Now we'll hear from Mr. Brad Powers from the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

MR. POWERS: Distinguished panelists, let me first thank Secretary Jack Tarburton for facilitating this opportunity for businesses from our region to express their concerns about trade negotiations. The Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Lemey sends his kindest regards.

I'm Brad Powers, Assistant Secretary for Marketing, Animal Industries and Consumer Services. Among my responsibilities are domestic and international marketing, animal health, organic certification, commodity grading, aquaculture development and an area that is unusual for most State Department of Agriculture, seafood marketing. Maryland is a small state, albeit not as small as Delaware.

SECRETARY TARBURTON: You had to put that in there.

MR. POWERS: I had to put that in there, Jack. Farming is our number one industry. Over 13,000 farms represent $1.5 billion in cash receipts with an economic impact on the state of over $17 billion. Maryland produces over one million acres of corn and soybeans which help feed Delmarva's 600 million chickens of which we produce about half. We export over $271 million in agriculture products representing nearly 20 percent of our farm cash receipts.

Maryland's major exports include poultry, soybeans, feed grains, vegetables and fruits and tobacco. Up and coming contributors to Maryland exports are non-food horticulture crops, value-added food products, organic and aquaculture products.

Recently at a Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture meeting, the main subject was loss of profitability among not only small to medium farms but at all levels in agriculture. This problem has reached critical proportions with downward spiraling prices and drought conditions throughout much of our area.

We have heard time and again today that with our ever-increasing dependency on trade with other countries, we must seek solutions to tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. We live in a world today where it is doubtful that we can identify any consumer product either that contains one hundred percent all U.S. ingredients or is not dependent in some way on the technology or another product either in handling or shipping that's derived from outside our borders.

Therefore, while it is a gross oversimplification, we should aim for free access to all markets, both export and import.

It's frustrating to continuously hear that American farmers need to increase production on their existing acres by 400 percent in the next ten to 20 years to feed the world population and then be prevented from doing so in the name of protectionism.

As a State Department of Agriculture on the front porch of Washington, D.C., Maryland has enjoyed a close working relationship with USDA foreign agriculture service. We stress the importance of continued communications during the trade negotiation process so we can be better equipped to assist businesses at the grass roots level, thus providing even greater opportunities for a profitable phyto.

However, the message we need to impart the loudest and clearest to U.S. consumers and elected officials is that without farmers, there is no food. Maryland has one of the most effective agricultural land preservation in the country. But as Louis Riley frequently said, a profitable farm is the best preservation program.

The move toward free trade over farm payments espoused by the last farm bill is both noble and correct. But as long as we cannot create a level playing field with other countries, our elected officials and representatives and USDA officials need to reexamine this philosophy. It may be time to try to do it another way.

Thank you.