 10/10. She

informed me she was done with care

because she felt she could return to work.

I fell silent, unsure how to offer the idea

that she could hope for more than the bare

minimum, that she could allow herself to

feel well because she (not just her

employers) deserved it. At this point in

my career, I didn’t know how to offer this

idea in a way that wouldn’t intrude on her

values.

This is an extreme example, but we all

make the same choice all the time, for dif-

ferent reasons and to differing degrees.

Most of us hold, somewhere in the back

of our mind, the belief that it’s not that big

of a deal, that we don’t really deserve to

take the time to relax or address a prob-

lem, that someone else in our sphere is

more important or has it worse off, that

we’re just whining.

When we do this, we set the stage for

stress, for illness, for serious health chal-

lenges (mental, emotional or physical),

and strangely we reinforce the idea that

we aren’t as important as others while

cultivating our resentment towards them

and ourselves.

It is hard to find a logical reason not to

take care of yourself. Even those religions

that seem inclined to promote guilt have

direction to do the opposite: all the major

world’s religions have, somewhere in

their doctrine, the directive to “Take care

of yourself first so that you have the inner

resources to take care of others,” and this

idea is the essence of all “self-help” liter-

ature.

If you are preoccupied mentally, let

alone stressed or exhausted, you cannot

be effective in your work, you will not lis-

ten well to those you need to hear at work

or home and you cannot be present in the

moment or plan well for the next. You

miss your life.

If you are not relaxing enough to keep

your emotional self in balance, you’ll suf-

fer constant distraction, you will lash out

at innocent bystanders or the ones closest

to you who are trying to support you, and

you will feel drained of anything resem-

bling enthusi-

asm. A lack of

physical self-

care leads to

lousy sleep,

f u r t h e r i n g

e x h a u s t i o n

and to a sim-

ple lack of

r e s o u r c e s ,

whether good

nutrients or

exercise-driv-

en biochemistry.

Disease is the eventual result. In the

short term, dysfunction causes parts of

the body to compensate for others, driv-

ing your beautifully integrated systems

into the ground. Of course, these levels

are all interrelated: mental exhaustion

leads to emotional instability, which caus-

es toxic biochemistry and so on.

So taking time to nurture yourself phys-

ically, mentally, emotionally and spiritu-

ally is not only pragmatic in terms of your

energy levels, your effectiveness at work

and home, your relationships and eventu-

ally your health-care dollars—it empow-

ers you to benefit others.

In asking yourself what your patterns

around self-care are, you also have a pro-

found opportunity to uncover and change

any misunderstandings about your good-

ness or worthiness or about what it means

to feel good. If this feels like too big a

stretch at first, you can start by realizing

you’ll be a better member of your com-

munity.

Every patient I have seen serving as pri-

mary caregiver to a partner or parent going

through cancer, Alzheimer’s or dementia

has at some point had an epiphany that

they weren’t able to serve non-stop with-

out making time for themselves. Each has

eventually created time through friends,

family or nursing agencies to have a few

hours weekly to go do restful, rejuvenating

things for themselves.

I hope for you that you will allow your-

self this epiphany before someone around

you is in crisis—simply because you

deserve to feel good.

Be well.

11July / August 2012

ClearWater works to restore waterways

Learn more, get involved and pitch in.www.clearwaterconservancy.com

Self-care isn’t selfishby Matthew Hertert

Health Talk

Most of us hold, somewherein the back of our mind, thebelief that it’s not that bigof a deal, that we don’t real-ly deserve to take the timeto relax or address a prob-lem, that someone else inour sphere is more impor-tant or has it worse off, thatwe’re just whining.

That pound of hamburger you bought for

the Fourth of July barbeque cost you about

nine percent more than it would have last

year. That cereal you ate for breakfast cost

you nearly four percent more than its 2011

counterpart. And the milk you poured on it?

You paid several dimes more for that gallon

than you would have a year ago.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture

(USDA) reported in June that general food

prices rose 2.8 percent from May 2011 to

May 2012.

The inflated price of food could easily

tempt consumers, wearied by more than

four years of economic recession, to com-

plain about how hard putting food on the

table has become. But in reality, Americans

are putting a smaller percentage of the

money they make toward food than ever

before, and they’re dedicating a smaller

portion of their incomes to food than any-

one else in the world.

In 1929, the year the stock market

crashed, the average American family

could put 19.3 percent of its disposable

income toward food to be consumed at

home. That figure had dropped to 15 per-

cent by 1960 and 10.4 percent in 1979.

In 2009 and 2010, Americans spent an

all-time low of 6.4 percent of their incomes

at the grocery store. That’s less than half

the portion of disposable income Italians,

Japanese and French dedicate to food—

14.7, 14.6 and 13.5 percent, respectively.

Each American pays an average of

$2,056 for food eaten at home every year.

However, our neighbors in Canada pay

$186 more per capita and spend 9.3 percent

of their incomes on food. British and

Australians pay $357 and $782 more per

capita per year, 9.1 and 11.1 percent of their

respective disposable incomes.

According to these USDA statistics,

Americans enjoy some of the cheapest

food in the developed world. However,

many researchers, activists and health

experts claim that the way Americans pro-

duce and consume food takes a heavy toll

on their environment and health, costs that

aren’t reflected in grocery store price tags.

The origins of cheap food

Brian Snyder, executive director of the

Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable

Agriculture, said America’s obsession with

cheap food has deep roots.

“It goes back to the original mindset we

had as settlers coming into this country,” he

said. “Food is integral to the idea of

Manifest Destiny. In the same way that we

would look at the geography as something

given to us by… divine intervention, we

also think of food as part of that deal and

that we don’t have to do much to preserve

the sources of that food.”

But the kind of farming the colonists

practiced, when 95 percent of Americans

were farmers, is drastically different from

the agricultural model that produces

today’s low-cost food.

The most drastic series of changes in

American agriculture began with the 1930s

Agricultural Adjustment Acts (AAAs),

which created supply controls and price

supports for crops, as well as crop insur-

ance and income supports for farmers.

The AAA of 1949, the foundation of

America’s current agricultural policy,

established commodity subsidies—supple-

mental payments to farmers for specific

crops—which have been reauthorized by

Congress about every five years since then.

Farm subsidies dipped to their all-time

low in 1974, when the $9.2 billion paid out

to farmers comprised only 2 percent of

total farm income, according to The

Washington Post. They hit their all-time

high of $25.7 billion in 2000, making up 47

percent of farm income that year.

In the past decade, direct payments

(based on a farmer’s historical planting pat-

terns on fixed acreage), countercyclical

payments (based on market prices of

crops), conservation payments (which pay

farmers not to cultivate land) and other sub-

sidies (such as the tobacco buyout pro-

gram), have ranged from just over $12 bil-

lion to more than $24 billion per year.

While the U.S. government has remained

steadfast in its commitment to assisting

farms, the recipients of that assistance have

drastically changed.

In 1940, nearly a quarter of the country’s

population lived on small family farms.

Today, fewer than two percent of

Americans identify as farmers.

Of the approximately 2.1 million farms

in America, only 37 percent received gov-

ernment payments in 2009, according to

the USDA. Most of them were large-scale

farms producing wheat, rice, corn, soy-

beans or cotton.

That year, commercial farms (with gross

annual sales of more than $250,000)

received 74 percent of $6.1 billion in com-

modity payments. On average, each of

these farms received $789,000.


Dependence on cheap food proves costlyby Lucy Bryan Green

Graphic by Lucy Bryan GreenThe food expenditure data above was compiled by the USDA’s Economic Research Service in 2011. Thehealth information was provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD). The OECD’s data comes from 2009 or the nearest available year.

Country Share of disposable income spent on food at home

Expenditure per capita on food (in US dollars)

Percent of population overweight / obese

Health care expenditure per capita (in US dollars)

Life Expec-tancy

South Korea 15.3% $1,541 31% / 4% $1,879 83.8

Italy 14.7% $3,376 46% / 10% $3,137 84.5

Japan 14.6% $3,147 24% / 3% N/A 86.4

France 13.5% $3,469 35% / 11% $3,978 84.4

Norway 13.4% $4,603 46% / 10% $5,352 83.2

Germany 11.4% $2,710 52% / 16% $4,218 82.8

Australia 10.6% $2,956 61% / 25% N/A 83.9

Switzerland 10.3% $3,758 37% / 8% $5,144 84.6

Canada 9.3% $2,242 60% / 24% $4,363 83

United Kingdom

9.1% $2,413 61% / 25% $3,487 82.5

United States of America

6.4% $2,056 68% / 34% $7,960 80.6

see Cheap Food, pg. 15

The Cerulean Warbler is one of the most

sought-after neotropical migrants for bird-

watchers. If you have ever been fortunate

enough to see one, you will readily testify

to their undeniable beauty.

Ceruleans are about four inches in length

and weigh in at .3 ounces. Males are a deep

sky blue on their upperparts. The throat is

white and adorned with a thin black neck-

lace. The breast and belly are also white

with course black streaks on their flanks.

Each wing sports two prominent white

wingbars. Females are muted, greenish ver-

sions of the male.

Ceruleans arrive on their breeding

grounds in late April or early May. The

breeding range extends from the upper

Great Lakes region, east to southern

Ontario and New England, and south to

Louisiana and Georgia.

Although their range appears broad, the

majority of Ceruleans are concentrated in

the Appalachian region from Pennsylvania

down through West Virginia and Kentucky.

In this region, their preferred habitat con-

sists of large tracts of deciduous forest

along ridges. The warblers will also use

interior bottomland forest.

Nests are built on lateral tree limbs that

are situated high in the canopy. The female

typically lays 3-4 eggs. Both parents are

involved in feeding the young. Their diet

consists primarily of insects which are

gleaned from foliage.

By August, Ceruleans begin to make

their way south to the tropical forests of the

Andes Mountains in Central America and

northern South America. They are some-

what of a habitat specialist on the wintering

grounds as well, where they require

broadleaf forests along cool mid-elevation

slopes with moderate rainfall.

Ceruleans’ narrow habit requirements

have left them less than flexible in adapting

to environmental changes. As a result, their

population has fallen at a rate of about 3 to

4 percent a year over the past 50 years.

While that may not seem like a large num-

ber, it translates to a 50 percent reduction in

population every 20 years. Since the mid-

60s, the population has declined 70 per-

cent. That is staggering!

The primary factor in their decline is

habitat loss of breeding and wintering

grounds. For the breeding grounds, the

most devastating contributor to habitat loss

is mountaintop removal coal mining. This

practice not only removes the trees in

which the warblers nest and forage, but it

also removes the entire ridge, leaving a bar-

ren rock landscape in its place.

Adding insult to injury, leftover debris

from the removal process makes it way

down the slopes and fills in the bottomland

forest valleys. From 1992 through 2012, it

is estimated that close to .7 million acres of

forest will be lost to mountaintop removal.

Their wintering grounds have been nega-

tively affected by clear-cutting of forests

for agriculture. As it turns out, in addition

to being attractive warbler habitat, these

areas are also suitable for growing coffee—

the major cash crop in the region.

Traditionally, coffee was grown as an

understory plant. In an effort to boost pro-

duction and facilitate harvesting, many

farmers converted their farms to open sun

plantations. As a result, over 60 percent of

the warbler’s habitat has been lost.

In an effort to preserve and restore criti-

cal winter habitat for birds, groups such as

the American Birds Conservancy and

ProAves Columbia have teamed up to

establish bird reserves. They are also work-

ing to educate local farmers about the con-

nection between birds and farming prac-

tices. Funding to establish and maintain

these reserves comes in part through the

sale of shade-grown coffees.

That is where you come in. You can play

your part to save critical habit, not only for

Cerulean, but for other birds such as Olive-

side Flycatchers, Golden-winged Warblers

and Baltimore Orioles.

When it comes to coffee, pay the extra

buck at the store to buy shade-grown vari-

eties. If you can’t find it at the market, you

can buy it online from companies such as

Thanksgiving Coffee or Birds & Beans

Coffee. You can even request shade-grown

at your local cafe.

When it comes to coal mining, write

your representatives and demand an end to

mountaintop removal. You can also cut

back on your energy usage at home by

turning out unused lights and switching to

more energy-efficient appliances.

If you want to see a Cerulean Warbler,

you are in luck. They breed can be spotted

locally along the ridges between S. Eagle

Valley Road and Black Moshannon.

Because the Cerulean is a canopy-dweller,

it can sometimes be hard to find; however,

if you learn their song, it will make the

search much easier. The song consists of a

series of buzzy notes that ends with a high-

pitched trill. Once you hear the song, keep

your eyes on the canopy and look for

movement. Warblers have a lot of nervous

energy and won’t sit still for long.

Questions or Comments? Joe Verica canbe reached at [email protected].


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Supporting Local Youth Activities

Trouble brewing for Cerulean Warblersby Joe Verica

Photo courtesy of a Creative Commons LicenseCerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea).

Thirteen years ago, Centre County

developer Mark Maloney bought a tract

of land off of Route 550 to preserve a his-

toric farm. The place inspired him with a

vision for a sustainable community where

people from all walks of life could live in

connection with the land, the food they

eat and each other.

“I didn’t have [the idea for a communi-

ty] before I bought the land,” Maloney

said. “It was...seeing this beautiful old

farm and figuring out, how can I preserve

it?”

Today, that initial purchase has expand-

ed to encompass 653 continuous acres in

Patton and Halfmoon townships, which

include forests, farmland and several

houses. The property also serves as home

to Greenmoore Gardens, a 13-acre organ-

ic farm that provides 160 weekly veg-

etable “shares” to Centre County resi-

dents through Community Supported

Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions. It has

been in operation since 2007.

Greenmoore Gardens has a community

kitchen for shareholder potlucks and a

barn converted into a movie theatre. It has

tent platforms, nestled in the woods,

where temporary farm workers and agro-

tourists can camp on the property. It hosts

farming and nature camps for children. It

recently added a medicinal herb garden

and a solar heated greenhouse.

But Maloney, owner of Halfmoon

Land Company, said this is only the

beginning. He has developed a plan for

Greenmoore Village, poised to become

the first Green Certified Community in

Pennsylvania, said Dan Wise of the

National Association of Home Builders

(NAHB).

Greenmoore Village will be designed

around three themes: sustainable tech-

nologies, CSA and traditional neighbor-

hood design, said Maloney.

According to current designs for the

development, there will be 286 acres of

residential space strategically planned

around agricultural and civic spaces,

including stores and a charter school. The

community will also contain an orchard, a

recreational lake and 91 acres of wild

space with nature trails.

Maloney is waiting for the approval of

a waste-water recycling plant for benefi-

cial reuse. In the long term, he said he

wants to set up a solar farm to help

power the community’s heat and elec-

tricity.

“We think we can do this entire devel-

opment without fossil fuels,” Maloney

said. “That will be a precedent-setting

example.”

Maloney also hopes to involve the

community in the farming at Greenmoore

Gardens.

“That’s what’s in their front yard,”

Maloney said. “They’re going to want to

look at it and make sure it stays nice.

That’s the synergy that we’re creating

between the built community around the

farm and the farm itself.”

Maloney said his traditional neighbor-

hood design is based on older designs

where the buildings were closer together

and everything was within walking dis-

tance.

“A majority of the population could

walk to this little town center,” said

Maloney.

There, residents will find businesses

featuring products from Greenmoore

Gardens as well as other local products,

like dairy and meat.

This design allows for a wider spec-

trum of housing types with more afford-

able housing, said Maloney. Not only will

this community include larger, single

family homes, but also townhouses, con-

dominiums and apartments.

Currently, there are four large, single-


Graphic provided by Mark MaloneyAccording tho the National Association of Home Builders, Greenmoore Village could become the first Green Certified Community in Pennsylvania.

Green community planned for Centre Countyby Allison Robertson

see Greenmoore, pg. 15

“Real-estate projects that areoffering more than just a lotwhere you can build a house...are going to lead the marketout of the real-estate reces-sion that we’re in.”

Mark Maloney

Brian Snyder described farm subsidies as

“corporate welfare”—a far cry from the

agricultural safety net they were originally

intended to be.

“What you’re really doing is paying larg-

er farms to raise some raw material at less

than cost in order that the food processing

industry can get it cheaply,” Snyder said,

adding that they “create market distortion.”

Many economists also criticize farm sub-

sidies, including Daniel Sumner, author of

“Freakonomics” and director of the

University of California Agricultural Issues

Center.

Sumner wrote that there is no economic

rationale for continuing subsidy programs

and the only reason they continue is “Farm

commodity programs are an established

part of the American agricultural landscape

and have strong support from program ben-

eficiaries.”

Mark Maloney, founder of Greenmoore

Gardens, a small-scale, organic produce

farm in Patton Township, said subsidies

play a direct role in keeping America’s

food cheap.

“Our tax dollars are funding these subsi-

dies to these big farms so [they] can sell the

grains or the meats at a low price point, so

the food industry can deliver cheap food to

the public,” Maloney said. “If you factored

in the cost of those subsidies… our ‘cheap’

food would now be very expensive.”

Growing more with less effort

The rise of chemical technologies paral-

leled the evolution of farm subsidies,

which Maloney said has enabled farmers

“to grow more with less effort.”

In the years following World War II,

Agrochemical manufacturers like

Monsanto rose to prominence and began

distributing synthetic soil nutrients and

pesticides like DDT.

By 1996, farmers were treating nearly

100 percent of soybeans, 90 percent of

wheat and 83 percent of corn with herbi-

cides aimed at controlling weeds.

Farmers added nearly 20.6 million tons

of chemical fertilizers to the soil in 2001,

up from 7.5 million tons in 1960.

Today, the vast majority of corn, soy-

beans and cotton grown in the United

States has been genetically modified to

resist the application of the herbicide

Glyphosate, known as Roundup.

Dara Bloom, a doctoral candidate in

Penn State’s Rural Sociology program,

said the cheap food Americans enjoy today

is a result of agricultural practices and gov-

ernment policies aimed at increasing yields

“mostly through improved varieties and

synthetic fertilizers.”

“Our food system was designed so that

fewer people needed to farm, thus freeing

up labor for industry,” Bloom wrote in an

email. “[This] helped to drop the price of

food, which meant that factories could pay

lower wages to their workers.”

In essence, low food prices have enabled

a low wage economy, Bloom explained.

“This is the model that has been increas-

ingly criticized in the past couple of

decades,” Bloom wrote, “since it is argued

that there are many hidden costs that are

incurred by this system, such as environ-

mental damage from synthetic chemicals

or health problems associated with nutri-

tional changes, that aren’t reflected in the

price of the food that we eat.”

The environmental costs of producing

cheap food

James Eisenstein, a retired professor of

environmental politics at Penn State, said

the prices Americans are paying for food

don’t reflect its ecological costs.

American farmers are increasingly

reliant on agrichemicals, despite their long

history of harming the environment. The

negative effects pesticides and fertilizers

have on ecosystems are as varied as the

chemicals themselves.

Rachel Carson first brought the nation’s

attention to the detrimental effects of pesti-

cides on birds in her book “Silent Spring,”

which facilitated a ban on DDT in 1972.

More recently, the use of Roundup on

“Roundup Ready” crops has given rise to

herbicide resistant “super weeds.” In 2010,

family home lots, sized between 5 and 10

acres, that will soon be for sale.

Maloney said he had no choice but to

make the first lots very big because of

township regulations.

“These lots don’t really represent the

rest of the housing type because they’re

so large,” he said, adding that future lots

will average one third of an acre up to just

over an acre.

Maloney said several buyers have

expressed interest in the lots, which he

accredits to the community’s neighbor-

hood design, green homes and organic

farm. These features, he said, give him

an edge on the housing market.

“Real-estate projects that are offering

more than just a lot where you can build

a house... are going to lead the market out

of the real-estate recession that we’re in. I

really think consumers are looking for

something better,” said Maloney.

Maloney said the smaller housing lots

will be available within five to 10 years.

“This is a lot of years to plan and create

something like [Greenmoore Village],”

Maloney said, adding that typical devel-

opers never take that time.

Maloney said that though he’s a devel-

oper, he’s just as much of a farmer at

heart.

Dan Wise, NAHB Certified Green

Professional and an accredited verifier for

the International Code Council (ICC)

Green Standard, is helping guide this

project in achieving green standards. ICC

Green Standards are specifically tailored

for residential concepts.

The community as a whole and every

home in Greenmoore Village will be

graded on a one to four star scale, with

four stars being the most green, in cate-

gories, including selection of site, green

qualifications of team members, mission

statement and goals, site design, site

development and construction and inno-

vative practices.

“The preliminary analysis of

[Greenmoore Village] scores well above

the requirement for a community’s four

star rating,” Wise said.

However, some regulations, such as the

regulations involving the beneficial reuse

wastewater system, have slowed the

process of creating Greenmoore Village.

“The regulatory environment does not

embrace green community design,”

Maloney said.

But Maloney said he is collaborating

with the local and state government.

“When you’re blazing a trail with

something new, it’s going to take longer,”

said Maloney.


from Greenmore, pg. 14

from Cheap Food, pg. 12


Photo by Lucy Bryan GreenAssistant Farm Manager Stephanie Hertel and Farm Manager Sunil Patel tend vegetables atGreenmoore Gardens CSA Farm.


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the New York Times reported that ten

species of super weeds had shown up in 22

states. In May, Reuters reported that super

weeds had spread to 12 million acres of

farmland in the United States.

Several studies published this spring

have linked the use of pesticides to Colony

Collapse Disorder, the mysterious dying

off of honeybees first noticed by beekeep-

ers in 2006. Researchers found that certain

pesticides decrease growth rates, reduce the

number of queens in colonies and impair

bees’ abilities to return to their hives.

This continuing problem poses a major

threat to agriculture and the environment.

Thirty percent of crops worldwide and 90

percent of wild plants depend on honeybee

cross pollination according to the Natural

Resources Defense Council.

Fertilizers and pesticides also pollute the

air and water systems. Centre County is

part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed,

which encompasses 87,000 farm opera-

tions on 6.5 million acres of farmland

according to the Chesapeake Bay Program.

Chemical runoff from these farms has

caused fish kills, created no-oxygen “dead-

zones” and promoted the growth of danger-

ous bacteria that threaten people and ani-

mals in the Chesapeake Bay system.

“The number one source of nitrogen pol-

lution to the Bay comes from agricultural

runoff, which contributes 40 percent of the

nitrogen and 50 percent of the phosphorus

entering the Chesapeake Bay,” the

Chesapeake Bay Foundation states on its

website.

Pollution from agrichemicals isn’t the

only pollution our food system is causing

according to James Eisenstein.

“American agriculture is a massive

machine for converting fossil fuels into

food,” he said.

Although the energy consumed by farms

fell by 28 percent between the late 1970s

and 2003, according to a Congressional

Research Service report, the total energy

cost of farms in 2003 was $28.8 billion.

In 2007, food-related energy use

accounted for 15.7 percent of America’s

100 quadrillion Btus of energy consump-

tion, according to the USDA. This includes

energy used along the entire production

and supply chain—from manufacturing

pesticides to transporting harvested food to

cooking meals in the microwave.

“We don’t pay the full costs of food

because we rely on fossil fuel,” Eisenstein

said. “I don’t know what will happen if we

have really hard times. If fuel prices go

way up, then the price of food… is going to

go up.”

PASA’s Brian Snyder explained that in

his mind, food and energy are the same

thing, especially when “you have crops like

corn that can either be turned into food or

put into your gas tank.”

He said he’s worried about the contribu-

tion our food system is making to global

climate change.

“There’s a day of reckoning coming, par-

ticularly if the climate continues to throw

us curve balls,” he said. “Any sense of sea-

sonality is what’s going to go. We’re going

to have warm and cool periods at all times

of the year… That is going to make it hard-

er to produce food.”

Snyder said our country tends to defer

costs, and the true cost of food is no excep-

tion.

“The much bigger deficit is not in the

federal budget, but in the deferred costs of

growing cheap food and providing cheap

food to people,” he said.

The health costs of eating cheap food

Americans are producing more food

more cheaply than they did fifty years ago.

They also are eating more. The USDA

reports that in 1957, American agriculture

produced about 3,000 calories per person

per day. By 1970, that figure rose to 3,300

calories, and today, our food system affords

us approximately 3,900 calories per person

per day.

Much of that food is lost due to spoilage

and waste, but at 2,637 calories per day, the

average American in 2008 consumed 23

percent more calories a day than in 1970.

Nearly two thirds of those calories came

from grains (predominantly refined grains),

added fats and added sugars—major con-

tributors to obesity—while only 7 percent

came from fruits and vegetables.

America may enjoy the cheapest (and

most abundant) food on the planet, but it

also boasts the highest obesity rates and the

highest healthcare costs in the world. The

Organisation for Economic Co-operation

and Development (OECD) reports that in

2009, 68 percent of Americans were over-

weight and 34 percent were obese. That

year, they spent an average of $7,960 per

person on health care, and the average life

expectancy was 80.6 years.

Developed countries that spend more

money on food tend to have lower health-

care costs, lower obesity rates and higher

life expectancies. For example, in 2009,

only 35 percent of French were over-

weight, and only 11 percent were obese.

They spent about $3,978 per capita on

healthcare and lived 84.4 years on average.

James Eisenstein, who now works as an

“unpaid field hand” on his son’s vegetable

farm, said the way America produces food

creates an abundance of refined grains and

sugars like high fructose corn syrup that are

then incorporated into processed foods and

sold at cheap prices.

“Fresh fruits and vegetables, for the most

part, [are] not subsidized at all, so they cost

more relative to Wonderbread,” he said.

He also pointed out that large-scale agri-

culture has diminished the variety of fruits

and vegetables available to Americans.

Grocery store shoppers are missing out, he

said, since each variety of produce offers

different nutrients. Moreover, many of the

varieties sold in grocery stores are selected

for their ability to withstand cross-country

transport, not nutrient density.




Mark Maloney of Greenmoore Gardens

said the farm lobby has been using the gov-

ernment to push consumption of refined

grains for years.

“The Food Pyramid, if you really look

behind the scenes, was a way of market-

ing,” Maloney said.

First introduced by the USDA in 1992,

the Food Pyramid was a triangular nutrition

guide divided into sections based on food

portions. The largest block, serving as the

foundation of the pyramid, featured the

“Bread, Cereal, Rice, and Pasta Group”

and recommended six to 11 servings per

day. The vegetable block, with three to five

recommended servings, and the fruit block,

with two to four recommended servings,

sat atop this block.

According to the Centers for Disease

Control, no state had an obesity rate over

20 percent in 1992. By 2010, no state had

an obesity rate under 20 percent, and 12

had obesity rates in excess of 30 percent.

In 2011, the USDA scrapped the Food

Pyramid for a food plate, which focuses on

proportions rather than portions. Half the

circular graphic representing a daily diet is

dedicated to fruits and vegetables, while

just over a quarter is dedicated to grains.

The “Fats, Oils, and Sweets” group has

vanished completely.

The USDA now varies recommended

servings of grains according to age and

gender—anywhere from three to eight

ounces—but says at least half of all grains

consumed should be whole grains like

brown rice and oatmeal.

However, old habits die hard, according

to Maloney.

“Your formative years pretty much cre-

ate who you are, including your eating

habits,” he said. “Most [Americans] don’t

want to change their diet because they love

whatever food they’re eating. Then we

have a medical system that will ‘fix’ the

problem when you’re sick—whether it’s

surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, pills… so

that you can continue eating cheap food

that is bad for you.”

According to the Institute of Medicine,

obesity related illnesses cost the United

States $190.2 billion per year.

“The obesity epidemic and the problems

that we have with diabetes and heart dis-

ease and even cancer are part of the cheap

food phenomenon,” Brian Snyder said.

“There may be nothing more expensive.”

A possible solution

In 2007, an interdisciplinary group of 10

researchers from MIT and Columbia came

together to analyze the causes of childhood

obesity, which had tripled between 1980

and 2006.

Their conclusion: “Obesity is wide-

spread due to our national-scale system of

food production and distribution, which

surrounds children—especially low-

income children—with high-calorie prod-

ucts.”

In 2009, after further studies and meet-

ings with food industry leaders, the group

released another report, proposing a solu-

tion. America, they said, needs to increase

its regional food consumption.

They recommended that each region, or

“foodshed,” should supply as much of its

own food as possible and should work with


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nearby foodsheds to lower “the distances

that food must travel from farm to dinner

table.”

This would result in Americans eating

less processed food and more nutrient-

dense, low-calorie food researchers said.

Although the number of outlets for buy-

ing food locally is growing—the number of

farmers markets in the United States rose

from 1,755 in 1994 to 7,175 in 2011—still

only 1 to 2 percent of the food consumed in

this country is produced locally.

The researchers acknowledged that

large-scale changes need to happen to

enable the efficient production and distri-

bution of local food, and that not all food-

sheds are able to produce all desired (or

required) products.

Eating locally is a luxury many can’t

enjoy at present, according to Dara Bloom.

“There are issues of accessibility and

affordability, but also of culture and time

constraints,” Bloom said. “First, local and

seasonal food is often… harder to

access. For example, many farmers mar-

kets are open during the day while people

work or are located in more affluent neigh-

borhoods.”

Tracy Fisher, a State College mom, said

she does her grocery shopping at Wegmans

and Walmart, which are more convenient

for her than farmers markets.

Bloom explained that other models, such

as subscriptions to local farm products

through Community Support Agriculture

(CSA), require an up front investment up

front that many consumers can’t afford.

“On top of these challenges, cooking

fresh produce or preserving it is both time

consuming and requires some basic food

knowledge that has been mostly lost over

the past few decades,” Bloom said. “Many

people work long hours or several jobs to

make ends meet, and taking the extra time

and money to find local food and prepare a

nutritious meal every night can be a lot to

expect. Our food system has shifted

towards cheap, processed food for a rea-

son—it’s easier and more convenient.”

William Callahan, owner of Cow-a-Hen

Farm in Mifflinburg, Pa., sells beef, pork

and poultry at multiple Centre County

farmers markets. He said that as a farmer,

his primary responsibility is to make high

quality, locally raised meat available to

consumers, but that he also feels a duty “to

make sure that I pass along to people quick,

easy ways to prepare this stuff.”

John Eisenstein, owner of Jade Family

Farm in Port Royal, Pa., said he thinks

there’s a real shortage of options for buying

locally produced food in the Centre region.

“If people don’t have the choice, then

they can’t make it,” he said.

The demand is there, though, he said.

“We’ve expanded production every year,

and we’re having a hard time keeping up,”

Eisenstein said.

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The USDA introduced the Food Pyramid (left) in 1992. In 2011 it replaced it with My Plate, which emphasizes proportions over servings and eliminates the“Fats, Oils, & Sweets” category entirely.

Another barrier that may be standing in

the way of Americans making more nutri-

tional food choices—at grocery stores or

farmers markets—is the idea that healthy

food costs more than unhealthy food.

An often referenced study that appeared

in the American Journal of Clinical

Nutrition in 2004 found that “$1 could buy

1,200 calories of potato chips and 875 calo-

ries of soda, but only 250 calories of veg-

etables and 170 calories of fresh fruit.”

The seemingly obvious conclusion—

latched onto by food activists, nutritionists

and researchers—was that eating nutri-

tiously is an expensive endeavor.

However, a report released by the USDA

in May brought the logic of this conclusion

into question. Most Americans don’t shop

with the goal of maximizing calories per

dollar. Rather, they pay more attention to

the price per ounce or unit that most gro-

cery stores list alongside price. They also

don’t eat with the goal of consuming as

many calories as possible.

They eat according to portion size or

weight—and a full serving of ice cream has

many more calories than a full serving of

carrots.

The report concluded, “When measured

on the basis of edible weight or average

portion size, grains, vegetables, fruit, and

dairy foods are less expensive than most

protein foods and foods high in saturated

fat, added sugars, and/or sodium.”

In fact, when considering price per por-

tion, carrots are less than one third the price

of ice cream (they’d be more than three

times as expensive using the dollar per

calorie measure).

According to Mark Maloney, buying

food from local sources can help con-

sumers save money. He said most CSAs in

Centre County sell organic vegetables for

60 or 65 percent of grocery store prices

because they’re able to cut out the middle

man by selling directly to consumers.

Maloney said that increasing local food

sourcing has the added benefits of creating

jobs and reducing the carbon footprint of

the food.

The challenges of farming local food

Meeting America’s demand for cheap

food can be challenging for small-scale

farmers who sell to local markets.

“It’s possible to make a good living in

farming, but it’s difficult and it takes many,

many years,” said John Eisenstein.

He added that he’s seen many new farm-

ers “drop out” because of the financial and

emotional strains of farming.

Bethany Spicher Schonberg and her hus-

band Micah started Plowshare Produce

CSA in 2009 on land they rented from her

parents in McAlevy’s Fort. She said the

first year, they sold 45 six-month vegetable

shares and broke even. Today, the five

acres they farm supplies nearly 75 veg-

etable shares, which earn them enough to

pay a part time employee and has enabled

them to buy and renovate a house.

Still, they live simply. They don’t have a

TV or take vacations, and they buy second

hand. Spicher Schonberg said her life as a

farmer feels very rich, but that work is

extremely demanding.

“Right now we’re both working really

hard and long, and we’re realizing that’s

not really sustainable,” Spicher Schonberg

said. “We need to have time to rest and

enjoy our life here. We want to build a farm

where it’s sustainable financially and emo-

tionally for the farmers. We may need to

supplement that with another income or

find ways to work smarter or add a more

profitable crop.”

Mark Maloney said it’s very hard to

deliver cheap food while operating at a

small scale because of all the fixed expens-

es—the mortgage on the land, investments

in physical structures like barns and main-

tenance of irrigation systems and equip-

ment.

He said his ultimate vision for

Greenmoore Gardens, which currently sup-

plies 160 CSA shares from 13 farmed

acres, is to scale up. He said he’d like for

the operation to expand to supply local

restaurants and eventually nearby institu-

tional clients like the state College Area

School District or Penn State.

“The customer has to realize they need to

partner or collaborate with the farmer

through a transitional period where the

farmer is scaling up because there will be a

point where the farmer can’t lower prices

anymore until he gets bigger,” Maloney

said.

Hope for the future

Despite a food system he describes as

“out of whack,” PASA’s Brian Snyder said

he sees several encouraging trends that

indicate changing attitudes toward food.

He referenced the results of a May W.K.

Kellogg Foundation poll.

“The data show that people want pro-

duce that is healthy, affordable, green and

fair,” said Gail Christopher, vice present -

program strategy, on the foundation’s web-

site.

Over 90 percent of those surveyed said

they think everyone deserves access to

fresh produce and that they’d pay “$1.50

more each month for produce to guarantee

fair wages for the people picking fruits and

vegetables.”

Snyder said he’s especially encouraged

that “Through one of the worst recessions

in this country’s ever seen, the demand for

local and sustainably produced foods has

increased.”

He said he’s watched farmers markets

and CSAs continue to grow.

“People—in some cases with less

money—are making the choice to buy

local, more sustainable, healthier food for

their families,” Snyder said. “The fact that

the poor economy did not really put a dent

in this trend is really an amazing thing.”



Photo by Lucy Bryan GreenBethany Spicher Schonberg harvests vegetables at her CSA farm, Plowshare Produce.


As students at Penn State University

Park pack up and head home for the sum-

mer, new residents of all ages are preparing

to move in. Freshmen leaving their East

residence halls in May may not realize that

their old dorms will see thousands of visi-

tors pass through their doors before Fall

semester rolls around again.

Summer in Happy Valley houses the

youth camps and professional conferences

which keep University Park a busy town

with unlikely neighbors.

“It’s like a revolving door up here,”

Jennifer Garvin, Director of Ancillary

Services in the Penn State Assignment

Office said.

Every summer, Penn State runs nearly

one hundred sport camps and academic

youth programs. Each camp lasts between

one and four days, makes use of facilities

all over campus.

According to Dick Bartolomea, the

director of Penn State sports camps, about

90 percent of overnight sports campers stay

in the East residence halls. He said that the

East halls are used exclusively for the

sports camp guests and that no other pro-

gram guests stay in any building where

campers are housed.

All conferences and associated events

are sponsored by Penn State. Conference

planners sign a contract with the confer-

ence entities, the Penn State Housing

Office and Outreach. Then, they work with

the conference planner to set up the hous-

ing for the event.

Garvin said that most Penn State students

taking summer classes are housed in

Pollock. Adult groups are more focused on

North and West campus as well as

Eastview Terrace and Nittany Apartments.

According to the Penn State Sports

Camps Staff Manual, males and females

are housed in different buildings.

Overnight guests are prohibited and quiet

hours are enforced between 11 p.m. and 7

a.m. One coach or counselor is assigned as

a duty counselor each night from the end of

the camp’s evening session until 7 a.m. the

next morning.

This University policy requires a mini-

mum of one staff member for every eight

residential campers ages 9 to 14 and one

staff member for every ten residential

campers ages 15 to 17. Conference assis-

tants are there to answer campers’ ques-

tions, help them when needed and enforce

policies.

According to Garvin, adult-only groups

are usually housed at opposite times than

youth-related programs in Eastview

Terrace. These groups include adult stu-

dents associated with a variety of depart-

ments but not registered for summer class-

es, such as those doing research or intern-

ship work.

Garvin said that the disciplinary and reg-

ulatory policies are the same for youth and

professional Penn State summer programs

alike.

“We hold everybody to the same stan-

dards,” Garvin said. “It’s just across the

board.”

The dry campus standard of the regular

school year extends to the summer months

as well. Conference guests are subject to

the same residence hall regulations as stu-

dents concerning behavior, substance pos-

session and use. Possession or use of alco-

Dorms enforce policies for summer guestsby Jessica Beard

Believing in freedom and independenceIt must be election season, can’t you tell?

In the last three weeks, there have been

more political ads than there have been for

any of the reality shows trying to increase

ratings for their summer season. The prob-

lem is a majority of these ads are “not con-

doned” or not endorsed by the candidate

that they are claiming to support.

You know what I’m talking about, right?

The candidate’s voice plays in the back-

ground over the Rockwellesque picture of

his/her family life or some popular activity

(think Putin on his horse, no shirt on in

January, in the Russian wilderness) for that

region. Every Political Action Committee

seems to feel that playing hard and loose

with the facts is the way to show that their

candidate is the lesser of two evils.

Bringing up actions from high school

days or college experiments is uncalled for.

Just think for a moment. Think about all of

things you did in high school and college,

the things you tell your children not to do if

they want to be responsible and deserve

your trust. Now, imagine some stranger

comes along and revisits all your past mis-

takes as if you committed them yesterday.

By no means is this a fair assessment of

how you live now, so why tolerate that kind

of action from those seeking our trust?

What is important to remember about all

of this is that candidates quickly run out to

condemn these ads when the public raises

an outcry. The problem is that the candi-

date’s team should be making it clear that

he/she is above the playing to the lowest

view to gain a few votes. We, as the elec-

torate, should be making it plain that we

will not stand for such foolishness, but we

don’t and it continues to persist.

I would like to see ads where our elected

officials say, “I was wrong here, but here is

how we fixed it...” Wouldn’t that be the

best? Wouldn’t it be great if a governor said

something like, “I didn’t act on this when I

was Attorney General, but I take responsi-

bly for my actions, and I will l do my best

not have this happen again”?

Ah well, such a fantasy truly only hap-

pens in movies.

Putting the money spent on these nega-

tive, and often false (or edited to be taken

way out of context), into something good

could reduce the national debt. If given to

cities and states, this money could save

teachers and hire more police and firemen.

Right now, all this money does is tear

down another human being that is going to

live on after the votes are cast. These ads

might as well say “candidate X steals

candy from babies and will do the same to

your money if you do not elect our person.”

Then, right after the election, are we to

believe that these opponents are going to

support each other without pay? There is

no way you could pay me to speak well of

someone who has attempted every form of

character assassination known to man.

When I disagree with you, I am going to

disagree with your points and respect your

right to have a different view. It doesn’t

mean you are out of touch, un-American,

or elitist—it just means you see things from

a different point of view (although that

would be unfortunate, as I am always

right). It doesn’t mean I have to hate who

you are as a human being. Somewhere in

our Constitution it tells me that you can say

whatever you want, and that’s ok.

Independence Day is rapidly approach-

ing, and is this the type of freedom that we

want our children to believe in? We have

to do better. Our votes count for something.

Let us make our dollars and voices count

for that something as well. Be safe and

enjoy the Fourth!

by Jamie Campbell

see Conference, pg. 23


hol, tobacco and other drugs are prohibited.

There are some differences in how poli-

cies are enforced for camp and conference

guests compared to students. According to

the Office of Student Conduct website, all

students under 24 found guilty of “prohib-

ited underage possession or use of alco-

holic beverages, excessive consumption of

alcohol, or driving under the influence”

must complete BASICS (the Brief Alcohol

Screening and Intervention for College

Students). Parents or guardians are notified

if the student is discovered or admits to on-

or-off-campus drug or alcohol possession.

Students are exempt from parental notifi-

cations if they are 24 years or older,

enrolled in a graduate or professional pro-

gram or married, as well as veterans of the

U.S. Armed Forces and students with chil-

dren or dependents receiving more than

half of their support from the student.

There is a three-strike disciplinary policy

for camp residents. The resident receives a

warning and a brief meeting with a coun-

selor for a first offense. If there is a second

offense, the resident’s parent or guardian is

called and a third offense results in imme-

diate withdrawal from the program. No

refunds are issued in the event of a

camper’s dismissal.

According to Garvin, individual 2012

summer conference enrollment numbers

have been steady, if not higher, than they

were compared to last year’s. Garvin said

he took this to be a sign that recent events

surrounding the Jerry Sandusky trial

haven’t affected peoples’ desire to come to

Penn State.

“Folks still see us as a viable place to go

to enhance your education,” Garvin said.

Fran Ganter, the summer camp football

director, recalled an incident from earlier in

the week when he saw a camper whose par-

ent dropped him off on campus each day

wandering near Johnson Hall where the

sports camp office is headquartered.

“I’d say he was 10, 11 years old,” Ganter

said. “[I thought], didn’t he have to have

somebody with him? We always have two

people with every camper: a 2-up policy.”

Garvin said that since the Sandusky con-

troversy broke last fall, the existing policy

regarding minors on campus had been

“revamped.”

“No adult can have one-to-one contact

with a minor,” Garvin said. “It’s working

very well now that people here have adapt-

ed to that regulation.”

Bartolomea has his own philosophy on

summer logistics at Penn State.

“If you follow the seven P’s, you’ll be in

good shape: Proper Planning Prevents Piss-

Poor Performance,” he said.

Ganter admits that he shares

Bartolomea’s seven P’s with his campers.

“We’re very good at seeing potential

challenges,” Ganter said. “I don’t say

‘problems.’ That’s not what we’re about.

There’s no such thing as a problem. It’s a

challenge, and a challenge is just an oppor-

tunity to excel.”

from Conference, pg. 22

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Websters Bookstore Cafe, 133 E. Beaver Ave. Reception: Tues., July 3, 5:30

Painted Photographs by Mary Vollero showing through July

On July 13 and 14, local acoustic band

Cartoon will play its last shows. For 32

years, Cartoon has been playing local ven-

ues such as the American Alehouse and

Café 210, but these shows will be the last

time that lead guitarist Jon Rounds, gui-

tarist Glenn Kidder and bassist Randy

Hughes will take the stage together. Jon

Rounds discussed the band’s history with

Voices. The following is the question and

answer interview.

Voices: Tell me about Cartoon. When did

the band get together, and what was it that

brought you together? Who is the song-

writer among you, or do you all take up the

role (noticed in the release that you play

original music)? What sort of musical

backgrounds do each of the band members

have?

Rounds: Cartoon formed in State College

in 1980 when four State College perform-

ers—Randy Hughes, Glenn Kidder, Kevin

Dremel, and Jon Rounds—began sitting in

on each other’s shows, drawn to the same

genre of harmony-rich acoustic music and

each committed to performing original

music. We are all songwriters. (And all

Penn State grads.)

Randy Hughes, a State College native,

now in Pinehurst, N.C., was bass player

and vocalist for Morningsong, a popular

State College folk-rock band of the 1970s

whose debut album was reviewed in

Billboard and won critical acclaim. Randy

also played for many years as a solo per-

former in State College clubs. He is the

vocal arranger for Cartoon and plays guitar

and bass.

Glenn Kidder, from Pittsburgh, now in

Milton, Mass., is a prolific songwriter

whose influences include singer/songwrit-

ers such as Jonathan Edwards and Crosby,

Stills, Nash & Young, but is also drawn to

music with a beat— R&B and Motown.

Glenn was a popular solo performer in

State College clubs at the time Cartoon

formed. Glenn plays guitar and percussion.

Kevin Dremel, from Altoona, Pa., now in

Keene, N.H., is likewise a prolific song-

writer who was a popular solo performer in

State College clubs in the 1980s. His influ-

ences are eclectic. You will hear strains of

contemporary folk and alternative rock in

his tunes, which are strongly narrative and

occasionally whimsical. He wrote “Lady

Jamaica,” a State College hit of 1981.

Kevin plays guitar and percussion. (Note:

because of other commitments, Kevin can-

not attend this year’s show.)

Jon Rounds, from Yardley, Pa., was a

member of the Rounds Brothers Band, a

1970s State College rock band who per-

formed all original music. He continues to

write songs with a folk-rock and country-

rock flavor. His influences include early

Dylan, The Byrds, The Band and Rodney

Crowell. He plays guitar.

Jamie Rounds from Yardley, Pa., now in

Nashville (special guest at this year’s

show), was also member of the Rounds

Brothers Band and later, Backseat Van

Gogh, for whom he penned the regional hit

“Catch a New Wave.” His influences

include the Beach Boys, the Beatles,

Smoky Robinson and contemporary coun-

try artists. He plays guitar and bass.

I think the two key features of Cartoon’s

appeal are vocal harmony and original

songs. Go to any college town, anywhere,

and you’ll find bands with great lead

singers and hot instrumentalists who can do

cover tunes note for note. But tight harmo-

ny singing is a rare commodity. For one

thing, it takes a good ear just to hear three

parts around a melody. Then you have to

design the parts, which in Cartoon has

mainly been the role of Randy Hughes.

And it also takes more rehearsal time to

work out the parts because—unlike lead

guitar licks, which you can practice on your

own—you have to practice harmony as a

group.

Being committed to original tunes is both

a benefit and an obstacle. The obvious ben-

In September, the Bellefonte Art

Museum for Centre County will host an

exhibition of oil paintings by local artist

Veronica Winters. Winters is a veteran

exhibiter, but this show will represent a

departure from her usual shown work

and a frank demonstration of her recent-

ly discovered courage in bringing to the

fore emotional turmoil.

According to Winters, the shows she

has done previously are landscapes or

decorative art, but this one has a surreal-

ist tone that she often invokes when por-

traying more emotional elements.

“When I work on my surreal stuff, it’s

very personal and it’s often misunder-

stood and I tend not to exhibit it,” said

Winters. “I feel vulnerable about it; a lot

of people don’t understand it. They ask,

‘What’s happening in your head?’ It

stops me from exhibiting my personal

stuff. But I thought I would do it this

time around, as a change.”

In these surrealist works, the artist

makes a deft use of symbolism to convey

the intertwined currents of women’s

roles, loss, and broken relationships.

Winters’ “Feeling the Pinch” references

the dichotomy of the stereotypically fem-

inine versus the “unfeminine” desire for

physical comfort and practicality through

the juxtaposition of a high-heeled shoe

and a sneaker. The artist stated that she

found her inspiration in her own foot

pain, which prevents her from wearing

high-heeled shoes for prolonged periods.

“There is always a trade-off,” said

Winters. “It’s a choice—do you want to

suffer and be beautiful or feel okay and

be kind of unattractive? I think this feel-

ing could be shared with lots of women;

lots of them feel or think the same way.”

Embodying this sense of pain and

beauty are the works within the series

that directly refer to loss, and frequently

feature the image of the artist as the focal

point. In a manner that Winters described

in her blog as “intimate and heart-open-

ing,” these paintings represent what she

deemed a “response to my wild emotion-

al roller coaster I had this spring.”

The painting “Pain” is fundamentally

about the broken pieces—of the artist

and the home.

“I wanted to express this deep feeling

of pain,” said Winters. “So the broken

pieces mean broken heart.”

Winters notes that the image of “the

broken heart” is cliché, so in her series

the feeling of loss is communicated

through an open torso. In “Pain,” that

open torso is surrounded by its pieces,

but the figure’s profound sense of loss is

read through the dark clouds.

“The dark cloud [means] gloom, hope-

lessness,” she said, pointing to the fun-


Cartoon holds final performanceby Elizabeth Timberlake-Newell

Winters paints portrait of emotional turmoilby Elizabeth Timberlake-Newell

see Winters, pg. 26

“Feeling the Pinch” by Veronica Winters

see Cartoon, pg. 28

Lisa Dawn White is a smart, successful

artist who works from her studio in

Pennsylvania Furnace. For more than a

decade, the artist has been creating floral

collages, gift cards and jewelry pieces.

These pieces can be compared to little

inspirational notes of nature found by the

artist and captured under glass. Layers and

layers of hand-made paper, paint, and dried

botanical specimens are uniquely arranged

into beautiful landscapes.

The artist projects her affinity for nature

through weaving patterns of colorful

papers, real dried flowers and delicate

feathers.

“I’ve always enjoyed art and craft-mak-

ing since I was a child,” she said.

White’s artistic sensibilities have grown

as a result of her masters degree in horticul-

ture. As part of her studies, the artist had an

internship at the arboretum a few years

back, where she began pressing plants and

flowers.

“I own several plant presses that allow

for the right amount of air flow and temper-

ature to preserve color in specimens,” she

said.

The plant press resembles a giant old

book of multiple layers of newspaper and

carton sandwiched between two wooden

covers with attaching belts that hold it all

together. The artist collects flowers in full

bloom and presses them immediately.

Some of them get cut to press, a very time-

consuming but necessary process.

Filaments or anthers are removed from

flowers prior to pressing.

“I perform a flower surgery in a way,”

she said.

The artist has produced eight major

series of collages. Although each piece is

unique, all artworks in each series follow a

specific theme captured in a replicated

design. Her best-seller series is titled

“Appalachia.”

Reminiscent of a Pennsylvania land-

scape, it consists of layers of hand-made,

collaged papers, dried elderberry flowers

and moss. By painting over papers with a

thin layer of acrylic paint, the artist unifies

hand-made papers in color. The series has

six different sizes, ranging from 1 by 3 feet

to just 12 by 12 inches.

The Hawaii-inspired design “Island

Pikake” (Hawaiian for peacock) is a

vibrant arrangement of peacock feathers

and orchids. Orchids are the only flowers

artist buys from a local farmer, while other

specimens are either grown in her garden

or collected on hiking trips and from

friends’ gardens.

Due to the variety of flowers and papers

used, as well as an application of modern

aesthetic and influences, White’s collages

are far from being sentimental.

“My dry floral arrangements have a con-

temporary aesthetic, unlike Victorian-era

images,” she said.

White is very particular about the

enhancement of color in her art. She paints

leaves and flowers with metallic pigments

to add shimmer and dimension, and uses

other acrylic paints closely matched to the

natural plant coloration. Because green

fades in leaves over time, she uses floral

spray paint to replace it. White also paints

over petals with a small brush to match col-

ors perfectly and make them look natural.

“Color is vital to my process, as it repre-

sents my feelings,” she said.

The brilliant colors and textures that

White favors in her pressed-flower collages

are also found in her paper works. She

makes her own paper from recycled paper

that has no ink on it. As the process is

incredibly messy and time-consuming,

White reserves a week of her time to

devote to it. Then, the artist paints over her

papers to bring textures to life.

White’s jewelry-making is closely relat-

ed to her collages, carrying on the same

natural themes with either square or rectan-

gular miniature landscapes made of color-

enhanced flowers or plants.

Sealed with glass-like resin,

they are little expressions of the

environment, evoking feelings

of love, warmth, and comfort.

The pendants attach to either a

simple ribbon or chain with a

few beads that pleasantly com-

plement colors of petals or plants

frozen in one piece.

The artist will exhibit her col-

lages and jewelry pieces at the

Central Pennsylvania Festival

for the Arts in a booth number A-

25. To contact the artist directly,

write to: lisa@whitedawnde-

signs.com or call: 814-571-3379.

To see her artwork, visit:

whitedawndesigns.com.


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Over 100,000 Used books

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ARTS FEST LINEUPJuly Art Gallery - Mary Vollerointernationally recognized painter & photographer

Friday Jul 13th, 7pmSizzle Stix - Swing Dance Party!

Saturday Jul 14th, 7pmNatalie J. Plumb progressive contemporary spiritual music.

Sunday Jul 15th Sunday Music Brunch - 9am to 2pmPhilip Masorti & The Herd - Noon to 2pmApache Records recording artists!

Author Appearance Barry Kernfeld - 3pm (editor of the Grove Dictionary of Jazz)will read and discuss his new book Pop Song Piracy.

Color and texture enliven White’s collagesby Veronica Winters

Photo by Veronica WintersLisa Dawn White holding one of her collages from her best-sell-ing “Appalachia” series.

In the Studio


nel-shaped cloud reaching from the fore-

ground to the background. “It’s a never

ending turmoil. Those little pieces are

the pieces of the broken house.”

Some of Winters’ most compelling

paintings in this show are the ones that

feature no figures at all. One such

poignant work is the painting

“Communication,” which focuses on two

laptops on a bed. The laptops, she said,

serve a dual role in her symbolic lan-

guage—as representations for the absent

figures and as the means of communica-

tion.

“It’s about communication,” said

Winters. “Communication is through the

internet. The link gets broken between

two people.”

“When something gets broken between

the two people it’s very painful and hard

to repair,” wrote Winters via email.

“Both persons need to be open for

change to preserve the relationship. So,

these paintings depict my pain and strug-

gle to come to terms and understanding,

to find acceptance and love.”

While producing this series was emo-

tionally challenging and left the artist

with a sense of vulnerability, Winters

also sees art as an outlet to “express feel-

ings in a positive and meaningful way.”

In her vision of a breakdown in com-

munication in marriage, she also sees the

seeds of repair in the recognition of that

breakdown and the subsequent admission

of mistakes.

“I also think it’s important to admit the

mistakes we make and find balance in

honest talk with each other about prob-

lems (between a husband and wife),”

wrote Winters. “Thoughts and feelings

often get hidden and eventually the con-

flict occurs.”

However, Winters says that not every-

one can establish “mutual trust and hon-

est communication with each other about

things that matter.”

In addition to creating art, Winters also

teaches it. She gives private lessons, but

also teaches at the Art Alliance, where

she will be teaching a beginning oils and

acrylics workshop August 13-17. As

well, Winters teaches for Galaxy, an edu-

cational program that places artists in

schools as teachers.

“Teaching is a very big part of my

daily existence,” wrote Winters via

email. “I enjoy being with students at my

studio or at the Art Alliance. Students

often challenge my abilities to explain

things and I also learn from them, believe

it or not.”

Despite what she describes as a diffi-

cult jobs climate for artists, Winters con-

siders herself fortunate to be financially

secure enough to continue her creative

endeavors.

“You can be born as an artist but never

develop as one,” wrote Winters. “It takes

years of hard work to achieve the desir-

able result of what you want as a person

and an artist. It took me years of

patience, perseverance, and financial and

moral support from my husband to be

where I’m today.”

Clearly Winters sees making and

teaching art as part of her greater quest in

finding purpose.

“I’m searching for the purpose in life,”

wrote Winters. “I came close to under-

standing the concept of Buddhism, as I

enjoy its peaceful approach to self-

improvement. I think most of my paint-

ings are quiet, peaceful, and meditative in

a way. I want them to be beautiful, so they

would bring joy to others. Unlike land-

scapes or still lives, even symbolically

painful paintings could be beautiful.”

More information about Winters’ work

can be found at http://www.veronicawin-

tersart.blogspot.com/ and at

http://www.veronicasart.com.

She will also be selling her work at

stall A 58 at the Central Pennsylvania

Festival of the Arts.

from Winters, pg. 24

“Pain” by Veronica Winters

“Communication” by Veronica Winters.“

“...these paintings depictmy pain and struggle tocome to terms and under-standing, to find accept-ance and love.”

Veronica Winters

July 1

Art Alliance: Art through Touch Exhibit

at Foxdale Gallery (through August 24)

Bellefonte Art Museum for CentreCounty: Photographs from NASA: From

Earth to the Solar System (through July

15)

Bellefonte Art Museum for CentreCounty Community Gallery: Ellie

Tarraborelli

Green Drake Gallery: Plein Air—

Painting in the Moment

Saloon: Atomic Supersonic (10:30

p.m.) (Atomic Supersonic plays the

Saloon every Sunday night.)

Websters: Sunday Music Brunch (11

a.m. to 2 p.m.)

Websters: Art exhibitions by Mary

Vollero and Kristina Gibson

Zeno’s: Miss Melanie and the Valley

Rats (9:30 p.m.)

July 2

Websters: Community Yoga with Karen

Sepia (6 p.m.)

July 3

The Saloon: Hotdog Cart (10:30 p.m.)

(Hotdog Cart plays the Saloon every

Tuesday night)

State Theatre: 1776 (2 p.m. and 7 p.m.)

July 4

State Theatre: 1776 (2 p.m.)

July 5

The Saloon: My Hero Zero (10:30

p.m.) (My Hero Zero plays the Saloon

every Thursday night.)

July 6

Bar Bleu: Low Jack (10:30 p.m.) (Low

Jack plays Bar Bleu every Friday night.)

The Saloon: The Nightcrawlers (10:30

p.m.)

Tussey Mountain: Movies on the

Mountain, Captain America (9 p.m.)

July 7

Bar Bleu: Ted McCloskey and the Hi

Fi’s (10:30 p.m.) (Ted McCloskey and the

Hi Fi’s play Bar Bleu every Saturday

night.)

The Saloon: Mr. Hand (10:30 p.m.)

(Mr. Hand plays the Saloon every

Saturday night.)

Websters: Second Winds jazz (7 p.m.)

July 10

Websters: Nittany Valley Writers open

mic

July 11

State Theatre: Babe (12 p.m.) (Part of

the Read It, Watch It series recurring

every Wednesday at 12 p.m.)

State Theatre: Community Percussion

Circle (5:30 p.m.)

Websters: author Keith Nelson (3 p.m.)

July 12

Central Pennsylvania Festival of the

Arts (July 12 - 15)

July 13

The Saloon: Velveeta (10:30 p.m.)

State Theatre: Syncopation (3 p.m.)

Websters: Sizzle Sticks (7 p.m.)

July 14

Websters: Live music Natalie J. Plumb

(7 p.m.)

July 15

State Theatre: Brio Dance Company (1

p.m.)

Websters: author Barry Kernfield (3

p.m.

July 20


Tussey Mountain: Randy Travis (8

p.m.)

July 25

Websters: Muriel’s Repair (7 p.m.)

July 27


p.m.)

Tussey Mountain Ampitheatre: Toad

the Wet Sprocket (7 p.m.)

August 1

Green Drake Gallery: Under the

Influence

August 3


p.m.)


Mountain: Tarzan (9 p.m.)

August 5

Bellefonte Art Museum for CentreCounty Community Gallery: Kim Gates

Flick

August 10


August 17


August 20


Mountain: Hugo (9 p.m.)

August 24


p.m.)

State Theatre: Fiddler on the Roof

(7:30 p.m.)


Mountain: The Smurfs (9 p.m.)

August 25

Art Alliance: Juried Show (through

September 2)

State Theatre: Fiddler on the Roof (2

p.m. and 7:30 p.m.)

August 26

State Theatre: Fiddler on the Roof (2

p.m.)

August 29

Websters: Muriel’s Repair (7 p.m.)

August 31

State Theatre: Monty Python and the

Holy Grail (4 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 10 p.m.)

Items for upcoming events listings canbe emailed to the Arts and EntertainmentSection editor Elizabeth Timberlake-Newell at:

[email protected].


July / August calendar of A & E events

efit of an original band over a cover-tune

band is that you’re offering a unique prod-

uct, not just a version of something people

can hear anywhere. The obstacle is that a

lot of the music audience wants to hear the

hits, the stuff they know.

Voices: What are your musical influ-

ences?

Rounds: We were lucky to arrive on the

scene at a time when the singer/songwriter

tradition was well established in main-

stream American music, so all college stu-

dents were familiar with the music of writ-

ers like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Steven

Stills, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Carole

King, James Taylor, et cetera.

We too were influenced by all these peo-

ple, but we also drew from the country-

based sound of Guy Clark, Willie Nelson,

Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris.

Going back even further, you can hear

in our harmony style echoes of the folk

music movement of 60s, in both its com-

mercial vein—Peter, Paul & Mary,

Kingston Trio, Chad Mitchell Trio—and

the more rootsy sound of Gordon

Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, and early

Dylan. We’ve even been accused of hav-

ing bluegrass influences.

Voices: How do you feel about the live

music scene in State College and the sur-

rounding area?

Rounds: I loved the State College music

scene when we lived and played there

because along with the rock bars, there

were clubs like Rego’s, Highway Pizza,

and Café 210, where people actually came

to listen.

We were fortunate to have an expert

soundman, Jim Thorn, at the helm of a

good PA system, and we took pride in pro-

ducing crisp, professional shows. You can’t

do acoustic music over the din of 200 stu-

dents who came to drink beer and hang out,

so listening clubs are crucial to our kind of

band.

One of the drawbacks of State College as

a musical home base is that it’s a cultural

island in the middle of a big, rural state. If

you’re a local band trying to expand to

regional—as we were—it means getting in

the van and driving back and forth to places

like Lancaster, Pittsburgh and Philly. It

wears you out.

Voices: What sort of venues has the band

played?

Rounds: We’ve played many clubs in

State College (some of which are now

gone): The All American Alehouse in

Toftrees, The Phryst, Rego’s, Highway

Pizza, Café 210, The Sheraton and many

others. At the Arts Fest—Schwab

Auditorium and the Festival Shell.

Voices: Can readers buy your music

online or on CD anywhere?

Rounds: (All CDs are sold out.) [Our

music] can be bought as digital albums.

Voices: Why are these your last perform-

ances?

Rounds: It’s just time. We set pretty high

standards for ourselves, and each year it’s

more of a challenge getting the callouses in

shape to play guitar for hours and the voice

in shape to hit all the notes. We’re the luck-

iest band in the world when it comes to

fans, employers, and venues.

Our fans listen closely, they know music,

and they’ve been very loyal—Schwab is

packed every year. We’ve also had the

good fortune to work for two excellent Arts

Fest directors, currently Rick Bryant and,

before him, Phil Walz, who’ve been sup-

portive and accommodating. They put us in

Schwab, after all, which is as good as it

gets for an acoustic band. Tom Hesketh,

who assembled the house PA and coordi-

nates sound, is a real pro.

With all the support we’ve received from

folks like these, we think we owe them a

good show.

………………………………………

Local acoustic band Bookends and har-

monica player Richard Sleigh will be join-

ing Cartoon on stage for their performance

at Schwab Auditorium on July 13.

Performance starts at 7:30 p.m. Arts

Festival button is required for admission.

Cartoon will also be playing the

American Alehouse on July 14 from 9 p.m.

to 11 p.m.


Photo courtesy of Jon RoundsCover art from “The Chapel Sessions,” the 2010 release for Cartoon.

Lend us your voices!

E-mail [email protected]

Dear Voices,

Attending my 50th PSU reunion after a

long absence, I discovered VOICES. My

enclosed check recognizes your crucial

contribution to the community, but partic-

ularly to students, many exposed for the

first time to a thoughtful discussion of

issues.

VOICES reminded me of the few peo-

ple in the late 50’s and early 60’s who

demonstrated in State College for civil

rights, and against nuclear testing and

the early stages of American involve-

ment in Viet Nam.

While they were then mostly greeted

dismissively as hippies, their voices

continued to be remembered and joined

by many of us over the past 50 years.

Your VOICES will be what todays’

students will remember and join over

the next 50 years all over the world.

Thank you.

Peter Rumsey

Raleigh, NC

Dear Voices,

Today the banks with their symbolic

underground are destroying Greece as

surely as if they were an army occupying

the ground and slaughtering the inhabi-

tants and all done with a preciseness of

figures that prove through the cyphers

that what they do is exactly correct.

The banked money is buried under-

ground, present delayed for future, my

own for community and faith that yes-

terday will yield to providential tomor-

row.

Yet when that future is so brutally

straightened, that community so deci-

mated that tomorrow reduced to dark

misery, it is time to say—if there is to be

sacrifice here between bank and public

community, let it be the bank however

compelling its cyphers.

Greece should go off the Euro, deval-

ue the Drachma and restructure the debt.

Austerity does not remedy recession.

Repudiate it.

In what name? In the name of the

people above ground in their native

hope and enterprise there where sun-

light flashes on the sea.

Pluto need not rape Persephone this

time. Let Zeus himself intervene. For if

coin does not bear a humane face, it is

not wealth but cancer.

John Harris

State College


Letters

Cosmo is on holiday for July andAugust, but sends his best regards.Stay tuned for an extra sassySeptember edition!

ASKCosmoCampus and

Culture from the Canine

Perspective

There are two ways that people are

forced out of their homes by decree: one is

by foreclosure, the other is sheriff sale.

The first is truly a sad national epidem-

ic; the second seems to be a problem in the

Keystone state. Just see the tax sale

notices in newspapers across the state.

A bill has recently been introduced in

the state house, called “Property Tax

Independence Act”. Although I agree

100% in principle, I take issue with is on

the revenue replacement portion.

The bill offers a great opportunity for a

broader, total tax & financial reform.

However, there is way too much emphasis

in the current bill on raising income and

sales tax. These are two taxes that fall

hardest on struggling working folks.

Having lived on a state with no state or

local income tax for several years and

returning to this high taxation state was a

shock and a burden.

If there must be an increase in taxes,

then the only aspect of revenue replace-

ment that I do agree with is the gambling,

yet it gets a scant mention. Gambling tax-

ation should be where all emphasis sits,

for the following reasons:

First, in debates leading up to legaliza-

tion of slot machines, Pennsylvanian’s had

been promised lower property taxes and

singing tomorrows.

Second, gambling contributes nothing

to the productive economy and nothing to

the overall living standards; it is a zero-

sum game.

Another, less known, yet more hideous

form of gambling that impacts us all is

speculation in virtual financial instru-

ments. A person need go no further than

the gas pump, or the grocery store to feel

the impacts of these parasites; they are a

tapeworm on a productive economy.

These virtual gamblers make obscene

profits in nanoseconds with flash trades

that contribute zero to the productive

economy; in fact, they even hinder real

growth with the rapid increase in prices.

A very small sales tax on these transac-

tions (they currently pay zero) would raise

some much needed revenue replacement.

This would allow sales and income taxes

to be lowered or eliminated.

The website of the Pennsylvania

Taxpayers Cyber Coalition points out that

North Dakota is moving to eliminate

property tax. What they fail to mention is

the fact that the bank of North Dakota,

which was formed in 1919, is the only

state-owned or public bank in the United

States. All state revenues flow into the

bank of North Dakota and back out into

the state in the form of loans.

The state of North Dakota is consistent-

ly faced with the enviable position of

either lowering taxes, adding programs, or

a combination, thus raising living stan-


Don and Barbara Gross are excited to move to their new 2-bedroom apartment at Foxdale Village. The Grosses have gotten to know Foxdale very well over the past 20 years, with Barbara’s parents having moved there when the community first opened. Now, it’s your turn to make a move. Our Oak apartment features a great corner location with windows wrapping two full sides, a spacious floor plan for entertaining, and a sunroom to enjoy beautiful sunsets. But don’t wait, there are only a few remaining. To learn more, call us at 272-2117. Visit us at www.foxdalevillage.org.

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– Don and Barbara Gross

Only a

Few Oak

Apartments

Still

Available.

“Our new apartment at Foxdale has lots of windows, and we look forward

to enjoying our new sun porch.”

A Quaker-Directed Continuing Care Retirement Community

Some alternatives to ‘cut & gut’ spending policiesby Paul Dombek

see Spending, pg. 31

I was talking the other day to Whitey

Blue, longtime Centre Area resident and

hard-nose.

Whitey, any thoughts about the up-

coming Gritmurky triial?

“”I sure do!”

What are they?

“It’s probably too late now, and may

not be in accordance with state laws, but

I think the trial should be held in a

remote state, like Alaska or Hawaii,

where the jurors wouldn’t be brain-

washed by all the adverse publicity

Gritmurky is getting.”

So you think G. won’t get a fair trial

here in Centre County?

“No, he won’t.

All these do-gooders have over-

loaded the local and nearby media with

their tales of his alleged abuses. This

certainly will bias all local judges and

jurors!”

Whitey Blue on Gritmurkyby David M. Silverman

dards.

Since 2008, while servicing student,

agricultural and energy sector loans with-

in North Dakota, every dollar of profit by

the bank. This has added up to tens of mil-

lions, flows back into state coffers and

directly supports the needs of the state in

ways private banks do not.

Ultimately, the private federal reserve

needs to be federalized, because credit

creation and management must be a pub-

lic utility. As Thomas Edison said:

“It is absurd to say that our country can

issue $30,000,000 in bonds and not

$30,000,000 in currency. Both are promis-

es to pay; but one promise fattens the

usurer, and the other helps the people. If

the currency issued by the Government

were no good, then the bonds issued

would be no good either. It is a terrible sit-

uation when the Government, to increase

the national wealth, must go into debt and

submit to ruinous interest charges at the

hands of men who control the fictitious

values of gold.”

We shouldn’t have to throw people into

the wood chipper, in the name of “auster-

ity,” while too-big-to-jail zombie bankers

reap obscene profits and pile all their loss-

es onto us. Ideally, you can have mini-

mum tax burden by saving on the single

biggest long-term fixed expense: interest.

Regardless, if the federal reserve system

is abolished, they should be forced to pur-

chase long term 0 percent interest bonds

from state governments for infrastructure

and capital improvement projects, such as

high speed rail and safe bridges, et. al.

These projects would be bided out to the

private sector, creating a positive multipli-

er effect.

Instead of what is happening now--

pouring money in a black hole of kited

toxic derivative bets for the zombie banks,

while they hoard and deny funds to other-

wise meaningful projects, and we the peo-

ple are accepting the cut & gut psychosis.

History proves that you can’t cut & gut

your way to recovery, growth, and pros-

perity. It didn’t work in 1931-32 Germany,

more recently Spain, and Greece.

As mentioned above, I really think it is

a great opportunity for a broader and total

tax and financial reform. Even though this

is just at the state level, for now.


Instructions:

Fill in the grid so every row, every column and every three-by-three box contains the digits 1 through 9. There is no mathinvolved. You solve the puzzle with reason and logic.

The solution to this month’s puzzle can be found on page 29 ofthis issue.

By Peter Morris

SSuuddookkuu

from Spending, pg. 30

Voices of Central PaP.O. Box 10066State College Pa 16805www.voicesweb.org

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