[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 13, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         STOP THE CENSUS BUREAU BEFORE IT DESTROYS FAMILY FARMS

  (Mr. FUNDERBURK asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of the Census, in its 
infinite wisdom, has recently proposed to change the definition of a 
farm. This is a bad idea for America. America's most basic industry is 
agriculture and the family farm. In North Carolina, under the current 
definition of a farm, we have over 50,000 farms, but under one of the 
new proposed definitions, we would magically be reduced to only 25,000 
farms. Mr. Speaker, changing the farm definition will affect the 
allocation of Federal funding since it also changes the distribution of 
the farm population among States. The Cooperative Extension and many 
other agriculture agencies use farm population to allocate funds. Small 
farms in my State represent a significant share of total production of 
commodities such as tobacco. Over 65 percent of minority farms would no 
longer be defined as farms. Mr. Speaker, now is the time for Congress 
to take action to stop this proposal before it economically destroys 
the small family farms in the Second District of North Carolina and 
throughout the Southeast.

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