[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 17, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1389-H1390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            AMERICA'S FARMERS FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVELIHOOD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I am here today because our American family 
farmers are suffering. While the general economy is strong, the U.S. 
agricultural economy continues to experience significant declines in 
agriculture commodity prices that began over a year ago. The price 
declines experienced by wheat and cattle producers over the last couple 
of years have expanded now to all of the feed grains, oil seed, cotton, 
pork and now the dairy sectors at record all-time lows. Farm income is 
expected to fall from $53 billion in 1996 to $43 billion next year, 
nearly a 20 percent decline.
  Mr. Speaker, last week I met with a number of farmers just from Ohio. 
One left me with a letter that I would like to read tonight. It says:

       Dear Ms. Kaptur: The purpose of my Washington, D.C. trip is 
     twofold. Not only am I here today representing Ottawa County, 
     but as a wife and partner of an Ottawa County farmer. I am 
     very concerned about the plight of America's farmers. I can 
     remember as a youngster back in the late 1940s all the 
     farmers, eight full-time farmers within just 2 miles of here 
     who lived on our road in northwest Ohio. They had dairy cows, 
     hogs and chickens. At the present time within that same two 
     miles there is only one full-time farmer. Since our numbers 
     are dwindling and the American farmer only makes up 1.8 
     percent of our population, the American farmer is fast 
     becoming an endangered species.
       I want to know what is going to happen to the American 
     farmer, and does Washington and our Nation really care? With 
     the way our grain prices are falling and our costs are 
     increasing, how is a present-day farmer going to continue and 
     also encourage new generations to enter the farming 
     profession? The prices are lower now than during the 1940s.
       With the combination of low prices and the loss of 
     productive agricultural ground to urban sprawl, most farming 
     operations will cease to exist. Where is our Nation going to 
     obtain its food? If the United States relies in greater and 
     greater measure on foreign countries to supply its food 
     needs, their food checkoff day will surpass the February 9 
     date.
       Since U.S. consumers have never gone hungry, they have no 
     concept if they lose the American farmer, their safe food 
     supply could diminish or be completely cut off. How long can 
     the average American farmer afford to spend $168,000 for just 
     one piece of equipment?

[[Page H1390]]

       With the statistics that I am enclosing the American farmer 
     will not be able to stay in business. Therefore agriculture 
     will not be one of America's major industries. We are 
     fighting for our livelihood and need yours and Congress' 
     help.
       Does anybody care? Does anybody even know?
           Regards,
                                                              Dee.

  She also left me with a breakdown of their family farming operation, 
which I will place in the Record, but basically what it shows is their 
total production cost last year was $375,000, including what they had 
to pay for running their land, the cost of producing corn, the cost of 
producing soybeans and wheat, however their total income was only 
$317,430, leaving them with a negative income last year of $57,570.
  The question to be addressed is how today's or tomorrow's farmer is 
going to continue to produce food for a Nation in the world if he or 
she cannot purchase needed equipment and meet the costs of doing 
business. How many other Americans have to purchase equipment like 
combines which retail at $211,000 minus dealer discounts equaling about 
$168,000 less trade-ins on equipment. So that leaves them with about 
$111,000 to finance for 10 years at 8.75 percent interest for an annual 
payment of $17,204.

                              {time}  1630

  How will they continue to make that payment when their negative 
income prohibits them from showing any profit?
  There is an increasing concentration throughout agriculture today. 
This concentration is severely distorting the market signals that 
farmers use to know what to produce, when to produce and how to make a 
profit. This concentration is hurting the marketplace and free 
competition. These market conditions are deeply hurting our family 
farms and threatening the economic stability of real communities across 
our country.
  Dee asks, what can we do? First I say Congress, this Congress and 
this executive branch, must recognize the faces of rural America and 
understand the crisis out there. We must increase market transparency 
on prices and we should revisit freedom to farm and provide these 
farmers who provide our food with the safety net against these kinds of 
international market manipulations.

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