MR. ROTH: Good morning. My name is Ricky Roth. I'm President and owner of Roth Farms, Incorporated. I am a third generation farmer in Belle Glade, Florida. That's a community just south of Lake Okeechobee in western Palm Beach, County. I grow a wide variety of crops including sugarcane, vegetables, rice, sweet corn, radishes and soy. I am a board member of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and I'm also a board member of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation.

I belong to these industry organizations because agriculture is the backbone of our domestic economy and I am committed to preserving the strong agricultural industry and a safe, secure and abundant supply of domestic food for my family, for my community, and for this country. That is why I came to speak to you today and I really appreciate the opportunity to do so.

Now, much has changed since my father and grandfather moved their farming operation to Belle Glade in 1949. Florida growers today face many more restrictions on land use, water use, farm labor, pesticides and other crop inputs. Now, while these added state and federal regulations had hoped to safeguard our environment and our food supply, they have come at significant cost.

These costs directly affect my ability to compete with growers in other nations which are not required to meet U.S. regulations. Growers in developing nations generally have a much lower overhead cost than I do. Their relaxed regulatory environment lets them spend far less managing their labor, their water, their land, their farm sanitation and other areas that fall under regulatory jurisdiction here in the United States.

Now, these reduced regulatory compliance costs provide a significant cost advantage for foreign producers. In just the past year, USDA and UDA -- or excuse me, FDA -- announced guidelines for our nation's producers designed to minimize the chances of microbiological contamination. These guidelines were developed at the direction of President Clinton and he announced the initiative to address concerns about food-borne diseases associated with foreign produce.

Now it sounded like a good idea at the time, but when it came time for the federal authorities to put this plan into action they realized they had no effective way to monitor how foreign growers operate. What's more, there is currently no way to adequately screen foreign fruits and vegetables as they enter the United States. The high volume of shipments from foreign producers obviously permit only spot-checks for contaminations.

So ironically, a food safety program that was largely designed to reduce illnesses associated with contaminated foreign produce can only be implemented here in the United States. The result was a program that cost domestic producers more and does nothing to improve the quality and wholesomeness of foreign fruits and vegetables.

Now, I think we all as farmers agree that we must explore these new trade agreements and new relationships with trading partners, but we think we should approach this in a way that ensures fairness for domestic producers. Our products are seasonal, they are highly perishable and they are very sensitive to price fluctuations caused by supply surges from foreign producers.

For example, this past Christmas the market price for a crate of sweet corn was only three dollars. You need to know that it costs more than three dollars or right at three dollars to harvest sweet corn. I believe the low market price was attributable, in part, to increasing supply of sweet corn from foreign producers.

Import surges have hurt Florida growers, as you've heard. Mexico's currency devaluations have encouraged growers to target Florida markets or U.S. markets forcing crop prices down below harvesting costs in this country.

Protections granted under the U.S. trade are largely ineffective because they work too slowly to help producers who must market their crops in very short windows. By the time these safeguard measures are employed, crops are sold at a loss or left to rot in the fields.

I would say that there are some people, many of them well-educated, many of them economists, who would say that our nation's farmers need to shift their production to produce those crops that are not susceptible to these import surges. That kind of strategy might work well if you were in manufacturing, but not in the production of agriculture and especially not in Florida's unique climate. For 50 years my family has been able to operate profitably because of the rich and highly productive organic soils and because of the access to managed water supply.

But most importantly, we succeed because of the experienced people that work for me, that work with me, from the industry that provide new varieties and new technologies. These people help me grow my crop and bring it to market. This is not a simple situation. This is a very complex economic arrangement and we can not shift crops easily every few years to cope with the dynamics of the changing international market.

So the question is why must these trade accords be implemented so quickly? Why must we promote free trade at the expense of fair trade and in the end jeopardize the future of Florida's producers? We can all prosper from a fair and less restrictive fair environment. Everybody agrees with that. But I urge our nation's trade negotiators to demand fairness and equity in these new trade agreements.

I believe our trade representatives should seek a less restricted production and marketing environment but also ensure a safe and abundant domestic food supply. Further, I ask that you enact any agreement slowly with provisions for corrective action from time to time.

In conclusion, I respectfully ask that you consider the following issues in future trade agreements. First, we must work to establish parity in production standards especially regarding pesticide use and other agricultural practices designed to improve food quality and protect the environment. Otherwise, we will continue to improve our own production practices and increase our domestic cost of production so much that American growers will not be able to compete in the world marketplace. Then much of the produce that we produce -- much of the fresh produce available, excuse me, to U.S. consumers will be foreign grown without U.S. oversight and therefore negating the benefits of the food safety guidelines in the first place.

Additionally, I would urge you to seek trade mechanisms that allow quick and responsive remedies to import surges. Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 has already been shown to be ineffective in this regard. The Congress has ignored to fix this legislative loophole. So it only makes sense to build such safeguards into future trade agreements from the start.

I would like to thank you for allowing me to speak to you today on an issue that I think is perhaps the single most important issue facing this country today, and that is the continued production of a secure and safe domestic food supply. Thank you.

(Applause.)