MR. BARTLE: Thank you. My name is Larry Bartle. I'm the current President for the Florida Cattlemen's Association. As Commissioner Crawford knows, cattlemen tend to be pretty direct, blunt and to the point, so I'm going to keep my comments fairly short.

I am a fourth generation Floridian, third generation cattleman. I'm representing our state association here today. We have around 4,500 members in our association. I, myself, come from a family that has deep roots in agriculture, not just cattle -- formerly in citrus, some timber, some sod -- we're kind of a diversified operation.

Florida, in general right now has around 1.1 million head of mamma cows in production. Our state ships out over 600,000 head of calves every year to other states for growing and feeding after they are weaned from their mothers. Even though Florida doesn't feed cattle to slaughter, we are directly affected by the amount of beef or beef products that are exported.

We are the first link in a production change. Any time our exported amounts change there is a direct relation to the price that is paid to our producers for their calves.

I understand the importance of foreign trade not only for our beef products but also for live animals, because my family's operation also includes exporting quarter horses and breeding beef cattle.

Currently, 12 percent of the U.S. beef supply is exported. I have been involved for around 15 years at the state level in our industry. I remember when the European ban on U.S. beef first started. Bob Josserand was the president of the National Cattleman's Association at that time. He did an interview on the Today Show about the ban. He stated at that time the ban was truly a trade barrier and not a health issue. Today the statement has not changed one bit.

As you know, scientific studies have shown there is no health risk to consumers for beef produced with growth promotants. We urge you to make the EU follow the deadline given to them and make their markets open up to our products. We just want equal access to their market. Let their consumers decide which beef they would rather eat. They will decide if our products are more desirable.

Last week I did an interview with a German television station. They knew about the scientific studies on the health risks. They wanted to see cattle that had been treated with growth promotants. When I showed them what an implant actually was and how it was given, they seemed to be completely surprised from what they had been hearing in their countries. I know they left with a better understanding of the real reason behind the ban.

Another topic important to us is the country of origin labelling. Given a choice, the U.S. consumer would prefer U.S. grown products. This also ties into not allowing or limiting importation of products that are not up to USDA inspection standards. We're not allowing products into our country that are subsidized by or price supported by other countries.

I hope this forum will help you -- will assist you in your coming negotiations. Thank you.

(Applause.)