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Release No. 0456.05

OF

TEXAS FARM BILL FORUM\
WITH SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE MIKE JOHANNS\
AND MODERATORS TONY PURCELL WITH THE TEXAS STATE NETWORK

AND TONY ST. JAMES WITH KFLP\
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY, LUBBOCK, TEXAS\
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005

MODERATOR: Let\'s make sure we have room for the Color Guard here.
We\'ll start our program with a little pageantry. We\'ll begin with the
posting of the colors, the junior ROTC.\
\
Okay, we have a number of dignitaries here. First, let\'s bring out
Chancellor David Smith of Texas Tech University. And our Congressmen,
Second District of Texas Ted Poe, Mike Conaway of the Eleventh District,
and the Nineteenth District Congressman Randy Neugebauer.\
\
And now may I present United States Department of Agriculture Secretary
of Agriculture, Mr. Mike Johanns. (Applause.)\
\
By way of introduction, my name is Tony Purcell. I am the Agribusiness
news director for the Texas State Network. We\'re based in Dallas. We
broadcast on nearly 140 radio stations around the state. And I\'m a bit
overdressed up here, me and Chancellor Smith. I was getting ready to
come out here to Lubbock this morning from Dallas \-- (inaudible) \--
suit. (Laughter.) He said, \"The only thing is the Secretary is not
wearing a suit. You may take off your coat.\" So I\'m going to do that.
(Laughter.)\
\
You know, whether you\'re a cotton grower looking at the top rates for
the crop you\'re about to harvest, whether you\'re in livestock
production and looking at the EQIP program to make your operation more
environmentally friendly, if you\'re a needy person or a hurricane
victim who is investigating nutrition programs, you have a stake in this
Farm Bill. In fact, when you get right down to it, if you eat or if you
wear clothes, you have a stake in this Farm Bill. So this is a very
important session, and we\'re looking forward to it.\
\
Start with a little pageantry. The Lubbock Estacado Junior ROTC. Please
rise as they present the colors.\
\
(Colors presented.)\
\
Please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. It will be led by
Padon Holt, the Texas FFA Area 1 President and Jane Wagner, the Texas
4-H Council.\
\
(Pledge of Allegiance.)\
\
Our National Anthem will be sung by Ashley Prewett of Texas Tech
University.\
\
(National Anthem.)\
\
Thank you very much. You may be seated.\
\
Now, as the administration and the Congress fashions this Farm Bill, we
need input, and that\'s what we\'re here for today. Secretary Johanns
has been doing these, and they are Listening Sessions. What you have to
say is what is the most important thing we\'re going to hear here
today.\
\
We\'re going to begin with a few remarks from the stage. I\'m pleased to
introduce the chancellor of Texas Tech University, Mr. Dave Smith.\
\
CHANCELLOR DAVID SMITH: Thank you. Well, first of all, I want to welcome
everyone here today on behalf of Texas Tech University and the system,
and of course the Secretary, who has a distinguished career - and
actually this is not part of my formal remarks, but I must say that he
is truly a man who has experienced many things in the world of business,
agriculture. He walks the talk \-- a man that has led the state of
Nebraska and of course now leads our country\'s efforts in the area of
agriculture. We want to thank him for spending some time with us and of
course being on the campus of Texas Tech University, of which we are
particularly proud, and particularly the work that we do here in
agriculture, the relevance of our programs, whether it be in either
ranching or farming, and of course some of the innovations that we\'re
doing in our College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. I
think \"relevancy\" is the keyword. And of course we\'re a partner with
him on many efforts, and we\'re very appreciative of that, of our USDA
out here, plant stress and other things that we do at Texas Tech.\
\
It is a pivotal time. As a matter of fact, you and I have something in
common. We were talking just a moment \-- most people wouldn\'t know
this \-- but you and I had to decide for many years in this area of
subsidies whether our families had brown or black and white cattle and
how big those stanchions were. I, like you, spent many a summer on our
dairy farm. And it took me a while to figure out why all the grandkids
went to the dairy farm in the summer. When we figured it out we had to
put all the hay out, we figured that rather quickly. But you\'re a man
that\'s labored in those \[inaudible\], and we appreciate that and what
you bring to this job.\
\
In addition, we\'re excited to have our Congressional leaders here today
and them hosting this event. Congressmen Neugebauer, Mike Conaway have
done a tremendous job in Midland, and of course Ted Poe, if you could
just see the passion from our Second Congressional District of what
he\'s dealing with post-Rita in the eastern part of our state.\
\
So again, on behalf of our university and in the health sciences system,
we welcome you to Texas Tech. And we have great people in this land who
not only are a vibrant part of our economy, and I know you\'ll hear a
little bit about \-- but they are a vibrant part of our culture and
heritage and our belief systems out here. And it\'s still a place, as
you know in Nebraska, where handshake has value. And that\'s what
you\'re going to find from these folks and what they mean to us at this
university and how relevant they are to our programs. So on behalf of
Texas Tech and the greater community, I welcome you here and are very
honored to have you, sir. (Applause.)\
\
SEC. JOHANNS: Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: It is now my distinguished privilege to introduce Congressman
Ted Poe of the Second District of Texas to also give us some remarks.\
\
REPRESENTATIVE TED POE: Thank you very much. It\'s an honor to be here
with you. My name is Ted Poe. I represent the Second Congressional
District down in Southeast Texas. And this morning very early the
Secretary flew into Southeast Texas to view the damage from Hurricane
Rita, and especially to our rice farmers in that area. He talked to rice
farmers then he went to Louisiana and he talked to rice farmers there to
see the damage of Katrina and Rita over there as well, and I want to
thank him for coming to Texas to share his insights and also listen to
our farmers.\
\
Our rice producers are the major farm commodity in Southeast Texas that
I represent. They are interested of course in getting more markets. That
is their goal to have more markets throughout the world so that they can
sell their rice. I\'m a big supporter of the farm industry, and one of
the reasons why is because I personally think it\'s a national security
issue. As we become more and more dependent on foreign oil for our
energy, we never want to get to the point in this country where we are
dependent on foreign countries for our food. So I think that the
Secretary, and his background especially as a farmer, will bring a lot
of insight and we'll listen and take all of your suggestions back
Washington and help not only the administration but Congress do a better
job with the Farm Bill.\
\
Am I supposed to introduce? - I guess I am \-- Mike Conaway \-- he\'s
one of our new members of Congress, just like I am \-- represents
numerous counties here in West Texas, and I want to turn the mike over
to him and he\'ll make a few comments. Michael Conaway. (Applause.)\
\
REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL CONAWAY: Thanks, Ted, I appreciate that. Welcome,
everybody this afternoon. I\'m here like you to listen like the
Secretary is here to listen. You\'re here to talk to us, and us standing
up here blathering at you is not why we filled this room. I don\'t think
we could get seven of you in this room if you come just to hear us talk.
(Laughter.)\
\
So I want to thank the Secretary for scheduling this meeting, to allow
producers from all of West Texas to come and get a shot at him, and sit
up here and listen to what your thoughts are. And given my experience
with District Eleven, which is the district south of here, I know we\'re
in for a treat this afternoon as you\'re going to tell him exactly how
you feel, and you\'re going to sugar-coat it a great deal. So thank you
all for making the efforts to come this afternoon. Secretary, thank you.
Dave Smith, wherever you went, thank you for allowing us the access to
the Texas Tech facilities.\
\
It\'s now my great pleasure to introduce my good friend Randy
Neugebauer. Those of you from Lubbock have seen Randy and I on stage
before. (Laughter.) This is a little less tense than the last time we
shared a microphone. You often ask can we get along together, and we do.
Dana and Suzanne and I and Randy are good friends. We do not breed any
ill will. We ran against each other for Congress. He \-- (inaudible) \--
(laughter.) Randy\'s a great guy. He\'s in his second term down in
Congress, serves on the Agriculture Committee with me. He\'s going to be
one of those voices \-- and I will have mine two in two years when we
begin to craft the policy that is the Farm Bill, the new extension, the
new reauthorization. He\'s a good guy, and it\'s my honor to introduce
to you Randy Neugebauer from District 19. Randy? (Applause.)\
\
REPRESENTATIVE RANDY NEUGEBAUER: Well, as someone said, if you want to
get reelected, be brief. And so I am going to be very brief. I certainly
want to thank Chancellor Smith for providing the Texas Tech and these
facilities for this Listening Session.\
\
I want to thank my two colleagues for coming down and participating in
this. Farm policy affects every district in America, and so it\'s great
to have Mr. Conaway and Mr. Poe here.\
\
We\'re certainly glad to have Secretary Johanns here. I just told \-- we
had a little press conference \-- and one of the things I said is that
I\'ve had a couple of opportunities to meet in a public setting with the
Secretary, but also met privately with him. And one thing that the
people ask me about, Mr. Secretary, they say, "What\'s the new Secretary
like?" And one of the things that I said, and I really mean this, is the
Secretary is a good listener. He came in at a pretty interesting time as
far as farm policy. He\'s had to deal with some mad cow, animal ID, and
hurricanes, and trade issues, and cotton, Brazil, Step 2 issues. He
stepped into a situation and I tell you has done a great job in
listening, and particularly listening to the people that are involved in
agriculture, because he comes from that agricultural background. As has
been alluded to, he grew up on a dairy farm in Iowa, and served I think
two terms as the governor of Nebraska. And while he was the governor of
Nebraska, what the Secretary knew as governor of Nebraska, as he knows
as the Secretary now, is that trade is an integral part of farm policy
as we move forward. Many of our commodities, the domestic demand for
those commodities is flat. And if we\'re going to increase the number of
customers for those commodities, we\'ve got to go out into the world. As
you know, 95 percent of the folks in the world live outside the United
States. So he\'s been very active in that.\
\
So I\'m going to make my remarks brief. But, Mr. Secretary, welcome to
West Texas and thank you for having this Listening Session. Ladies and
gentlemen, the Secretary of Agriculture, Michael Johanns. (Applause.)\
\
SEC. JOHANNS: Thank you very, much. It\'s great to be in West Texas.
It\'s great to be in Texas. Let me express my appreciation. That was a
very warm welcome you gave me. It tempts me to do an informal survey
just to see what\'s going on here. This Saturday when Texas \--
(laughter) \-- will be playing Nebraska, how many of you will be rooting
for Texas Tech? (Cheers.) Those aren\'t very good odds. But I do
appreciate the warm welcome.\
\
I always tell this story right after I got elected governor of Nebraska,
but before I was sworn in, I was invited to go to Kearney, Nebraska and
give a speech, and so my wife Stephanie and I drove out there. And we
got there, and a nice introduction, nice comments \-- just like we\'ve
heard today. I\'m making my way up to the podium, and everybody stood up
and applauded, just like you did. And so I got to the podium, and I
said, \"You know, that\'s really very nice of you, but I haven\'t done
anything yet.\" And somebody in back yelled out, \"And when you do, we
won\'t be standing.\" So \-- (laughter) \--But it is good to be here.\
\
Let me say to Tony we appreciate you being the moderator for this. Tony
Purcell and Tony St. James, they were \-- we\'ve got two Tonys \-- I
think I can hardly go wrong if I refer to Tony, but they\'re kind of the
enforcer. Two minutes goes awfully fast, and we\'re going to have a lot
of people who have something to say. This is a packed house, standing
room only. And so we\'re going to try to go through this pretty quickly.
But Tony is the guy that\'s going to have to say two minutes are up. And
I would say that in an event where we have so many people who are
interested in this farm policy, if you don\'t get a chance to talk
today, or if you feel like you got cut off before you really got off
your chest what you came here to day, please get in touch with us. I
take phone calls, we have a Web site, usda.gov that you can click onto
and just type in your comments, letters \-- whatever it is, we want to
hear from you. Like I said, today might be the first forum where we \--
we\'re going to do our best, but we might not get to everybody \-- most
of you, I hope we do, but I certainly hope we do.\
\
Now, reference was made that I did grow up on a dairy farm, and I did.
So I saw a little confusion. You probably want to know where that\'s at
exactly before we get started today, so I better clear that up. It\'s
actually in the state of Iowa. You\'re still confused. Where in the
state of Iowa? Well, it was near Osage. Nobody is nodding their head
yet, so I\'ll clear that up. You\'re wondering where Osage is at. Osage
is south of Stacyville and Saint Ansgar, and it\'s straight east of
Manly. So now you know where Osage is. (Laughter.)\
\
I tell people my father had three sons. He knew how to build character
in his sons. It was very simple to him. We were handed a pitchfork and
we were sent to the barn or the hog house or the chicken house, and we
stood about ankle deep in you-know-what. We pitched away. That\'s how
John thought he was building character in his sons. Little did he know,
he was preparing me for my life in politics. (Laughter. Applause.) I
said that at another Farm Bill Forum \-- I forget the Congressman that
was with me, but he cracked a smile. (Laughter.) You guys are a bit more
excited, so I appreciate it. (Laughter.)\
\
I do bring greetings from the boss, the guy I work for, the guy that I
got to know as governor \-- he was governor a couple of years before he
became President of the United States. I will tell you what you came to
know about this man, and that is he is a man of great leadership and
conviction. And I tell you what, having been near him now for nine
months on his Cabinet, my respect has only deepened for George W. Bush.
So he sent me along with a greeting, and we\'re going to do that
greeting, and then I was just going to turn to you and say, \"Take it
away, Tony.\" So how about the greeting from the President?\
\
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH (from audiotape): Thanks for letting me speak to
you at this Farm Bill Forum. America\'s farm and ranch families provide
a safe and abundant food supply for our people and for much of the
world. You represent the best values of America: stewardship of the
land, hard work and independence, faith, service and community. Mike
Johanns understands the importance of America\'s farmers to our country,
which is why I chose him to lead our Department of Agriculture. I\'m
proud of his work, and he will lead our efforts on the next Farm Bill.\
\
Secretary Johanns and I believe the first step in this process is to ask
each of you how today\'s Farm Bill is working and how it can be better.
And as we look to improve America\'s farm policy, we\'ll continue to
focus on the following goals. See, America has about 5 percent of the
world\'s population, which means 95 percent of your potential customers
are overseas. So one of our goals must be to ensure that America\'s
farmers and ranchers have access to open global markets. A second goal
is that we want future generations to have plenty of opportunities to go
into agriculture. Thirdly, we need cooperative conservation that
encourages good stewardship of our land and natural habitats.\
\
We also need to act wisely in delivering help to our nation\'s
producers. And we must promote cutting-edge agricultural products and
research. And, finally, we must ensure a good quality of life in rural
America.\
\
The Farm Bill is important legislation that meets real needs. The next
Farm Bill should further strengthen the farm economy and preserve this
way of life for farmers and ranchers of the future. Hearing your advice
is an important step toward meeting these goals. I thank you for all you
do for our country, and thank you for listening.\
\
SEC. JOHANNS: It\'s all yours, Tony.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Now we have to get to the business
at hand. As we said, this is a Listening Session and so we\'re waiting
for your comments. Now, there are a few ground rules that we need to
establish here. You can see by the size of the crowd here that we\'d
never get through everybody in three hours. So limit your comments to
two minutes. Now, we have a lighting system to help you, as I understand
over here on the wall. It\'s going to be displayed as green for the
first minute and a half. It will turn yellow for 30 seconds. And then it
will turn red. When it turns red, you\'re done. (Laughter.) Now, if we
have a problem with that, we do have several members of the offensive
line of the Red Raiders waiting in the wings \-- (laughter) \-- and they
will help us maintain the two-minute limit. In order to get as many
comments as possible, that\'s what we have to do. So let\'s begin the
comment session. There\'s a microphone over here and a microphone over
here. It will be first-come-first-serve after the first two speakers.\
\
The first one we\'ll hear from is Riley Branch (sp), Texas FFA Area 2
President. Riley?\
\
MR. RILEY BRANCH (sp): Thank you. Mr. Secretary, representatives, I am,
like he said, Riley Branch. I\'m President of the Area 2 Association,
and I\'m here today alongside Mr. Padon Holt, President of the Area 1
Association \-- (inaudible) \-- Plainview FFA District, and Matt Davis,
vice President of the Area 1 Association. We are proud to be here today
representing the Texas FFA and its 61,000 members.\
\
The Texas FFA is concerned about how competitive U.S. agriculture is
going to stay and how this competitiveness is going to affect our future
agriculture. Here in America, farmers produce enough crops to not only
serve America\'s needs, but to also serve many throughout the world. It
is becoming more difficult for farmers to produce an equal amount of
product because of rising costs of inputs. We believe that continued
support from the government will help farmers meet these inputs with
equal opportunities.\
\
The 2002 Farm Bill has proven to be one of the most essentially and
fiscally-responsible pieces of agriculture legislation, and the Texas
FFA would like to see it continue without change, because we believe
that it works. Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Riley.\
\
Next we\'ll hear from Aaron Jennings, the Texas 4-H President.\
\
MR. AARON JENNINGS: Mr. Secretary, on behalf of the youth of Texas and
the one million members of Texas 4-H, I thank you for considering the
challenges facing the young people who desire to become involved in
production agriculture. I have a desire to return to my family\'s ranch
in order to produce sheep and cattle for our great nation. However, I
realize that without supplemental income it will be difficult to
generate enough farm profits to support a family. Today in my county,
whose largest industry is agriculture, only a small percentage of
producers under the age of 40 depend solely on farming and ranching. The
rising cost of land, capital, equipment and fuel are a deterrent to
young farmers. Additionally, young farmers are discouraged when they see
older, more established farmers leaving their farms because of their
inability to overcome the economic setbacks caused by natural disasters
or severe and sudden market swings.\
\
Therefore, farm policy must demonstrate the ability to keep farms and
ranches in production. These policies must have a well planned, flexible
and available infrastructure. Because of the diversity of agriculture,
these policies must be broad-based to encompass the needs of all. They
should also be flexible enough to avoid inadvertently assisting one
segment of production at the expense of another.\
\
Agriculture must remain strong for economic reasons as well as national
security. Since our producers are competing on a global market and
produce the safest food supply in the world, policy should ensure that
labor and environmental regulations are not cost-prohibitive. In view of
terrorist activities, America should not depend on foreign food
supplies, which would have detrimental results.\
\
Therefore, on behalf of next generation of farmers, I believe that farm
policy should be flexible and broad-based in order to ensure the
survival of all segments of production agriculture. Thank you.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Aaron.\
\
Now, you all had a brochure as you came in. On the back of that brochure
are these six specific areas the Secretary would like to have addressed
in this Listening Forum. So if you\'ll review those, remember the light
system \-- green, yellow, red.\
\
And I would remind you that this session is both being transcribed and
recorded and broadcast live on about six or seven radio stations. So
let\'s maintain some decorum. (Laughter.)\
\
So, with that, let\'s begin the comments. Just step up to either the
microphone over here or the microphone over there, and we will
alternate. I\'ll go first to this microphone. The second comment will
come from this microphone, third over here, fourth over there and so
forth. And, as you begin your comments, please state your name, where
you\'re from, and if you represent an organization or what your
affiliation in agriculture is. So, with that, let\'s begin with your
comments with this microphone over here.\
\
MR. GAIL KRING: Thank you. Mr. Secretary, my name is Gail Kring. I\'m
the President of PYCO Industries here in Lubbock. Our company has
cottonseed oil mills in Lubbock and Greenwood, Mississippi. We\'re a
cooperative with over 100 members, and we are just one of the many
businesses throughout the processing and distribution chain that depend
on crop production for our livelihood.\
\
A farm program that provides support and stability for producer
agriculture is not only good for the farm economy but for the general
economy as well. In 2002, we put in place a farm program that provides
the necessary support and stability in such a manner that does not
distort overall production and pricing. In determining the right
direction for the next Farm Bill, you only need to look as far as the
current farm program to find the blueprint for success. We thank you for
being here in Lubbock today. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Over here.\
\
MR. KID GALLOWAY (sp): My name is Kid Galloway. I\'m a West Texas cotton
farmer. I farm about 500 acres just over near Alton, Texas. And I wish
to say the 2002 ought to go on. It is that simple. Wouldn\'t our life be
great? But it\'s not. The problem is global production. Right now we\'re
looking at prices on cotton with a low price support, low prices \-- You
can\'t market your cotton when you can\'t sell it as cheap as the other
entities out there. We have got to have good trade agreements. We have
got to abide by those trade agreements that we made.\
\
The other problem we have is that cost production is lagging. Even with
the price supports that we have now, Congressmen, it\'s not going to
work in five years, because the cost of production is rising so rapidly
that no one \-- I don\'t care how big you are \-- is going to be able to
produce cotton at 74 cents. It just ain\'t going to work.\
\
So what we need is to lower production. And I don\'t have a solution to
that, but I know it\'s something that has to be done.\
\
And an area that I\'m really concerned about is our young farmers and
how prohibitive it is to get into farming nowadays. When you\'re talking
\$100,000 stripper or \$150,000 for a tractor, including \$200,000
stripper \-- land at \$1,000 or \$1,500 an acre, who can afford it? Who
can get into farming? Nobody. And we need to come up with a way to do
that. And I\'m in favor of limiting the \-- lost my train of thought \--
but I\'m in favor of capping the subsidies and limiting those subsidies.
And we\'ve already got a cap in place, the preemptive rule, and it will
slow the subsidies down and encourage our young farmers to stay in
business and stop this massive commercialization of agriculture. Thank
you.\
\
MODERATOR: Before we go to the next speaker \-- we\'ll be going over
here to the right \-- if you have a cell phone, please turn it off or
put it on vibrate.\
\
We\'ll go here. Next comment on the right.\
\
MR. JOHN MCCLUNG: Mr. Secretary, members of Congress, my name is John
McClung. I\'m the President of the Texas Produce Association,
representing the fruit and vegetable industry statewide. First, I\'d
like to thank you for being here today and taking time with us. And I\'d
like to run through a little bit with you what\'s happened with produce
industry in Texas in the last 10 or 15 years.\
\
Fifteen, twenty years ago, Texas was the number three fruit and
vegetable-producing state in the country. When the 2001 specialty crop
grant money was divided up that Congress appropriated, that was divided
according to the value of the fruit and vegetable crops in that state.
Texas had slipped to tenth place, tied with New York. There are reasons
that happened, and I\'d like to go through that with you, and I hope
those numbers do not cover \-- was the fact that during that time Texas
transitioned from being a producing state where now about half of what
we sell both within Texas and to the rest of the country is \-- almost
all of it from Mexico. And that\'s had a tremendous impact on the
domestic producers and domestic shippers\
\
Let me give you an example. When I first came to Texas about six years
ago, in Starr County \-- Starr County is right along the river, down on
the west side of the Rio Grande Valley \-- the biggest employer in that
county was Starr Produce. It was a big, thriving, growing concern. As of
this year they are out of business. Their shed is now a barn for school
buses.\
\
About four weeks ago \-- less than that \-- I also manage three federal
marketing orders. The guys that or the committee that run the cantaloupe
and honeydew marketing order have voted to eliminate that marketing
order. Why? They\'re put out of business by Central American imported
melons. Interestingly, Mexico is ready to be put out of business by
Central American melons along with us.\
\
But yesterday in the LA Times there was a fascinating story about the
\-- comments which I don\'t have time to finish. But I got a couple in.
Thank you for your time.\
\
MODERATOR: Okay, fine. Let\'s go over here to the left.\
\
MR. LLOYD ARTHUR: Mr. Secretary, members of Congress, I\'m Lloyd Arthur.
I\'m from Ralls, Texas. I\'m the vice President of the Texas Farm
Bureau, and I\'m a cotton and grain sorghum farmer.\
\
The Texas Farm Bureau supports the overall concept of the 2002 Farm
Bill, particularly its flexibility to allow the farmers to respond to
market conditions in terms of what to plant. This program has been
especially helpful in times of low prices.\
\
The direct payments have been helpful in providing the minimum safety
net. These payments provide the dependable cash flow that is necessary
for long financial commitments. We support the continuation of the
marketing loan and the countercyclical programs supplemented by the
direct program. These programs provide an important safety net for U.S.
agriculture in times of low prices and adverse trade situations.\
\
Improving trade is a high priority. Currently we are exporting one-third
of our production. We need to continue to programs and allow producers
the flexibility to adjust to global market changes. Marketing education
and direct marketing by producers should be a part of any future farm
legislation. The Texas Farm Bureau is currently involved in an effort to
assist producers in marketing their products directly to overseas
buyers. In dealing with foreign interests, it is critical that loans or
other financial guarantees are available to assure a loan institution\'s
financial stability. It is important that the market promotion and
foreign market development programs continue.\
\
Crop insurance simply has not worked very well in Texas. While Texas is
a beneficiary state, we get more in payments than we produce in
premiums, the overall production per program has worked in critical
situations, but not all the time.\
\
Conservation programs have been very effective providing cost share
assistance for needed important conservation practices. Programs such as
EQIP, GRP, WRP and CRP, have been well maintained in Texas, and Texas is
one of the largest states in the CRP program. The conservation CSP
program, however, does not work well in our area because of the
attraction of the payments to those producers has not been well
maintained.\
\
Regarding the rural development and encouraging the next generation of
producers, we would suggest that the short answer to these questions is
profitability. We need profitability within our own structure for these
to work. We want to thank you for being here. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: I would point out that if you are not able to finish the
comments that you wanted to make, out in the lobby there are some pads
where you can write out your comments and put them in the box. Or you
can go to USDA\'s Web site, which is USDA.gov/farmbill, and make your
comments there.\
\
So, with that, it\'s back over here to the right.\
\
MR. WALLY DARNEILLE: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, members of
Congress, thank you very much for coming to Lubbock today to listen to
us. We commend you for your openness in holding these Listening Sessions
around the country.\
\
My name is Wally Darneille, and I\'m President and CEO of Plains Cotton
Cooperative in Lubbock. We\'re a member-owned cooperative which
produces, warehouses and markets cotton produced in Texas, Oklahoma and
Kansas. We also have a textile mill in Littlefield, about 45 miles up
the road, where about 650 employees make denim that is made from the
cotton, which they produce.\
\
We run about 20 percent of the U.S. cotton crop through our cooperative.
We market it both domestically and on the world stage. In short, our
operation is very much in keeping with the stated objectives of the 2002
Farm Bill, which is to facilitate the movement of commodities in global
markets.\
\
We have about 37,500 stakeholders in 49 states. We sent out over 200,000
checks last year, totaling over \$1 billion. Our message to you today is
very similar to what you\'ve heard in the Listening Sessions around the
country. The 2002 Farm Bill is working. It is providing the safety net
for our producers around the country that they need to survive in the
world markets. Many other countries are willing to give lip service to
not subsidizing their producers, while at the same time they come in the
back door with different programs. We certainly have faced this in a lot
of markets.\
\
It\'s working not just for our producers but for all of the members of
the rural communities of America \-- the equipment dealers, the seed
dealers, the fertilizer producers, the bank, the value of real estate.
We\'re lucky in West Texas to have had leaders over the years who have
understood the importance of agriculture. We commend them for what they
have done in writing the 2002 Farm Bill, and we humbly beseech you that
you continue the provisions of that bill in 2007. Thank you very much.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Over here to the left.\
\
MR. KENNY LUNSGERT (sp): Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. My name is Kenny
Lunsgert (sp). I grow sod in the Oklahoma Panhandle near Guymon. Mr.
Secretary, I\'ve had \-- you have asked to address six questions
regarding the new Farm Bill. After considering these questions, my
answers are quite simple. The current Farm Bill provides an opportunity
to make a profit. The opportunity to be profitable undoubtedly is the
first consideration of new generations of farmers.\
\
The current Farm Bill enabled us to be competitive in foreign markets.
The current Farm Bill is an excellent conservation environmental
proceeds. Profitable agriculture is a key factor in the economy of rural
America. The safety net provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill in the form of
countercyclical payments has given producers a chance to be profitable
when faced with low world prices, and has certainly provided the
stability we need in the new Farm Bill. The ability to establish a crop
yield base in the new Farm Bill will ensure continued stability. Mr.
President, again, the ability to establish a crop yield base in the new
Farm Bill will ensure continued stability.\
\
The current Farm Bill provides world market access for my cotton. It
provides the necessary entities to invest in product research and
development. In summary, Mr. President, the current Farm Bill works. I
urge you to continue your support of this important legislation in the
current form. Thank you, sir. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Here on the right.\
\
MR. JARED SPOKIE (sp): Thank you, Mr. Secretary. My name is Jared Spokie
(sp), and I raise cotton in southwestern Kansas. I also manage a
cooperative gin there that serves 594 members in Kansas. One of the
primary reasons we grow cotton in our area is the lower cost of
production and water conservation, which go hand in hand with each
other. In today\'s world, we cannot afford to pump enough groundwater to
irrigate crops such as corn. Cotton requires less water; therefore we
save money and conserve an important resource.\
\
Today\'s farmers face greater risk than many of our counterparts in
other industries, and many of the factors that create those risks are
beyond our control. The weather could wipe out an entire crop or bring
in a record crop. The value of the U.S. dollar has a direct impact on
our competitiveness in global markets. However, a stable farm program
goes a long way in helping us face these risks. A stable and consistent
farm program provides the foundation we need to make long-term
investments in our farming operations, and it provides incentives for
future farmers. The safety net provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill in the
form of countercyclical payments when faced with low world prices has
provided us the stability we need, and we\'d want to see in the new Farm
Bill. The ability to establish a yield base in the new Farm Bill will
ensure continued stability.\
\
In conclusion, Mr. Secretary, the 2002 Farm Bill is fair and it works. I
sincerely believe it addresses the issues in which you requested input.
When the 2007 Farm Bill is written, it should be a carbon copy of the
legislation passed by a bipartisan Congress in 2002. Thank you.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Over here on the left.\
\
MR. LELAND WHITE: Mr. Secretary and other members of the panel, we
appreciate you all coming here and listening to our comments today. I\'m
Leland White. I\'m a cotton producer, and I\'m also on the board of the
Lynn County Soil and Water Conservation District and in Ward 119. We
believe the present Farm Bill has basically worked for farmers and for
consumers. The present bill keeps the farmers in business and benefits
also the consumer. Since the present Farm Bill went into effect,
farmers\' cost of inputs have risen dramatically. More specifically, the
energy costs have increased for some as much as 100 percent and higher.
With some minor changes the Farm Bill will continue to keep agriculture
working in the United States.\
\
The CRP program needs to continue \-- (inaudible) -- but will need some
change to make it fair throughout the United States. Also the
designation of \"beginning\" or \"young\" farmer need some changes.
These designations can be better handled in the state, local, county or
district stage. In the interest of time, we cannot elaborate in detail
on most of these questions.

Finally, we believe in an extension of the present Farm Bill that will
allow farmers and the administration more time to work on other
challenges. Thank you again for your willingness to be here.
(Applause.)\
\
MR. SHAWN HOLLIDAY (sp): Mr. Secretary, Congressmen, thank you for being
here. My name is Shawn Holliday, I\'m a producer in Dawson County,
fourth generation. I strongly urge you to keep the current farm
structure and provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill, a bill that was written
with the most farm industry input of any Farm Bill in our country\'s
history. Our family has been farming in Dawson County since its
inception. Farming has not always been the easiest way of life, but
through the support of the American people and their belief that this
country should stand on its own two feet when it comes to food and
fiber, we have always been able to work through the different economies
we have faced. Now more than ever, with the high cost of energy and the
\[inaudible\] global markets, this Farm Bill is very important to our
ability to make long-range decisions that pay back. Program benefits are
not a windfall but a necessity to keep our infrastructure and rural
economies in motion.\
\
The 2002 Farm Bill also addresses conservation. Through its cost-share
programs, we have been able to improve systems, increase our water use
efficiency even while facing hostile markets.\
\
Again, I would like to urge you not to digress. A strong agriculture
needs a strong support. Support less than what we have received in the
2002 Farm Bill would be disastrous for our rural economies. Thank you.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Over here.\
\
MR. TOM WALLOP (sp): Thank you. My name is Tom Wallop (sp), and I
appreciate very much that you have come to this listen to us today \--
not necessarily as a --gripe session but to let us speak from heart
about the bill.\
\
I recognize you have a fiduciary duty to the taxpayer of the United
States of America to spend the money well. And through that and direct
payments come from the taxpayer, and the reason we need those direct
payments is because we do not play on a level playing field, such as
minimum wage, EPA restrictions and wetland sanctions, simply so we
cannot ship our goods and services to.\
\
Isn\'t it a shame that we saw the ability of these two young men to
stand here today and talk about agriculture and want to go into
agriculture, and yet if it was such a profitable \-- farming that you
can make a lot of money in, they\'d be in it today, and my son as well,
instead of looking for other opportunities to get a job \-- because
there is no money in the farming industry today.\
\
Thank you again for coming. And one of the last comments would be we
also need the FSA offices in place to get the government\'s help, since
they\'re in place today, to help us make this money and keep us on the
right track. A guy likes me like to look at somebody in the eye and \--
(inaudible) \-- appreciate it again. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Let\'s go back over here.\
\
MR. WELDON MELTON: Mr. Secretary, thank you for coming. My name is
Weldon Melton, I\'m a farmer in Hale County.\
\
Mr. Secretary, protect the security of the United States. Keep the 2002
Farm Bill, a fully funded 2002 Farm Bill, in place come 2007. American
agriculture is a vital and strategic industry. It must be protected and
nourished. The 2002 Farm Bill does just that. This bill provides a
safety net for American agriculture that is a fair and equitable
program. We must not expect the American producers to compete with
farmers that have no minimum wage laws, and none or very minimal
environmental regulations. The American farmer cannot be expected to
shoulder the entire cost of keeping the environment healthy and the
rural economy strong alone. The federal government, like it passes those
regulations, must assist the American farmer in bearing that cost.\
\
The administration as well must not allow countries in the WTO that are
more adept at hiding their subsidies, such as currency manipulation or
free irrigation, to dictate to the American people how they will ensure
a safe and secure food and fiber source.\
\
The 2002 Farm Bill also encourages young farmers to enter into the
industry. Young farmers can enter into this industry because the 2002
Farm Bill gives them, and perhaps more importantly their bankers, a
secure and stable source of income. The stability offered by this bill
allows the young farmers, and some of us old farmers as well, to make
long-range plans. Instituting payment limits will not roll time back. It
will not bring back the \'50s\' lifestyle. Advocating more payment
limits can only work if you also roll back tractor costs, seed,
fertilizer and fuel costs.\
\
Mr. Secretary, protect the security of the United States. Keep the 2002
Farm Bill a fully funded 2002 Farm Bill. Just rename it the 2007 Farm
Bill. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: I\'m sure glad he said \"old farmers\" \-- I thought you were
fixing to say something else. Over here. (Laughter.)\
\
MR. L.G. RAUN: Congressmen and Mr. Secretary, thank you for holding
these sessions and for the opportunity for us to express our views. My
name is L.G. Raun. I\'m a rice farmer from El Campo, over in Wharton
County, other side of the state, close to where you came from this
morning.\
\
Our farming operation involves my brother, my wife and myself. We farm
as tenant farmers, a family farming operation on leased land. My family
and I have grown rice for over 90 years, since Grandpa migrated down
from Nebraska. I\'ve also grown milo, corn and soybeans in the past
also.\
\
I currently chair the Texas Rice Producers Legislative Group, and I have
also served for 15 years on the county committee in Wharton County
administering the federal farm programs. At the same time I\'ve been
doing that I\'ve been farming for the last 30 years. I farmed under
seven different agricultural acts. These have been \-- some of them have
been good and there have been some bad policies \-- I\'ve seen all of
those. I\'ve seen them, I\'ve had to administer them, and I\'ve farmed
under them.\
\
U.S. agriculture today is the envy of the world. We take care of our
needs and the rest of the worlds during peace, during war, disasters and
famines. And we create millions of jobs, we support rural economies. And
we do all this while also helping to sustain some of the cleanest air,
water and soil in the world.\
\
Today we are faced with the culmination of low commodity prices in crop
agriculture with extremely high input costs obviously driven by record
high energy prices. Farmers\' pessimism today is the worst that I have
ever seen. Bankers are sweating examiners while massaging farmers\' cash
flow projections in this next year. Today, if it were not for the safety
net provisions of the current Farm Bill, you would see a catastrophic
meltdown of U.S. agriculture before you right now.\
\
Mr. Secretary, we urge your support of the continuation of the current
Farm Bill provisions in the next Farm Bill. Farmers and ranchers in
rural communities and all of agriculture are depending on you and
Congress to support us in this effort. Our future is in your hands.
Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Back over here.\
\
MR. ERIC KEARN (sp): My name is Eric Kearn (sp), from Ackerly, Texas. I
farm in Howard County. And the years I\'ve waited returning to the
family farm, for several reasons one of those being I didn't see much of
a future in dryland farming in West Texas during the drought years. But
I have moved back, that\'s my future, and now I have some overwhelming
concerns. In fact, a few gentlemen have already spoken about, as far as
I heard some of you people said you get out what put into it. And I like
my banker, he\'s a nice guy, but I\'ve gotten to know him a little too
much here these first few months. (Laughter.) And I think \-- and I look
at it like I would any business, is the parity price. You know how
cotton is \-- (inaudible) December, 2004 around \$2.20 per pound, and
we\'re receiving 37 cents on a pound, top goes up to 50 cents. And with
that huge of a gap I can\'t see what we can do to maybe make that a
little bit smaller a gap. I don\'t know what\'s happened to all that
money, and how everything can inflate by 30 to 35 percent from 1980 to
2005, when the crops that we produce are getting the same or less. We
have some great technology now that\'s available to us, but can we do it
with the money we have left over. We need to evolve and make changes,
but how can we do that when there\'s nothing left over, to put into next
season. And I think that parity price is something you definitely need
to look at. I can\'t sit up here and tell we don\'t need any changes \--
we always need change, as long as it\'s for the better. Farmers have
been evolving and changing and going about their daily business much
differently than they did 10-15 years ago, and I think that has to be
\-- come from the D.C. side as well. We have to prepare for the future.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Go ahead, sir.\
\
SPEAKER: Mr. Secretary and Congressmen, we appreciate you coming to
Texas today, sitting down with us on this forum. I am the President of
the Texas Wildlife Management Association, and we are responsible for
collecting local county commissioner money, which amounts to
approximately \$2.5 million a year, to go into our State Wildlife
Services Department out in San Antonio. The umbrella is USDA APHIS
Wildlife Services, as you well know.\
\
I ranch about an hour southeast of here. We\'ve been \-- I\'m only the
second-generation rancher, but we\'ve been in constant sheep production
for 63 years. And in order to do that we have to protect ourselves from
predators. The funding through Wildlife Services is most critical to us
and everybody in the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers\' Association, which
is also represented here by several members. We urge you to continue and
increase funding anytime possible for our wildlife services projects. We
can\'t afford to lose any more tools. We have aerial programs, we have
people on the ground. But it is vital for the sheep industry to survive
in order to protect our livestock and our livelihood. Thank you.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Yes, sir?\
\
MR. MARION SNELL: Yes, sir, Mr. Secretary, I want to thank you for
coming and listening to us today. My name is Marion Snell. I\'m from
Southern Dawson County, Ackerly, Texas. I\'m here with my wife, my two
sons and daughters-in-law, and we are farmers. I want to make that
clear. And my family has farmed in Dawson County for most of the last
century.\
\
Mr. Secretary, the reason we are here \-- and I can tell you this \--
there\'s a whole lot of places I\'d rather be than right here today \--
but the only reason we are here, because we see a crisis looming on the
horizon that is going to get catastrophic for family farmers. If
something is not done in the near future, a lot of us in this room \--
and I\'m not just speaking for myself, that we won\'t be here for the
implementation of the 2007 Farm Bill. But I don\'t believe that we
should scrap the 2002 Farm Bill, Mr. Secretary. But I do believe that
there could be improvements. Whenever this bill was enacted, it probably
came close to working. But since then, in 2002, our energy prices have
tripled. Our fertilizer costs have more than doubled. And that\'s just
the tip of the iceberg. We cannot continue to farm below the cost of
production. Farmers today are mortgaging their land for the second or
third time just to stay in agriculture. Now, there is something wrong
with that picture. I mean, in America any businessman would do that just
to stay in business. I mean, we are beating the world and America, we
are trying to keep our food supply safe, and safe from the terrorist
activities. But we cannot continue to do this without profitability.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary.\
\
MODERATOR: Right here.\
\
MR. DALE ARTHO: My name is Dale Artho and I\'m a soybean, cotton, wheat,
corn farmer and cattle producer in Wildorado,Texas. I\'m Secretary of
U.S. Grains Council, which is a foreign market development arm for corn,
sorghum and barley. I serve on the National Sorghum Producers, and the
Texas Grain Sorghum Producers. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for stopping in
to share our ideas with you today. I would like to see the farmer
program stay as it with no change. Any changes at this time will be
detrimental to WTO negotiations. Unless we can negotiate real-market
access that provides our clients fair rates with low inbound rates, we
only will reap the minimum and won\'t realize gains for U.S. producers.
We must negotiate to tariff rates, not an in-bound rate. Studies show
the applied rate must be below 28 percent before U.S. farmers can give
up domestic support.\
\
\[Inaudible}the farm program has also reduced land values. When we
reduce land values, how will we support our school systems and hospitals
in rural America? Land value provides the tax income for these vital
institutions in our rural communities.\
\
And I\'d like to add a comment, a remark about FSA. We need those guys
to be out there with our farmers. They\'re our partners in this
business. Thank you, and I still got a green light to ask questions.
(Laughter. Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Over here.\
\
MR. WESTIN MUCCHI (sp): Good to see you, Mr. Secretary. My name is
Westin Mucchi (sp), and I\'m a cotton producer in Gaines County. It\'s a
cotton operation, and it\'s a partnership family farm. And I\'d like to
see the 2002 Farm Bill stay intact as it is as we continue to expand it
and extend it without change. And I look at it as a rural development
program in our area. In our small town we\'re very rural and we have to
have the stability in this farm program where the spending plans are
used and transferred to our local economy who are supporting businesses,
the fuel dealers, equipment dealer \-- and I don\'t want to leave out my
banker also. I've got to have him.\
\
Also, those core businesses provide jobs, and we have to have jobs in
the rural economy to keep people in rural areas for rural development.
That money has to turn, make a profit.\
\
This 2002 Farm Bill to me provides a stable platform and a stable
structure and a safety net for us to do all these things. Again, I\'d
like to see the 2002 Farm Bill stay as it is without change.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Yes, sir?\
\
MR. MARK WILLIAMS: Gentlemen, my name is Mark Williams, I farm in
Farwell, Texas. We\'re 100 miles northwest of Lubbock. My son and I grow
cotton, corn, cattle, green beans and wheat.\
\
The most important thing I want to say here today is to recommend the
continuation of the 2002 Farm Bill. It was developed over two years of
hearings in a bipartisan effort, and I can\'t imagine a Farm Bill any
better than the one signed by President Bush in 2002, the most balance
between food and nutrition, rural development, trade promotion,
conservation and farm commodity programs. It also balances farm program
benefits between payments not directly tied to production and between
payments that depend on production, such as the marketing loans.\
\
Mr. Secretary, I look at the total industry of agriculture as a long
train, and the engine of that train is production agriculture. It just
takes a little stimulation today to keep the whole train moving forward.
All that economic activity is dependent upon the health of farming
\[inaudible\]. We should look at farm program payments as a stimulation
to all the industries, represented by the cars pulled by that train. I
will challenge anyone here to disprove the notion that there is probably
way more tax revenue produced by this stimulation than the cost of farm
programs themselves.\
\
The next thing I want to talk about is unintended consequences. I think
one of the main components of Farm Bill issues that discourages young
farmers is the threat of payment limitations. What other industry tells
its entry-level young men that before they even start that they can only
get so large, no matter what their efficiencies might be by increasing
the size of their operation? It makes as much sense as telling him that
he must use a four-wheel planter when much more efficient sizes are
available. I guarantee that our major export competitor doesn\'t limit
the size of his producers. How can we compete when we are artificially
limiting our producers and our payments?\
\
Finally, Mr. Secretary, I encourage you to listen to growers here today
and growers across this nation. If there\'s one thing that we have said
very consistently, it\'s maintain this Farm Bill in its current form.
Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MR. RAY PREWETT: Mr. Secretary and Congressmen, I\'m Ray Prewett. I\'m
President of Texas Citrus Mutual and executive vice President of the
Texas Vegetable Association. As a representative of Texas\'s fruit and
vegetable industry, I would like to add my voice to what you\'ve heard
from other listening sessions, and that is that we believe that produce,
fruits and vegetables, should have a prominent role in the 2007 Farm
Bill than they\'ve had in the past. I\'ll mention a few items.\
\
Nutrition policy. The new dietary guidelines emphasize the importance of
fruits and vegetables in the American diet. And, among other things, the
new Farm Bill should provide authorization for the fruit and vegetable
SAP in all 50 states. It has a lot of implications as you know beyond
merely feeding those kids. It teaches them a lifestyle of eating fruits
and vegetables.\
\
Invasive pests and diseases. We need a stable and permanent funding to
protect us from a growing onslaught of pests and diseases, due in part
from our increased imports.\
\
EQIP. EQIP addresses a wide range of needs. In Texas, water conservation
is a top priority, and we believe that water conservation should be
added as a separate national priority in that program.\
\
Maintain flex acreage provisions. It would probably be no surprise to
have a representative of the fruit and vegetable industry saying that
we\'d like to maintain that provision that\'s in the 2002 Farm Bill.\
\
National Organic Program. As organics continue to increase worldwide, it
places a greater demand on the need to increase funding for the program
and for the research grants, and we encourage that to be part of the
Farm Bill.\
\
Finally, I\'d like to mention the immigration issue. Immigration is not
going to be a part of the 2007 Farm Bill, but I feel I need to take this
opportunity just to emphasize how important that issue is. And we don\'t
have time, nor do I necessarily have the solution to that problem,
except to say that the enforcement-only type of approach to immigration
that\'s being talked about on the talk shows and lots of other places
would be absolutely devastating to American agriculture and the produce
industry. So we must have a comprehensive approach to that problem.
Thank you very much.\
\
MODERATOR: We\'ll take two more comments, and then we\'ll take about a
10-minute break, so you may want to stretch and so forth. So go right
ahead.\
\
MR. TROY SKARKE: Thank you. Gentlemen, my name is Troy Skarke, and I\'m
grain sorghum producer and wheat farmer from the Armstrong County,
Carson County of the Texas Panhandle, right southeast of Amarillo,
Texas, and I also serve as a director on the Texas Grain Sorghum Board.\
\
The 2002 Farm Bill was the most significant piece of farm legislation
ever written for sorghum farmers, because it equalized the sorghum loan
rate with other feed grains on a national basis.\
\
However, at the county level I still do not have the equal program, and
it hurts my ability to conserve and produce while remaining a profitable
farmer. However, my first priority would be to keep the current Farm
Bill program concept in it, even extend it to 2010.\
\
I encourage you, Mr. Secretary Johanns, to make conservation a top
priority in the next Farm Bill. I believe water quantity is just as
important as water quality, and I have the Ogallala Aquifer right below
us.\
\
Even more important on my farm is FSA. I would encourage the USDA to
look at all the programs to ensure that semi-arid crops are not at a
program disadvantage in semi-arid regions.\
\
I support CRP, but I also support programs that reward us for good
farming practices, like no-till or reduced-till practices.\
\
EQIP is another program that has worked for farmers as well as for our
customers, like our producers.\
\
Crop insurance is one example of a USDA program that has unintended
consequences in encouraging high water usage crops to move into
semi-arid regions in the sorghum belt. I would like to see a program
that benefits the producers that choose to minimize the use of
groundwater to produce the crop, and this can be done by incentives to
grow more drought-tolerant crops.\
\
I think a great concept is the Conservation Security Program. I think it
should be spread out over a larger area, so more farmers in the region
can take advantage of it. Thank you, sir. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you very much.\
\
One final comment over here before we take a break.\
\
MR. BRAD HIPPINGTON (sp): Mr. Secretary, members of Congress, my name is
Brad Hippinton (sp). I\'m a family farmer from Lewisville, Texas. My
wife and I have three young boys, and we operate a \-- we try to operate
a modern, efficient, conservation-minded family farm that grows cotton,
peanuts and corn. I\'m one step ahead of all these young men and women
right up here in the front, because I am a first-generation farmer.
There aren\'t very many of us in this area.\
\
My desire today is to convey to you, Mr. Secretary, my support for this
current Farm Bill. I wholeheartedly support the reauthorization of this
Farm Bill and the components of it as far as 2007. This Farm Bill\'s
reauthorization is key to long-term economic viability in our area.
Without this reauthorization, we\'ll have a very uncertain future. The
current Farm Bill is WTO compliant, provides for conservation and
research, and most importantly provides a very needed safety net for our
producers, which is our minimum wage in world markets \-- (inaudible)
\--\
\
This is especially important now as our economy keeps growing and adapts
to world markets at a very uneven levels of competition in other
countries. So without these safety nets there would be nowhere for the
producers to finance their crop inputs. This greatly concerns me,
because I\'m one of the youngest farmers in my area, and I\'m 38.\
\
MODERATOR: Time flies when you\'re having fun, doesn\'t it? (Laughter.)
Okay, we\'ve been going pretty good here for a while. So we\'ll take a
10-minute break. If you\'re in line to step up to the mike, try to
remember who you\'re standing next to, so we can get back in your same
position. So with that \-- and my friend Tony St. James will be up here
after the break. We\'ll be back here in about 10 minutes.\
\
(Break.)\
\
MODERATOR: And, remember, we\'re trying to get answers to those six
questions. So let\'s start.\
\
MS. LINDA GAITHER: Mr. Secretary and Congressmen, we are delighted to
have you along today, and thank you for holding these sessions. I\'m
Linda Gaither, and I\'m chairperson of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce.
And it is just really important to us that you would care enough to come
to hear us here today.\
\
The businesses that make up the chamber are really diverse, in size and
in industry. But one thing we all know, and that is that agriculture is
our driving force in our economy. And recently the Lubbock Chamber
celebrated its 100th \-- (inaudible) \-- in the first nine months of
this year, and that is for expanding in new businesses, and really
that\'s an unprecedented number. This kind of economic climate has been
in large part to the success of the 2002 Farm Bill. That\'s why I\'m
here, on behalf of Lubbock business to express our view that the Farm
Bill in its current form should not be changed when it expires in 2007.\
\
The Chamber of Commerce supported the efforts of area ag leaders and
elected officials who collaborated and labored for over two years to
create the thoroughly thought-out and bipartisan Farm Bill in 2002.
Today we again stand in support alongside them and join them
respectfully urging no changes in the new Farm Bill. Thank you for your
consideration, and I hope you enjoy your visit to Lubbock, the giant
side of Texas. (Applause.)\
\
MR. DEAN BELL (sp): Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary and Congressmen,
moderators \-- and some of my favorite people in the whole world, Texas
farmers and ranchers. I\'m Dean Bell (sp) with Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department, and I appreciate the chance to visit with you just for a
minute this afternoon. I\'m going to be providing you some written
remarks also for the record.\
\
We would, as this farm act approaches, we would appreciate the inclusion
of language in the bill that recognizes the state fish and wildlife
agencies as full partners with USDA. We would also suggest language that
ensures having wildlife as a co-equal with soil and water conservation
in the bill. We had enjoyed and do enjoy good cooperation with all USDA
agencies in Texas. And, frankly, without the Texas farmers and ranchers
that provide the habitat 98 percent of the time for publicly-owned
wildlife resources, we\'re out of business and we don\'t have jobs. So
the farm act may as well be called the Wildlife Conservation Act. It\'s
very important to the landowners and producers in Texas.\
\
We think to better serve the landowners who are trying to put
conservation on the ground we hope that the legislation would include
language that links your conservation program strategies to state
comprehensive wildlife conservation strategies. This is better known as
state wildlife grants. They\'re becoming more and more the way we do
business in the state fish and wildlife agencies. This would be a very
landowner-friendly thing. We would like to see continued program
flexibility to deal with issues unique to individual states and regions.
For example, in the South Plains west of here we have a situation going
on with prairie chickens where permanent high quality cover is needed to
handle existing populations. That\'s going to have be really the
cooperation of farmers and a wildlife-friendly CRP program.\
\
We would like to also ensure that program funding in Title I not in any
way conflict or counteract conservation programs funded in Title II. We
base this on a lot of producers. We would hope that payments would
ensure better integration and water conservation. I think you heard from
several farmers and ranchers already here today the importance of water
in Texas \-- not just here in Ogallala but all over the state. And
that\'s a top priority with Parks and Wildlife Department in a land and
water conservation plan. That\'s job number one for us as a fish and
wildlife agency and we have to do that in concert as well with you and
with and farmers and ranchers.\
\
We would hope the USDA would reauthorize and fully fund all the flagship
conservation programs that are in the current Farm Act. And I think
everyone here is well aware of all the acronyms \-- I\'m not going to
say them. But we would also plead with you for an increased number of
positions for paid professionals within the NRCS and within the Farm
Service Agency.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you for your time. Remember to keep your comments to
two minutes. You can watch the lights to the side. Once it turns yellow,
you have 30 seconds. Thank you.\
\
MR. JIM WILKERSON (sp): Mr. Secretary, my name is Jim Wilkerson, a
peanut, cotton and wheat farmer/producer in Seminole, Texas, which is
about 80 miles south here. My father, three brothers, my son are all a
family rely on growth crop production to make our living. Mr. Secretary,
it is very important not only to my family but to this region. I would
like to thank you for taking the time to come all the way to Lubbock,
Texas to hear our concerns and our ideas.\
\
In this area it takes quite a few acres of land, adequate equipment and
a good banker to economically make a farming operation work. We were
disappointed that the President's budget proposal calls for such extreme
cuts to payment plans. These types of cuts will devastate the majority
of the peanut and cotton farming operations in this region. The payment
limits which are in the 2002 Farm Bill do and will allow us to stay on
the land and continue to farm. We urge the administration to keep the
current payment limit structure in place and ask that it be carried over
into the next Farm Bill intact.\
\
I believe that I join with the majority of the farmers in this region by
saying that I do not want to see major changes in the next Farm Bill.\
\
As a Western Peanut Grower Board member, the 2002 Farm Bill to this
point has worked well for peanut growers. Speaking on behalf of peanut
farmers, we would like to see the next Farm Bill continue with the same
provisions that were making the program successful in the past three and
a half years. The other day my son asked me s question \-- and he loves
to farm \-- he asked me the other day \-- in the new Farm Bill are we
going to get cut so hard that am I going to need to find another job
somewhere? And I couldn\'t answer his question. Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MR.BENITO RODRIQUEZ (sp): Congressmen and Mr. Secretary. (Off mike.) I
honored to have the privilege to speak before you this afternoon. My
name is Benito Rodriguez (sp). I\'m a full-time farmer. I grow cotton
and milo in Swisher County. I grew up on a small farm in Swisher County
and got a loan for the beginning farmr loan program in 94'.However, now
we are seeing problems.\
\
Swisher County has been designated as a disaster county for the last
\[10?\] consecutive years. And, as you know, during these times the farm
\-- (inaudible) \-- depressed, lower prices in most commodities. The
Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 did not \-- (off mike)
\-- produce. Many believe there is going to be a continued credit in
Rural America. They are wrong. (off mike) \-- transactions are made by
massive chain banks. Community reinvestment is something of the past.
Where you used to have 30 farm loan specialists now you have five. \--
(off mike) financed local bank. At the same time, most farmers in my
area have either gone out of business or have increased their size for
efficiency even though costs have doubled, if not tripled. With the FSA
direct loan program we can survive . Without it there is no protection.
The direct loan program has gotten us this far without it the future
looks bleak. \-- (off mike).\
\
I would like to ask your consideration for changing the present Farm
Bill with the loans \-- (off mike) \-- Thank you. (Applause.) Thank
you.\
\
MR. TED HIGGINBOTTOM: My name is Ted Higginbottom. I am a farmer from
Gaines County, Texas, where I raise peanuts, cotton, watermelons, wheat
and run a cattle operation. And I am here today as President of Western
Peanut Growers Association located in Seminole, Texas. Western Peanut
Growers represents the producers of approximately 70 percent of the
peanuts grown in the state of Texas. We want to join the majority of the
farm organizations and farmers in asking for the continuation of the
current farm program, especially as it relates to peanuts. For the first
time in history the peanut industry, consisting of growers, shellers and
manufacturers, are united in support of the current peanut program.\
\
The reason for this support is the Farm Bill helps more with the whole
industry. We feel that currently in that program as it is being
administered in 2005 should be continued. With a continuation of the
Farm Bill we can regain our position in the world export market while
continuing to supply the domestic market with reasonably priced peanuts,
as we are doing today. We strongly urge you to support the American
farmers and consumers by helping us gain a continuation of the current
farm program. Congressmen and Secretary, thanks for coming to Lubbock,
Texas. (Applause.)\
\
MR. LUKE LEWIS (sp): Mr. Secretary and Congressman, my name is Luke
Lewis (sp). I\'m from Canadian, Texas, in the Northeast Panhandle, the
Texas Prairie region located in the Panhandle. I would like to express
my thanks to comment on the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill. As a professional
biologist, I am committed to the conservation of the land with the
landowners here in the \[inaudible\] eastern county region in the
Eastern Panhandle. Our organization works with private landowners to
encourage ecotourism and conservation for farmers and ranchers in our
region. There are many facets we discussed in the upcoming Farm Bill.
But I want to focus on two. The International Association of Fish and
Wildlife Marketing Groups suggests here in Texas as an NGO that it\'s
working with many rural landowners and communities through grants.
We\'ve been involved with several voluntary public recreational areas to
encourage ecotourism in various regions.\
\
We encourage you to support the concept with these elements through the
Conservation Title that will provide funding to NGOs that go from field
to field. This will allow dollars for operational costs, tech network,
land, education of various NRCS and FSA programs that encourage
landowners.\
\
Second, I would encourage in 2007 to find a mechanism for exceeding the
25 percent county cap. Conservation warrant many exemptions \-- i.e.,
CRP, WRP and WREP. Any counties\' cap with CRP don\'t allow wildlife
conservation on particular programs such as CB-43(a), CB-29 and CB-3333.
Our region has a wonderful opportunity to incorporate this program, but
funding has been very limited over the years as other programs ranking
higher in these counties. Such species as the lesser prairie chicken,
wildlife quail are left unprotected. Also, bio-lake habitats or riparian
ecosystems are not being adequately funded to control expanding invasive
plant and shrub species.\
\
Please consider these requests. It\'s like where the rubber meets the
road and landowners in Great Plains willing to do good conservation for
the land. (Applause.) Appreciate your time.\
\
MR. DAVID CLEAVINGER: Hello, Mr. Secretary, I\'m David Cleavinger,
Secretary of the National Wheat Growers, and I farm in the Wildorado
area. We grow wheat, corn, cotton, grain sorghum and cattle. I want you
to notice today we have a large crowd, and because that sends out a
signal that all across America we\'ve seen these large crowds when you
had these Listening Sessions. And it indicates that we have a problem in
agriculture.\
\
I\'m sure this room would be adequate if there were no problems. But we
see an overflowing crowd. And because of that there are problems that we
have no control over.\
\
When you heard the President speak in the opening address, when he
talked about global markets, there was a stir in the room. Why was that?
Because we believe in trade and we believe in world trade. But yet until
we see that reflection in our local markets, we have got to have a
mechanism that helps us get to that global trade. That mechanism is the
successes of the 2002 Farm Bill, the continuation of the direct
payments. And that\'s the direction we need to go. We need to build on
those policies of the 2002 Farm Bill and strengthen them.\
\
We worked with these Congressmen in past issues. They\'ve done a
tremendous job representing our area, and we look forward to working
with them on in upcoming days on the 2007 Farm Bill. But I want to point
out something. In New Orleans, this administration and former
administrations were told that the levees are weakening. And yet
policies were not adhered to to make sure the levees did not break. And
it ended up costing us \$200 to \$300 million dollars.\
\
I look forward to working with you and these Congressmen to make sure
the policies of American agriculture are strong and that we will build
on the successes where agriculture does not become the next New Orleans.
Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MR. ROSS WILSON: Good afternoon, my name is Ross Wilson with the Texas
Cattle Feeders Association. We appreciate the opportunity to be here
with you this afternoon.\
\
We urge the following concepts be seriously considered as you prepare
for the next Farm Bill. One is to minimize the policy that distorts the
competitive market system. We strongly oppose efforts to limit marketing
options available to cattle producers. Such proposals limit ownership of
cattle and restrict marketing agreements and place the cattle industry
at an unfair competitive disadvantage with other supplies of protein
both domestically and internationally.\
\
Oppose government supply management programs. Ensure compliance from our
trade partners to the WTO rules of trade agreements. We must be able to
remove unfair trade barriers in a more timely manner, or we must quickly
impose sanctions and tariffs to ensure compliance. We encourage support
and full funding of the market-access program and market development
programs through third party cooperators. Reduce the unfair and
counterproductive regulatory burdens, as you certainly have heard from
many in the comments \-- on producers. We support science-based
regulations obviously to ensure protection of our food supply and the
environment in a cost-effective and economically viable manner. And to
increase federal investment in agricultural research to increase
efficiency and resolve environmental, food safety, cattle health and
other challenges faced by producers.\
\
One of our competitive advantages over foreign producers has been
leading edge research and development programs supported by government
and the private sector. The USDA must maintain the scientific expertise
to protect producers from the \-- (inaudible) \-- safety of our food and
the quality of our environment. We also urge adequate funding for
important environmental programs such as EQIP.\
\
And, in closing, Mr. Secretary, we very much appreciate your recent
decision to \-- an announcement about the animal I.D. \[inaudible\] and
managed by the private sector. I know that the members on the stage
agree with you on that, and we\'re appreciative that hopefully that will
not be a matter for the 2007 Farm Bill. Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MR. CALVIN KYL (sp): Thank you, Mr. Secretary and members, for hearing
our concerns today. I\'m of Calvin Kyl (sp) with the Dairy Producers of
New Mexico. We\'re a grass-roots voluntary association representing
dairy producers in Texas and New Mexico, and our association actively
participates in affecting public policy. Therefore I want to outline
what we support and oppose.\
\
Dairy Producers of New Mexico believes in open and free trade for milk,
and does not support state contracts for the purpose of milk price
supports \-- the price of milk \-- or any form of dairy compacts, as we
rely on markets throughout various states. We oppose any legislation
that would use the federal milk marketing order or other federal
programs that protects a safe pricing pooling plan from the effects of
interstate commerce unless the state plan prices milk at levels no less
than federal milk marketing order prices. And Dairy Producers opposes
Milk Income Loss contract programs because it does not help all
producers equally; as well as any form of direct payments from the
government based on production, because payments end up distorting
markets and reducing milk prices.\
\
Dairy Producers of New Mexico supports the continued and full funding of
food safety, anti-agri-terrorism, anti-ecoterrorism endeavors, which
include animal tracking as well as programs to maintain national herd
health, because it\'s important for the national security that the food
supply be protected.\
\
We support the concept that environmental stewardship funding should
equally be available to all producers, and especially support Farm
Service Agency and Natural Resource Conservation Service in their
support of dairy research. It\'s important these programs likewise be
fully funded.\
\
And, lastly, your comment about pitchforks goes hand in hand with \-- it
brings back fond memories. We support utilizing those materials for
biofuels \-- (laughter) \-- resources and funding to facilitate the
development and implementation of these biofuels. There\'s also biofuels
in the cotton industry. As you well know, we have cotton waste products
and stocks and the residue there that we want to go to the same program.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. (Applause.)\
\
MR. MATT BROCKMAN: Secretary Johanns, Congressmen Neugebauer, Conaway,
and Poe, it\'s an honor and privilege to be here today. My name is Matt
Brockman, and I\'m the executive vice President of the Texas and
Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. We represent 13,000 cow/calf
and stocker producers in Texas and surrounding states. I\'ll be echoing
the comments made by our fellow organization, Texas Cattle Feeders, as
it relates to overall farm costs.\
\
The market-oriented path set out in the \'96 Farm Bill and carried
forward has been one that has provided a good, stable supply of
feedstuffs for the livestock industry in this state. We urge you to
continue it in that direction.\
\
EQIP is the most useful tool for maintaining conservation. And I\'d also
like to talk about private landowners and producers in Texas need more
flexibility within the NRCS guidelines in order to implement the
conservation programs. And by this I mean responsible brush control
programs. We have other brush control programs administered by other
state and federal agencies that have led the way in providing an
effective tool for our ranchers, but we would like to see EQIP place
more emphasis in this area.\
\
Resource concerns \-- in fact, at the state level, by the State
Technical Advisory Committee, mirror that of the National Technical
Advisory Committee, with the exception of one issue, and that\'s water
quantity. We would urge that Congress and the administration look at
that issue. You have the resource concern, poor water quality \-- again,
this flow into the concept of brush control and what it can do.\
\
Disease surveillance is a big issue. The livestock industry is by far
the largest industry in the state of Texas. But we\'ve got problems,
gentlemen, with tuberculosis, brucellosis \-- the BSE issue is a big one
\-- and fever ticks on top of that \-- mandates \-- this requires us
just to urge you to look into this in the next Farm Bill for disease
eradication and control programs.\
\
Lastly, the unintended consequences are really important to us. And by
that I mean in the last Farm Bill the mandatory country-of-origin
labeling language got put in at the last minute. If you want to look at
programs like this or language like this, please do so with proper
review in the planning control and not do it in the eleventh hour. Thank
you very much.\
\
MR. KEVIN CAVE: Hello, I\'m Kevin Cave, President of the Martin County
Cotton Growers. In our county we handle about 140,000 baleen cotton
acres \-- baleen cotton. Approximately 75 percent of that goes to skip
row and another 10,000 irrigated acres.. The current farm program
provides an important price segment for production agriculture adjusted
on a fiscally responsible payment, even though the farm payment is much
less than originally projected.\
\
Countercyclical payments along with direct payments in the marketing
loan program protect farmers from fickle commodity markets \-- (off
mike) \--county\'s health and distort overall production. Today farmers
face greater risks than the vast majority of businessmen. Many factors
are beyond the farmer\'s control: A strong dollar, unanticipated
over-supply in high production years, depressed prices and especially
natural occurrences that wipe out entire crop. We\'re ahead of disaster
\-- and Martin County crop insurance only covers about 30 percent of our
production costs. An effective farm program is essential for providing
stability in production, financing and marketing.\
\
There are no corporate farms in Martin County, where the majority of the
\-- (inaudible) \-- Most producers are second- and third-generation
farmers that do not have outside jobs. Very little \-- (inaudible) \--
and payment limit provisions allow our family farms to be an adequate
size to provide a living for our families. Any restriction or reduction
in payments or payment limits places financial hardship on our
families.\
\
Looking forward to the next Farm Bill, we believe that the continuation
of the fair farm program will serve agriculture very well. We ask your
continued support of this legislation in its current form. Thank you,
Mr. Secretary. (Applause.)\
\
JOSE DODIER (?): My name is (Jose Dodier ?) from Zapata County. I\'m
here as chairman of the Zapata Soil and Water Conservation District and
as a partner of Don Jose Land and Cattle Company, which is a cow/calf
operator.\
\
The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act must have a strong
conservation title. Conservation works. It has worked for decades in
this state and across this nation. The evidence is out there in the
landscape. The country looks good. NRCS is probably the best partner
that most farmers and ranchers have. Conservation plans are
cost-effective and easy to implement in most cases. I think we need to
add to the wildlife in South Texas and to step to the forefront as an
economic booster for producers. I\'d like to see an enhancement of the
Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program.\
\
I also want to talk to you about an issue that we have been fighting for
over 40 years in South Texas along with USDA \-- and I\'m speaking of
the River Riders and Tick Inspectors. This is a battle to control fever
tick infestation. I\'m here to tell you today we are now losing that
battle. The infestation is spreading north and has crossed the
quarantine line of just out of 83. And I wish you could come down there
and see what it does to producers that get quarantined. Their cattle are
exposed to continuous \[inaudible\] and strain die, and some of them
die. Producers lose money and have no safety net. They need help. I want
this Farm Bill to have a safety net for these diseases. It is something
that\'s spread north from Mexico, and we need more help \-- additional
personnel and equipment. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for
being here today. (Applause.)\
\
MR. ED HIRN (sp): Hello, I\'m Ed Hirn (sp), a cotton producer from an
area about 80 miles south of here, an area where four counties come
together. It\'s included in both the Congressmen\'s districts, including
Dawson, Howard, Borden and Martin Counties. I have a family farm
operation \-- my son testified earlier today concerning some of the
concerns of young farmers who are facing getting in the business these
days. They\'re legitimate concerns.\
\
Having farmed 33 years, I farmed the various Farm Bills, and I have yet
to see the perfect Farm Bill. And I\'m thinking this \-- I know we had
it prior to the \'02 Farm Bill. I think that was probably as close as it
comes to being that way. You know, there are probably good things we
could pass in that bill itself. But he's on a lot of these boards \--
right now he\'s the President of the cotton board, which is a local
organization \-- hears a lot of concerns from the various family
farmers. And it is family farmers in our area. It\'s not corporate
farmers, as David talked about earlier also. So it is a
family-farm-oriented place. Family people come make a living out of the
dirt. We don\'t have a secondary job, most of us \-- family farming is
our life. So it\'s an important part of our economy - it is our economy
basically in those areas.\
\
So it\'s important that we have a Farm Bill that will provide a safety
net in the future for our farmers, not only young farmers, but old
farmers alike, so we can continue that way of life. And I think the \'02
Farm Bill does that \-- maybe there are some ways we can improve it. But
I will now speak of the past \-- this is about as good as it gets, so to
speak. So it\'s a good bill. There\'s a lot of concern about as far as
escalating energy prices, which is a concern maybe you could address.
But I would like to ask that this administration please approve the Farm
Bill that's comparable or compatible with the \'02. Thank you.
(Applause.)\
\
MR. CRAIG MARTIN (sp): Hello, Mr. Secretary, my name is Craig Martin
(sp), and I\'m a young farmer from Terry County. We farm a family farm.
I\'m fourth generation. I have the privilege to farm with my dad and
uncle on this operation. We farm cotton and milo. I would like to see
the 2002 Farm Bill carried forward and extended.\
\
As a young farmer, this Farm Bill projects a critical level of stability
that allows me to attain financing and make long-term plans for my
operation. Importantly, as a beginning farmer, it concerns me \--
(inaudible) \-- payment limitations. In the next five years my dad and
uncle will be retiring from farming, and I will be taking on their
share. So limiting the restrictions on these payments will hurt me in
the next five years of the farm bill \-- it\'s going to be real
difficult to continue to farm.\
\
And, also I\'m limited in the amount of resources that\'s available. To
make any such changes would affect me substantially. And also, in
conclusion, I\'d like to end very optimistically that this Farm Bill is
a good starting point for me. It has enabled me to get started as a
young farmer and to continue this Farm Bill to enable other young
farmers like myself to continue to grow in the farming industry. Thank
you. (Applause.)\
\
MR. DONALD MARVEL (sp): Mr. Secretary, Congressmen, my name is Donald
Marvel (sp). I have had a business in Southwest Texas for 73 years.
During my entire adult life I have farmed \-- my brother and I now
operate a cotton and grain farm that includes 6,400 acres. Most of the
land that we operate is irrigated, some is operated as dry land. During
most of the 50 years that I have been farming in West Texas, I have
operated under many different Farm Bill programs. I can say without
hesitation that the 2002 Farm Bill has proven to be one of the most
effective financially responsible pieces of farm legislation that I have
ever seen \-- and, more important, it worked.\
\
The current Farm Bill makes sense and offers protection to Texas farmers
from the standpoint of both natural disasters and economic disasters due
to low prices. It has also been very helpful insofar as the conservation
and environmental provisions of the current act. The way you are
encouraged to reduce soil erosion and water conservation. In my view,
the skyrocketing energy prices that we are now experiencing \-- it is
certainly not the time to make any changes to the current Farm Bill.\
\
In conclusion, I would just say that I think the 2002 Farm Bill is an
excellent piece of legislation and the Department of Agriculture has
done a good job of administering it in a responsible way where it truly
helps the farmer and imposes minimum burden on the American economy.
Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MR. RAY WILLOUGHBY: Thank you, Secretary Johanns, and members of
Congress for being here today and listening to us. I\'m Ray Willoughby,
the President of Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers\' Association. And the
2007 Farm Bill issues I\'d like to comment on today are priorities for
the sheep and goat industry.\
\
First I\'d like to ask the Secretary for the continuation of the wool
loan deficiency program. This program also assists the mohair industry.
It was established in 2002 to help producers struggle through the
ongoing demands of production wool and mohair, and loss of sheep in
farms and ranches. We ask the Secretary to support the authorization for
the wool base rate at \$1.20 per pound for graded wool and \$0.60 a
pound for ungradable. These rates are currently \$1.00 and \$0.40,
respectively.\
\
We would also ask that the base loan rate on mohair be increased 2
percent from \$4.20 to \$4.40. This would provide the full benefit of
the program as intended, and it would put wool on par with cotton in the
marketing loan program.\
\
Secondly, I would like to ask the Secretary to support the funds for a
livestock protection pilot program for lambing \[inaudible\] to be
included in the final section of the \'07 Farm Bill. This would be
similar to the pilot program that has already been done with the cattle
and swine industries, and is available now to the cotton industry with
their \-- (inaudible) \-- act. The problem with establishing this
program has been that there is no futures market for lamb, therefore
making it difficult to determine the risk involved and ensuring the
price you pay for live lamb. I am hopeful that even without a futures
market \[inaudible\] that it is possible to provide insurance to lamb
producers against price volatility.\
\
And, lastly, I would ask the Secretary to continue funding the Wildlife
Services program, at least at the current level. This has been a very
beneficial and appreciated program to help producers protect their
livestock and livelihoods from the ever-present and growing predator
problem. Funding for this program has been reduced over recent years,
forcing the creation of more local predator control associations. But
with the high cost of hiring trained technicians and reliable equipment,
especially aircraft, local associations can\'t pay the entire bill. I
firmly believe that continuing cooperative efforts between the property
owners and wildlife services is the only way to manage predators. Thank
you very much. (Applause.)\
\
MR. DEAN MCINTOSH: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, Congressmen. My name is
Dean McIntosh. I work for a grain company in Amarillo, Texas by the name
of Attebury Grain. We employ about 150 individuals, and we are serving
producers in about 40 different communities in Texas, Oklahoma and New
Mexico. We provide grain storage and farm inputs to these communities
\-- have been for over 50 years \-- and we serve probably 5,000
producers I would say roughly. I think probably I\'ll be echoing many of
the comments I\'ve heard here regarding the 2002 Farm Bill.\
\
There\'s no question that federal rural farm programs provide financial
assistance to the producers and the companies they do business with,
such as ourselves. One goal of farm policy we noticed has been to
enhance and stabilize farm prices and incomes. We\'re concerned about
farm program benefits being reduced because of budget restrictions.
It\'d seem to be appropriate that the counties that are truly farming,
the counties that receive most of their income from agriculture, need to
be identified and targeted as a top priority for farm program benefits.
An example of this would be to continue the incentive programs such as
those being created for ethanol production. These programs are excellent
for spreading rural investment and production. I would add that in order
for these rural communities to remain healthy, adequate access to
competitive rail transportation is essential to provide market export
opportunities for crops, such as sorghum, of which 40 percent is
exported annually. Lack of competitive rail transportation, rising fuel
costs and fuel surcharges, rising costs of purchasing the rail
transportation and rising energy costs cause major reductions in
producers\' bottom lines. I don\'t see this trend changing at all in the
near future. Because of this, any reduction in the farm program benefits
to producers in this region will be devastating not only to the
producers but also to the rural ag business community that serves them.
We encourage the USDA to give serious consideration to keeping the
current farm program. Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MR. ALLIS BATES (sp): Secretary Johanns, Congressmen, I appreciate your
patience listening to these farmers here today. My name is Allis Bates
(sp). I\'m a fourth-generation farmer in Midland, Texas. I\'m also the
father of four beautiful children that I hope some day will be farming
alongside of me.\
\
Let me begin by saying that I strongly support a continuation of the
2002 Farm Bill. This Farm Bill has been an important safety net for my
operation. The lingering drought since 1992 in our region around Midland
made it difficult to survive financially on the farm. There were many
times from about \'99 to 2003 that the only way I approached my banker
was on my knees. Without the current Farm Bill, I truly believe that the
ag economy surrounding Midland would have been lost.\
\
The Farm Bill provides the minimum stability necessary for bankers to
stand by their ag clients so that they can continue farming. And I
believe this Farm Bill has done that better than any previous Farm Bill.
As you well know, rural areas also benefit from a strong ag economy.
This Farm Bill supports hundreds of thousands jobs in agricultural
support industries in rural America. It provides a stable financial
foundation for production and financing and marketing our crops. The
2000 Farm Bill works. It works well, and it should be \-- I encourage
you to continue to extend it to the future for my generation and
hopefully for my kids\' generation. I appreciate your time listening to
us. (Applause.)\
\
MR. JOHN RICHARDS: Good afternoon. My name is John Richards. I\'m a
certified \-- (inaudible) \-- I live in Swisher County, Texas. I manage
a farming operation including myself, three brothers, a nephew. We farm
cotton, wheat, grain sorghum, corn and cattle. The 2002 Farm Bill
provides us with an important safety net for our operation. It also
provides and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in agricultural
support industries across the country. It provides the structure that
allows us to make long-term plans for our operation. It is vital for the
U.S. to maintain a stable and equitable farm policy. As the
administration and Congress move in the direction regarding the next
Farm Bill, no greater success is the Farm Security Act of 2002. The
combination of market loans and direct countercyclical payments -
(inaudible) \-- Farm program benefits do not disappear\-- (inaudible)
\-- they are almost immediately transferred into local economies through
businesses that support our operation. These are the local seed and
fertilizer providers, implement dealers, gins, grain elevators, banks
and U.S. consumers all benefit from the Farm Bill. The 2002 Farm Bill
has been successful and should be maintained. Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Just as a reminder, when you step up to the microphone if you
will get as close as you can, so those outside here can hear.\
\
SPEAKER: Thank you. Mr. Secretary, Congressman Neugebauer and
Congressman Conaway, thank you for this opportunity to protect the
Constitution of the United States. I want to say above all I love all
you farmers. I assume that probably everybody in here is farmers. I
appreciate all you do \-- your ranching, your range, your cows, corn,
wheat - whatever you do, I appreciate it so much, because I wouldn\'t
have it on my table if it wasn\'t for you. I\'m not here to
\[inaudible\].\
\
In World War II, when I went into the Army, I took an oath to uphold and
defend the Constitution of the United States, and that\'s exactly what I
intend to do today, because a lot of times that \-- you cannot have a
constitutional government and free hand-outs, subsidization of anything
\-- any free enterprise that takes advantage of government is illegal.
It\'s not in the Constitution. And I think you\'ll have to agree with
me, Congressmen, that that\'s absolutely true. The way that you can put
a case to this \-- do I as an individual have the right, can I force
you, my neighbor, to do something in order for me to accomplish a
particular goal?\
\
Now, if I have that right, I could delegate it out to \-- (inaudible)
\-- But if I don\'t have that right, I can\'t delegate it out to anyone.
There\'s a certain amount \-- because I as a farmer \-- if I were a
farmer \-- or do you as a farmer have a right to go to your neighbors,
whether they be farmers or nonfarmers, to get him something \-- force
him to do something in order for you to accomplish a particular goal? Do
you have a right to force your neighbor to deal with money? To give it
to them so they can give it back to you to compete in the
free-enterprise system? After all, farming is a free-enterprise system.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you for your time. Please remember to stick to the six
questions the Secretary has asked for. Go ahead.\
\
MS. DENISE POE: Yes, good afternoon. My name is Denise Poe I\'m
President of (West Country ?) Resources here in Lubbock. And thank you,
Mr. Secretary, for being here today. And I grew up on a farm in Kansas,
and I grew up in the \'70s, and my dad was kind of an activist farmer,
and he drove his tractor to Washington to talk for farmers. So I\'m
happy to come here today to Lubbock to speak to you face to face.\
\
So, and I want to talk to you today about the value-added grant program.
We haven\'t talked about that. But I\'m a consultant and I write a lot
of these grants, and about nine of those have been awarded. And I have
two teenagers, and I\'ve seen a lot of the young people here today, and
value-added agriculture and it is so important \-- and these funds
really help the young farmers get started and provide additional
income.\
\
I think one thing I\'d like to talk about \-- one of my clients is the
Texas Hair Sheep Association, and they started a couple years ago with
grants with 28 members, and they are now 100 members. We\'ve taken a
problem which hair sheep hides are docked in the slaughterhouses. We\'ve
developed a market for those hides, and created an opportunity. And the
only way we were able to do that is with this program. And this is going
to affect the entire hair sheep industry. And they want me to personally
thank you. But there\'s been many other success stories. And I work in
Texas and all over the country. I\'ve done this work for 11 years,
developing value-added agriculture. And I think it\'s the future for the
young people today.\
\
The other thing that\'s very important is the business and industry loan
program. Many times we use those funds as well to partner with the grant
program. But I would really encourage you to take a look at that program
and expand it. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you.\
\
MR. DOV JEFFREY (sp): Mr. Secretary, Congressmen. My name is Dov Jeffrey
(sp) and I\'m a fourth-generation farmer. I have consolidated for
generations the farms that my farming family has had. And, as a
consequence I now farm Deaf Smith to Loving, to Hartley County to Borden
and back home. And we have all been greatly remiss in not thanking you
for the wonderful people that you have working for you in all of these
countries. I can say without a doubt that in every county that I have
operations \-- and they\'re small \-- that your people are trying very
hard to implement very hard rules and for that reason we should continue
the same Farm Bill with as little changes as you can possibly tweak it
with, so that they won\'t have to continue their education. Just on that
alone \-- it seemed like every week they\'ve got to go to school to
learn another rule, another regulation. If you could just lighten their
load in the paperwork that they have to do, and the paperwork that all
this audience has to do just to comply with the farm program \-- that
would be greatly appreciated.\
\
Specifically with regard to the conservation area, I represent a small
community that have water-filled CED, and the conservationist said, You
know, the nitrates in water \-- you can get this put into the
conservation reserve program. In the end, naming Dallas for our urban
sprawl and where I heard about \-- (inaudible) \-- we need it out here
in West Texas. (Applause.) Thank you.\
\
MR. MIKE RYAN: Mr. Secretary, Congressmen, thank you very much for being
here today. My name is Mike Ryan. I\'m executive vice President of
Citibank-Texas, headquartered here in Lubbock. Citibank finances 400
ventures to the tune of approximately \$150 million a year for row
crops, cattle and agribusiness. Personally, I grew up in a cotton farm
here in Lubbock and farmed with my dad nine years \-- been involved with
ag lending 23 years.\
\
Mr. Secretary, I would recommend the 2002 Farm Bill be carried forward
in its current form. It is vital that the U.S. maintain stable farm
policy. As lenders, we are looking at all the income streams. And if the
current Farm Bill is not extended, it will be extremely hard for our
producers with the cash flow they\'re operating, given the low commodity
prices and the much higher cost of production.\
\
The 2006 Farm Bill has proven to be one of the most effective and
fiscally responsible pieces of agricultural legislation ever approved,
and I would like to see it carried forward without change. Mr. Secretary
and Congressmen, please don\'t let any of these comments fall on deaf
ears. Thank you very much for being here. (Applause.)\
\
MR. CHRIS SNODGRASS: Mr. Secretary, I\'m Chris Snodgrass. I\'m a John
Deere dealer in Brownfield and partner with my brothers in several more
locations. We are definitely in favor of this Farm Bill. My comments are
brief. I hope that you\'ll go back to Washington and be steadfast in
your position for 100 percent support of this Farm Bill.\
\
The part that concerns me is the heavy level of politics that\'s
involved that could be at the expense of all these discussions. Senator
Grassley is a big hurdle, a great man. He\'s head of the Finance
Committee. He\'s for cutting these payment limits. That\'s not what\'s
good for all of his sake \-- I\'ve got a customer that I could get you
in touch with, he farms close to the factory in Waterloo where John
Deere tractors are built, and he\'ll share with you it\'s not what\'s
good for his community.\
\
Steve Verett, that man sitting right here, he has a position at the
Cotton Growers, he and Rickey Bearden \-- and Rickey Bearden is the
President of High Plains Cotton Growers \-- I\'d like to ask you to
invite these guys to Washington to sit down with a guy like Senator
Grassley and educate him \-- show him on paper how it won\'t work
without this program. Without this program, it would be devastating for
my business. A lot of customers, a lot of these farmers, have gauged the
expansion of their business on this 2002 Farm Bill.\
\
One more thing. I would like to ask you to help educate America. As they
bring up these Web sites and they see these payment limits published,
help them understand where they\'re going. They\'re under the impression
that these payment limits are going to Las Vegas, they\'re being put on
the table. Those payment limits are engaged in America in the survival
of Deere, Cat, Monsanto \-- the list goes on and on. I appreciate your
coming today, and thank you for coming. (Applause.)\
\
MR. JOE HURST: Mr. Secretary, gentlemen, we do appreciate you being
here. Mr. Snodgrass, I heard him \-- he\'s a competitor of mine, but
what he says is true, and we need you take what words he said back.\
\
My name is Joe Hurst. I\'m part-owner and general manager of Hurst Farm
Supply \-- we\'re John Deere dealers also \-- we employ between 75 and
85 people throughout the year.\
\
Now, let me begin by saying that the 2002 Farm Bill has been one of the
most effective pieces of agriculture legislation ever written and
approved. It contains an adequate foundation in market loans, direct and
countercyclical payments that form a safety net needed by my customers.
Therefore I would like to see it carried forward without any changes,
simply because it does work.\
\
Since the enactment of this 2002 Farm Bill, we are finally seeing some
excitement in the agricultural industry that was lost for many, many
years. Young farmers are now -- even though it\'s difficult \-- they\'re
now given the opportunity to stay on the farm. All farmers are now able
to make projections in paying their financial structures, and they\'re
able to update the lower end of their equipment, which helps us as a
John Deere dealer, but it also enables the farmer to have more efficient
equipment and also operate by meeting the safety standards of this day
and time. Never before has this Farm Bill delivered such a consistent
farm policy that has enabled the flexibility of products and stability
of support as our current 2002 Farm Bill. This program has benefited my
business, as well as other businesses connected to agriculture. And, as
statistics show, these benefits are injected straight into the local
economies which in turn reaches operations that are outside our local
region.\
\
With all this said, it\'s my belief that the 2002 Farm Bill has had a
positive impact on our economy in West Texas and it does provide the
stability and consistency necessary to support our agricultural
industry. Therefore, I do recommend that the 2002 Farm Bill be carried
forward in its current form. Thank you. (Applause.)\
\
MR. DANIEL HANCOCK (sp): Mr. Secretary, Congressman, I want to thank you
for being here today and for holding these hearings all across the
United States. My name is Daniel Hancock (sp), and I\'m a fourth
generation cotton farmer down in the Lynn County area, which is right
south of Lubbock here. My granddad started farming in the early 1900s.
He farmed right out 55 years and this he farmed 1,300 \-- he could make
a living doing that. My dad started farming in 1956 and he just retired
this year, and he farmed 2,400 acres. And he did that to make the same
average living.\
\
I myself started farming in 1980 when I came back from college, and it
takes about 4,000 acres for me to build and maintain the same kind of
standards. I say all that just to point out that prices, as you are
fully aware, are not where they were when Granddad started. The prices
of cotton today are about less than when they were when I started
farming. Steel is up 60 percent, fuel bills, fertilizer, seed, on and
on. These suppliers are able to make a living making a profit \-- they
pass on surcharges. We cannot do that. If we were able to pass on a
surcharge we wouldn\'t be here today. So I say to you that I am in favor
of the Farm Bill. The only way my lender will continue to deal with me
and support my business is with a good, strong safety net. That safety
net supports, as we all know, to answer some of your questions \--
number one, this is the number three question: Does the administration
and Congress look for direction regarding the next Farm Bill? The
blueprint exists in the Farm Security Act of 2002, the combination of
market loans, direct and countercyclical payments was an effective
safety net for my operation.\
\
To answer the number one question, it is vital that the U.S. maintain a
stable, predictable and equitable farm policy. The 2002 Farm Bill meets
each of these criteria and has done so at a cost less than originally
projected. I believe in 2004 we came in at \$15 billion less than the
projected 2005 at \$10 billion. My comment would be that with the
surplus it would be a disaster for different things.\
\
But we sure want to again thank you for coming. I appreciate your time.
(Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: We\'re running out of time, and I know that there\'s a lot of
comments and a lot more of you would like to make your comments heard.
We\'ve got time for a couple more. If you\'re unable to make your
comments here, remember you can make them online. You can also mail them
in. And if you\'d like to make FedEx \-- I believe a courier will work
also.\
\
SPEAKER: Thank you all for being here today. I\'d just like to talk
about the number one question on the program. I\'m a family farmer born
and raised on the farm west of Slaton. My wife was born and raised on a
farm west of Slaton. And thank God for her being a farm girl. We had
five children \-- five of those children are sons of mine and my wife,
and they farm with me in a partnership, and I\'d just like to talk about
how hard it was for me to help them get started.\
\
We started our partnership in 1993, and it took a high-priced lawyer and
a lot of money for the USDA to say that we were all separate persons in
that partnership. If we hadn\'t have done that, we would never have
survived to this day.\
\
The next thing I\'d like to talk about is in the early 2000s when the
drought and the boll weevil were eating us up, and we were doing
everything we could to try and overcome it, we had to refinance
equipment that we had done paid for to pay off our operating loans in
those two years. And after this new Farm Bill come along, it gave us
some breathing room to where we could continue. If it hadn\'t been for
that, I don\'t know if we would still be here today.\
\
My ancestors have been farming forever and my kin farm is still in
Germany farmed by a kin. And I would just like to hope and pray that
this family Farm Bill could continue, because I don\'t believe that
corporate farming is the way to go.\
\
A lot of people call our partnership a large operation \-- we farm like
7,000 acres now. We started out at about 2,500. And we still do most of
the work ourselves. If they think that because of the numbers we\'re not
a family farm, I\'d like to argue the point that we are. I\'d like that
to be the main answer to this question here, is that there are family
farms that are large, but when you divide seven by five it\'s not that
big. And I just hope that we can continue. A lot people say, "Well, why
don\'t you quit if you can\'t make it?" Well, it\'s in our genes.
(Laughter.) We\'ve been doing it all our lives. We don\'t know anything
else. I appreciate you all being here. I hope I haven\'t wasted
anybody\'s time. (Applause.)\
\
MR. MATT ALEXANDER (sp): Mr. Secretary, Congressmen, thank you for being
here to listen to our comments. My name is Matt Alexander (sp). I farm
in (Rolling Plans \-- (off mike) \-- the National Cotton Council. The
2002 Farm Bill has worked well and should be maintained. It provides an
important safety net for production agriculture, and it\'s done so at a
cost below producer\'s \-- (inaudible) countercyclical, direct payments,
marketing loan program protects farmers from unpredictable weather
patterns and volatile commodity prices. The farm program allows
flexibility to respond to market signals without distorting production
and prices.\
\
Farmers today face many factors, which are beyond their control.
There\'s a world oversupply of certain commodities in years of high
production leading to low prices for what we produce. The strong dollar
is a detrimental factor in international trade. The cost of farm diesel
has tripled since the fall of 2003. In recent weeks we have seen crops
damaged or destroyed by natural disasters, such as hurricanes and hail
storms. Having an effective farm program in place is critical for
stability in financing, producing and marketing agricultural
commodities.\
\
As we look ahead at the next farm bill, this country must maintain a
consistent and equitable farm policy. This will protect our rural
infrastructure, and continue to provide American consumers with the
safest and most reliable supply of food and fiber in the world at the
lowest possible price.\
\
Mr. Secretary, I respectfully ask for your support in maintaining the
current Farm Bill. (Applause.)\
\
SEC. JOHANNS: I hate to do this to you, but I knew this was going to be
a forum, when I looked at the size of the crowd, that we weren\'t going
to get to everybody. And three hours actually goes pretty fast, unless
you\'re standing up back there.\
\
I believe very strongly that these three gentlemen deserve a round of
applause. (Applause.) As you know, they were here from the beginning.
I\'ve had people from the House and Senate show up at these Farm Bill
forums, but it\'s only been a handful that had stayed for the entire
thing. So I think that speaks volumes about these guys, and I appreciate
it immensely.\
\
And, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you how much I appreciate your
testimony in all of the things that you have offered today as we start
to think about farm policy and what we should be thinking about in
2007.\
\
I wanted to offer just a few closing comments, and offer you a thought
or two, and then I think we\'ll wrap it up and we\'ll head on down the
road.\
\
First, in terms of process, there was some discussion that we were
starting this early \-- and it sounds early \-- you know, 2005 \--
you\'re looking at the 2007 Farm Bill. But actually if you think about
the timing it is really not that early. What do I mean by that? We
wanted to get pretty well across the country and we\'re halfway though
Farm Bill sessions \-- I\'m more than halfway through in terms of the
ones I personally scheduled. But in order to do that kind of extensive
effort across the country, we knew it was probably going to take us
through the end of the year. In fact, I think these things will last
pretty well through November, maybe even into December, and there might
even be one or two after the first of the year. So we needed some time
to do that. So that gets us into the first part of 2006.\
\
The House and the Senate are also going to be out. I\'m not sure when it
will be, but I can almost guarantee that they\'ll want to hear firsthand
from people \-- do some field hearings or whatever. And so that probably
takes a pretty fair part of 2006. That\'s before really anything gets
put to paper really in terms of a specific piece of legislation. There
are all kinds of ideas floating around out there. We\'ve had Farm Bureau
in from another state just yesterday as a matter of fact, and they gave
me a pamphlet that they\'ve been working on for many months that they
want me to consider. And it hasn\'t even been approved by the full Farm
Bureau, but at their next annual meeting they'll be doing that. So our
work is going on here.\
\
By the time all that is factored in, and you let groups have the time
that they need to kind of work through this, you\'re starting to realize
that we\'re pretty well need the end of 2006. Now, it occurs to me that
it is in that point in time, end of 2006, or probably more likely the
first part of 2007, that you can actually get down to a point of time,
end of 2006 or probably more likely the first part of 2007, that you can
actually get down to a point where you\'re talking about specific
proposals, legislation, hearings, debate, whatever else is necessary to
get the next Farm Bill put in place, because it\'s like all of you \--
you want to have some idea \-- somewhere out there before this thing
expires what the 2007 Farm Bill is going to look like.\
\
So when you factor all of this in, our timing really isn\'t ahead, and
we\'re going to be using all this time between now and that first part
of 2007 to get a Farm Bill.\
\
Now, a couple of thoughts. Your part of the country played such a key
role in 2002, because you had such strong leadership from a former
Congressman who really, really was instrumental. In fact, when I was
governor of Nebraska I actually worked with his staff to a certain
extent in terms of our input into the 2002 Farm Bill. I was the lead
governor for the 2002 Farm Bill for both the Western Governors and
Midwest Governors Association. So I had a significant role to play in
terms of that 2002 Farm Bill myself.\
\
The nationwide listening tours have, for me, been a remarkable journey
across American agriculture. And I think that\'s the best way of
describing it. I grew up in Iowa on a dairy farm \-- I joke about that
dairy farm, but it was a very, very different atmosphere than what I
heard farmers talking about today \-- you know, 30 cows, a dozen sows,
50 head of cattle, 160 acres \-- we sometimes rented 80. And you know
what? \-- we were very average farmers. I\'m not trying to make the case
to you that we were the small of the small farmers. We were very average
farmers\-- some would be a little bit bigger. But we even had farmers in
our areas that were farming 80 acres or 120 acres. So a lot has changed
in the last 50 years. And so this has been a tremendous journey this
year for me across the United States, a journey across American
agriculture.\
\
There are some very, very interesting things. Again, I come from a state
now before January that was very involved in the Farm Bill, and we\'re a
lot like Texas, the state I came from \-- you\'re just bigger. Of course
you\'re bigger than a lot of states \-- all of them I guess. But think
about it. We do what you do back there. We raise cattle, we have
cow/calf, we had fat-cattle operations, we had wheat, corn, soybeans \--
we don\'t do cotton back there and we don\'t do rice \-- but very, very
familiar with many of the things that you\'re talking about and we have
some pretty significant sized operators there too.

One of the things that I learned is that two-thirds of American
agriculture is not subsidized at all. Two-thirds of American agriculture
really operates without a subsidy; it is non-program crop foods \-- your
fruits and vegetables. It\'s a whole array of products out there. It
literally constitutes two-thirds. They have a lot of interest in this
Farm Bill \-- as you heard today, fruits and vegetables got up today and
testified, and they talk about research and they talk about market
access and enforcement of sanitary and phytosanitary measures and all of
these things. In some respects, because of their significant place in
the export market \-- and, again, they do battle with the imports \-- in
some respects their safety net is vastly different than what I am used
to from the state I came from and what most of you have talked about
today. Their safety net may be phytosanitary enforcement. Their safety
net may be the best and latest research. Their safety net may be us
doing everything we can to get them market access into countries where
quite honestly they can\'t sell their products today. Their safety net
may really very much be trade. And that\'s just the nature of American
agriculture \-- it\'s very diverse.\
\
Depending upon what part of the country you\'re in, I\'ve had farmers
\-- I know this is a sensitive topic, but I\'ll say it anyway \-- I\'ve
had farmers step up to the microphone at Farm Bill sessions and say,
\"We need payment limits.\" I didn\'t hear any of that \-- well, \"any\"
is too strong a word, but 99 percent of the testimony today said,
"Don\'t go there, don\'t go there."\
\
But depending upon what part of the country you\'re coming from, you\'re
going to get different testimony. We\'ve heard almost unanimous support
for conservation \-- not 100 percent. Some of our cow/calf people out
there worry that our payments for conservation raise the cost of
grassland, grazing land. We heard that in North Dakota, we\'ve heard
that in some other cow/calf states. But it has been pretty solid. I
mean, there\'s a lot of support for conservation.\
\
We have heard a unanimous statement of support for rural economic
development programs. I have yet to be at a Farm Bill Listening Session
with a single negative comment about the rural development economic
program. They\'re making a difference out there, whether it\'s the
waste-water program, the water treatment program, the addition to the
hospital that was financed through a USDA loan. It could be a dozen
other things. But it has been absolutely unanimous.\
\
I like what I heard today where you\'re pretty united in Texas. Across
the country there is one heck of a debate about future farm policy in
the payments, in the subsidies, in the payment limitations and that sort
of thing.\
\
Well, let me just tell you what I believe. And I said this I think the
third or fourth day that I was Secretary of Agriculture: I believe this
nation\'s investment in agriculture makes a tremendous amount of sense.
It is the right policy approach. I could give you a half an hour on
that, but we don\'t have a half an hour. But whether you\'re talking
about food security, whether you\'re talking about the fact that today I
spend less of my disposable income on food as a consumer \-- not a
producer, as a consumer \-- than just about any counterpart of mine
anywhere in the world, you can see that the investment in agriculture in
my judgment is enormously good policy. And I will say that anywhere,
because I believe that is absolutely the approach we need to adapt.\
\
I think as we look to the next Farm Bill, what I would like people to
focus on is how to do farm policy in a way that recognizes that approach
and recognizes that approach and recognizes that we must do it in a way
that provides for the future of these young people that stood here at
the mikes, the safety net that I heard about today, and I\'ve heard
about all across the country; that recognizes that two-thirds of
agriculture as a much different sort of approach to a safety net, that
27 percent of our receipts do come from that export market. Cuss all we
want, but the reality is that that export market is 27 percent of our
marketplace. If you\'re a cattle guy here today and you look at the
individual elements of that animal, 70 percent of our hides go the
export market. All of those things \-- 95 percent, as the Congressman
mentioned, 95 percent of the world\'s population lives outside of the
U.S. All I\'m saying to you is this: I do believe that we\'ve got to be
very, very thoughtful in terms of how we approach farm policy and how we
do it right for American farmers and ranchers and all of agriculture,
underscoring all of agriculture, because you see I feel strongly too
that we are in this together. We need to promote agriculture for all
segments of the industry. That\'s what we should be doing.\
\
So those are some of my thoughts on this. I\'m going to give a more
detailed speech tomorrow, as a matter of fact, so stay tuned \-- we\'ll
put that up on our Web site. Its kind of my way of saying we\'re halfway
through these Listening Sessions \-- here\'s some of the things I\'m
thinking about. And we\'re going to talk about that a little bit. But I
do want to just wrap up today and say I really appreciate your
straightforward way of approaching this. You gave this a lot of thought.
I noticed that when many of you got up here to offer your thoughts you
had prepared, and you were looking down at your notes or your paper or
whatever \-- see, you gave this thought before you walked in here in
terms of what you wanted to tell us. And that made for a very, very good
Farm Bill forum.\
\
Thank you. I will tell the President that you said hi. All right? God
bless you. God bless Texas. (Applause.)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for visiting us in West Texas, and
we want to thank you for taking time out. We know you have a busy
schedule. I want to thank my fellow members of Congress for their
attendance today. I want to thank all of you. You did a great job. I\'m
very proud of you. As the Secretary said, you came with thoughtful ideas
and thoughtful information that we need, that the Secretary needs. But
again, Mr. Secretary, thank you again for your time. And as I said, and
I think you can see now that the Secretary is a good listener.
(Applause.)