but the fact we are having 10 full Agriculture Committee hearings across the Nation. So we thank you very much. I appreciate it and so do these members who are here today, as well as our producers who are attending.

This is a bipartisan committee, and I appreciate your effort and the effort of Mr. Stenholm to make sure it continues to be that way. As Mr. Stenholm mentioned, he has been a visitor to my farm-and, Charlie, that cotton field you looked at last time is now a hay field. So I have gone from cotton to hay.

I would like to welcome all the panelists who have taken time out of their busy schedules to be with us here today. We all realize that it is a busy time of the year for producers since most are planning to put their crops in the ground in the very near future. I think we can all agree that one of the greatest provisions of the 1996 farm bill allows producers the flexibility to grow what they want, when they want and where they want. This freedom to farm is something we all want to-that freedom to farm is something we all would like to retain.

Gentlemen, U.S. consumers use only 11 percent of their spendable income on food and fiber. We want consumers to be-to appreciate how lucky they are to have such efficient U.S. producers. Our job on the committee is to keep others in Congress-to teach others in Congress how important it is to keep growing the Nation's food supply inside our own borders. Importing food is not an option. I am surprised often that in my district I have to tell business people-point out the fact that we spend only 11 percent of our disposable food-income for food and fiber. You take the next lowest in the Nation, which is around 20 or 21 percent, that frees up about 10 percent of disposable income in this Nation to spend on a $6.7 trillion annual economy. That is a huge amount of money that goes for other goods and services.

We are in the heartland to hear from people that are most affected by our policies, the producers. I await the panelists testimony and hope we come away with at least an idea-a starting point on how we can help producers keep doing what they do best, supplying this great country with the most reliable, best quality food and fiber this planet has to offer.

Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Bishop.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR., A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF

GEORGIA

Mr. BISHOP. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It is an honor to be here today to listen to farmers offer their solutions to the situation facing American agriculture today. I commend you, Mr. Chairman, for assembling these distinguished panels of working farmers. You have the best perspective to offer answers to the variety of problems facing American production agriculture. I am heartened to see so many farmers here from Georgia, here to give Congress guidance on Federal farm policy. We know that you took time from this busy planting season to be here today and we appreciate it very much.

While it is always a pleasure to be with you, we are all acutely aware of the fact that these are certainly not the happiest of times for farmers in the Southeast and for other areas of the country. We are in the midst of one of the worst farm crisis of the past two decades. Throughout rural America family farmers have been caught in the squeeze between high production costs and low commodity prices, and have been hit the hardest by droughts and other weather-related crop disasters that have struck repeatedly over the past few years. You are the farmers who provide the competitive backbone that our agricultural system must have to continue to lead the world in terms of quality and consumer affordability.

While it is true that the number of people involved in farming has been declining for more than two centuries, it is also true that yields have steadily climbed, and the 2 million family farms that continue to exist today still produce most of the food and fiber consumed in our country and much of that consumed abroad. Our system is still a highly competitive one and the American consumer is the biggest beneficiary of this. The current crisis has already put an alarming number of farms out of business from pressures over which they have little or no control. Many others are on the brink, and if these conditions persist long enough, our whole competitive system will be in jeopardy.

The 1996 farm bill was based on a vision that we all support, less government; yet it also recognized the need for a continuing Federal role providing transitional assistance carrying forward revised programs and moving forward in agricultural conservation and research programs. The bill emphasized rural development to help communities that are suffering during the transition period. But overall, that bill was written for a bullish farm economy with the underlying assumption that high prices, good weather and strong exports would last forever. This may have been a visionary plan, but many of its provisions apparently had not been fully considered and developed at the time that it was enacted, and it offered little protection for when the going got really tough.

Now as we enter a new year and a new century we face many challenges. We must level the playing field in world trade. We must fix the farm safety net. We must continue the Government role in agricultural research to help farmers find new ways to reduce their cost of production. We need realistic environmental laws and regulations, not those that impose unnecessary burdens on producers. We need to clearly define the country's agricultural policy once and for all and enact the kind of programs that will effectively carry that policy out. The bottom line is this, we need a policy that enables farmers to succeed and which stops the trend toward concentration that threatens to literally destroy the country's traditional agricultural system.

I truly do not believe anyone really wants America's agriculture system to be reduced to a few corporate megafarms on one hand and nothing more than hobby farms on the other. President Franklin Roosevelt made a statement in 1932 about the loss of family farms that I believe still applies very much today. He said, "We cannot have national prosperity without farmer prosperity. It is economically unsound to sell out an honest, hard working, efficient farmer, but even more than that, such a procedure constitutes a so

cial, moral and human wrong. For the sake of our national economic security and in the name of fundamental fairness, we must ensure that the family farmer has every opportunity to share in the American dream."

I thank the chairman and I thank all of you for coming here today. This is your hearing, and I look forward with all of you to restoring American agriculture to profitability and prosperity. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Chambliss.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SAXBY CHAMBLISS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA Mr. CHAMBLISS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me just say, too, what a pleasure it is to be here and be hosted by a very fine group of folks in Alabama. Being from the University of Georgia, there are two things about the Georgia-Auburn rivalry that are unique. First of all, it is the oldest football rivalry in the United States. Second, it seems like the visiting team wins every year. Auburn came and whipped us so bad last year we are not sure we are going to play them this year. But when we came over here year before last, we put a good shellacking on Auburn. So I know that when I leave town today, it is going to be like after a football game over here, I am going to feel good because of what I am going to hear today. [Laughter.]

As I look out among this audience and have an opportunity to visit with a lot of you before this hearing, there are a lot of my friends here, both from Alabama, Georgia as well as Florida, because agriculture is a nationwide industry and it is an industry that we approach in Washington from a true bipartisan atmosphere. It is the people that we feed that are of concern, it is not political ideas and philosophies that are of concern to us. And it is up to us to try to figure out what is the best way for the Federal Government to be involved in agriculture and that is really what we are here to talk about.

I commend the chairman for having these hearings. I think it is absolutely essential that we go to every part of the United States to hear from farmers, to hear from those folks who are out there struggling every day like a lot of you are to get a return on the investment that you have to make every year.

Most of you probably know that my son-in-law is a farmer and I am very proud of that. It is the greatest heritage, in my opinion, that we have in this country. And that is a heritage handed down from generation to generation on the family farm. My son-in-law struggles just like every one of you do who are out there farming every single day and struggling with the problems with nature as well as being subjected to arbitrary prices being imposed on you by the markets.

We are doing our best to try to level the playing field, No. 1; and second, to try to ensure that you do get a decent return on the investment that you have to make every year.

There are some things about the 1996 farm bill that I am very proud of. There are other things that are obviously not working and I am not happy with. And we expect to hear a lot of that today. In 1996 when we passed that farm bill, it was not only the change in the way the Government participates in agriculture from

a spending perspective that we promised you. We promised you that we were going to do some other things to make life on the farm more profitable and easier day in and day out. Those other things were that we were going to give you tax relief, we were going to give you regulatory relief, we were going to improve the trade aspect of the world markets, so that you would be on more of a level playing field, and we were going to provide you with real and meaningful crop insurance reform.

Well, frankly, we passed tax relief, and it was vetoed. We passed regulatory relief and it was vetoed. We are working hard on improving the trade status in agriculture all across the country right now as we speak. And then we passed meaningful crop insurance reform under the leadership of Chairman Combest and the House and it is going to be hopefully brought to the floor of the Senate here in the next couple of weeks, and we are going to come up with a real meaningful crop insurance reform package.

So we have not delivered everything that we said we were going to do in 1996 and that is part of the problem, we know that. But we know that there are other problems out there too that we are going to be listening to you on today.

And again, I am very pleased to be here, I am very pleased to have any number of my constituents from the eighth district who are testifying today, some of whom are on my Agriculture Advisory Board, which is a group of about 30 farmers that I depend on and meet with regularly to get their advice about what is going on at the farmer level.

Mr. Chairman, again, I am very appreciative of you and Mr. Stenholm for agreeing to hold these hearings. I am glad you got this close to Georgia. It is a good feeling to be here because you are this close to Georgia. So we are looking forward to hearing you farmers today and taking back to Washington the ideas that we know we can incorporate into the remaining aspects of the current farm bill and carry forward into the next one.

Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Berry.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARION BERRY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARKAN

SAS

Mr. BERRY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding these hearings, and the ranking member for his involvement in these hearings. As our ranking member says, just about everything has been said but everybody up here has not said it yet. I will try to keep mine

[Laughter.]

I can tell you, it is always good to be in Alabama. We had a wonderful evening last night after we got off the plane and appreciate the hospitality that has been extended to us. I consider Senator Heflin one of my political mentors, he is a great friend. Ronnie Murphy, your deputy commissioner of agriculture is also a long time friend of mine. We were able to have breakfast this morning. And Jerry Newby has done a great job in agriculture leadership in this State. My chief of staff in Washington, DC named Thad Huguley is from this part of the State of Alabama, so I consider

myself almost a citizen. I kid our Governor every once in awhile that they-Arkansas tends to forget the eastern part of the State, they would kind of like to forget us anyway. And I tell him we have applied for citizenship in the State of Tennessee but we are having trouble getting the Mississippi River moved. [Laughter.]

But I do feel a kinship with Alabama and the agriculture interests here for sure. I would only add to what has been said, that I think agriculture is a national security issue. We do not ever want to get in the state with agriculture that we are in with oil production right now. And I think that is something that we need to keep under consideration.

It is nice to be here with you and I thank you for the opportunity.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Moran.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JERRY MORAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF KANSAS

Mr. MORAN. Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing us to be in Alabama today and to hear from Alabama farmers. I am a member of Congress from Kansas representing about three-quarters of the State; we are wheat, cattle and corn country, slowly beginning to enter into cotton. But I would tell you that ALFA and its folks in Washington, DC as well as my two classmates that I arrived in Congress with, Robert Aderholt and Mr. Riley, have done a great job of keeping me informed and understanding the issues that the folks in Alabama and this part of the country care about.

It is surprising to me to be a Kansan and look at the panel here and discover that I am the guy from the north. [Laughter.]

My apologies for that. It would not probably hurt if you all would slow down you conversation, your testimony today so I can understand it.

I appreciate Auburn University as well as ALFA hosting us last night. I called my wife when I got back to the motel room last night to tell her what fine people, how nice you all are in Alabama. This is my first trip here and I am delighted to be in Alabama, but I am particularly delighted to be here with farmers because no matter where you are in this country, we have a lot at stake in the future of our Nation and we are all interested in the same kinds of things and we all care about kind of the same values and we work together to make sure that our way of life does not evaporate. I always tell my constituents that what I am about as a Member of Congress is what do you do to make it possible for my 9-yearold and my 12-year-old to grow up the same way we are trying to raise them and to keep rural America alive awhile longer because it is awfully important not only to my kids, but to the country.

I am delighted to be with you and your Congressmen here today and look forward to hearing the testimony.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Riley.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BOB RILEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA

Mr. RILEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing in Auburn, AL. One of the things that all of you will understand when you leave today is that you have just heard testi