Date: 1986-03-20
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. today is National Agriculture Day. and I want to take this opportunity to spell out. for all Americans. what this observance means to all the people of our country. Congress passed the law calling for this observance because we want to continue a tradition of honoring the men and women whose hard work and sacrifices give us. every day. our daily bread. But while we pay tribute to the farmers of America. I want to remind the House that in recognizing the contributions of American agriculture. we are also honoring the work of millions or other workers. When we call on the country to take note of what agriculture does. we are certainly talking about farmers. But we are also talking about the men and women who manufacture farm machinery. fertilizers. farm chemicals. and agricultural supplies of all kinds. We are talking about the people who move the farmers crops. livestock and milk from the farm and ranch to processing plants or consumers. We are talking about the farm workers who cultivate the crops. pick the vegetables and care for the cattle. hogs and chickens. We are talking about the people who take wheat and turn it into bread. or who convert raw foods into packaged complete dinners ready for use in todays homes. Mr. Speaker. I could go on for a long time listing all the people who are part of modern agriculturethe groups that handle marketing in this country and overseas. the wholesalers and retailers who bring food to consumers in the greatest variety and with the highest quality available anywhere in the worldand at the lowest real cost.in the world. But I think the point is clear. Agriculture is not only our most basic industry. it is our largest industry. It involves about 21 million jobsabout one out of every five private enterprise jobs in.this country. Not many of us are farmers. Mr. Speaker. but every one of us in this Nation has a stake in what happens on the farm and in the entire agricultural industry. Some Americans have that stake because they make a living in one of the segments of agriculture that operates off the farm. But whether you work in some phase of agriculture or not. you are affected by what happens to agriculture. What it boils down to is this: A healthy agricultural industry is good news for America because it means longterm assurance of continued adequate food and fiber supplies at reasonable and stable pricesand because It contributes to the strength of the whole national economy. But an agricultural industry that is struggling through a depression is bad news for America. That is because a depressed agriculture will be less able to meet the needs of American consumers over the long runand because a depressed agriculture weakens the entire national economy. I hope this message can be brought to all parts of the country and all groups today as we celebrate the annual observance of National Agriculture Day. This observance is coordinated each year by the Agriculture Council of America. a nonpartisan. nonprofit organization that devotes itself to promoting progress in agriculture and a national understanding of agriculture. I would be very happy if I could come to you today to tell you that the outlook for our farm economy this year is good. It would be nice to predict that all efficient farmers are going to earn good incomes in 1986. I would love to be able to say that our only problem will be. In keeping up with the demand for farm products. The fact is. however. that we are going through what amounts to a depression in some agricultural areas. Not all parts of the country and not all segments of agriculture have been hit to the same degree. But even in areas that have so far escaped the worst of the squeeze. we are beginning to see problems ahead. If I look far enough into the future. I can be an optimist about agriculture. Population and food demand are going to grow in the years ahead. By sometime in the next century. we could be concerned again about whether we can prodice enough to meet the s orlds needs. But for the present. and for the next few years. our problem is farm income. American agriculture today can produce more of many commodities than we can sell at prices good enough to keep the farm economy healthy. There are no quck. clean and easy solutions to this problem. What we can do. and what we must do. is to find a way to help efficient farmers hold on until the economic situation improves. This is one of the reasons Congress was willing to pass the 1.985 farm bill by an overwhelming margin. Four years ago. when we adopted the 1981 farm bill. it passed in the House by a margin of just two votes. The 1985 farm bill passed in the House by a margin of 325 to 96better than 3 to I think this shows that urban America now agrees it has a stake in trying to do something to help rural America. This is good news. It doesnt solve our problems. But it gives us a chance to find solutionsand it gves us added reasons to take some time on this agriculture day to bring the message of American agriculture to all of the people of our country. One of the things we should be thinking about today is the issue of rebuilding our agricultural export markets. One of the major factors behind todays trouble in the farm economy has been the decline in export sales for some of our major commodities in recent years. In passing the 1985 farm bill. Congress acted to regain those lost markets. partly by making support loan rates more competitive for major crops and partly by beefing up some of our export promotion programs. As my colleagues know. we were forced to modify some of the new export promotion features of the law recently in order to get other needed changes in the farm bill. But this has not changed the fact that export policy remains one of the key elements in any future agricultural recovery. With this in mind. I believe we should try to call the importance of the problem to the attention of the Nation at large. And to help in this effort. I am today introducing a bill to proclaim the week of June 16th as National Agricultural Export Week. Passage of this legislation. which I introduced with Congressman EDWARD R. MADIGAN of Illinois. the ranking minority member of the Agriculture Committee. should help get national attention for the significance of export markets to the agricultural and total national economies. I hope that all Members of the House will join us as cosponsors on the legislation to create a National Agricultural Export Week Observance. Finally. Mr. Speak r. as we share in the bounty of this :lreat country of ours. at least far today. let us thank God for those who till the land and say a special prayer for themfor without them. there is no life.