I get calls...

A reader called this morning to talk about my food safety story in the current issue. He was a thoughtful guy, a farmer, who wanted to know if the newly appointed Pennsylvania Food Safety Council was going to be passing laws and issuing regulations affecting farmers and the food industry in general.

No. It's an advisory group with no legislative, regulatory or enforcement powers, and I apologize if that wasn't made clear in the article.

Is it going to eat up a lot of tax dollars, he wanted to know.

Again, no. I think. I hope.

I could find out with a quick phone call to PDA, and if this were an article in the paper, that's exactly what I'd do. But I'm occupying this tiny spot of ether to lay before you my opinions and observations and not always the facts. So here's my opinion about the Council's funding - I think participants should get lunch and mileage for attending meetings, and that's it. And I think PDA staffing should be kept to an absolute minimum. Someone at PDA should send an email to call a meeting and then get back to his or her regular job.

Then the farmer wanted to know about the Council's makeup, which is a question I had when I was writing the story. And for that answer, I did call the PDA. Because it was going to be in the paper. Simply put, PDA wanted to get a broad a representation of the entire food industry, as many people with as many viewpoints as they could get around one of those giant boardroom tables. If the council needs to address a specific issue -  making sure that a farmer's pawpaw crop, for example, moves safely to market - then they will assemble a group from that particular niche to talk about the issue.

My personal opinion is that the most effective committee is a committee of one. Get six people around a table and things start to drift. Get 22 people in a room with pitchers of water and carafes of coffee and onlookers and microphones...well, I'm glad they didn't ask me to be on that council.

Especially since in Council's first three-hour meeting with a busload of people, half of whom for which middle-age was a distant memory, there was not a single break. Cold room. Water. Old people. Three hours. No break.

And then my caller raised the issue of puppy mills. I think I'll save that for another day.

Wanna sell some body parts? Well, if they're to a 1940-41 half-ton Dodge pickup, there's somebody at 585-786-3584 who's looking to buy. That's from one of the Lancaster Farming mailbox market ads, a source of lots of interesting stuff and sometimes a chuckle or two.  For example, if you've got Araucona hens laying hatchable eggs that you're willing to sell, you might want to call 570-837-3673.  And if you're of a certain age and can identify 50-year-old pictures of Lancaster County farms and covered bridges, phone John M. Heisey at 717-653-4598. He'll appreciate your call.

Just what you need around the barn. And who let those things in the kitchen, anyway? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ikm3o5hDks