Thank you, Mr. Froemke. Is Dick LeCocq in the room? Yes, he is. We will take a five-minute break after Dick LeCocq’s presentation from the Minnesota Cattlemen’s. And when we return from that we will have Justin Dagen and Dwayne Maatz of the Red River Valley Potato Growers. But first we’ll get through this presentation and I’ll let you know what time we’ll reconvene. Welcome, Dick.

MR. LECOCQ:

Thank you. I can sum up what I have to say in basically one word and that is frustration. The cattlemen are frustrated and becoming more frustrated every day, because we produce a good, wholesome, healthy product under stringent environment rules. Then when we try to sell our product, we meet up with trade barriers. From the EU ban on certain U.S. beef and restrictions on some patented commodities, it is unjust and unfair and not based on sound science. The Coyote Treaty puts U.S. producers and manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage compared to some countries when we’re talking about developed and undeveloped countries. Some countries, such as Korea, haven’t lived up to their agreements to buy U.S. beef. In addition, I understand that beef is sold in Korea only in import/export stores while Korean products are sold freely in the U.S. market. And if you go to an import/export store you’d find many different products. When they go to the grocery store, I understand that the U.S. beef is not there. Country-of-origin labeling. We believe that country-of-origin labeling should be required on both sides of the border. Once people in other countries find out where all that good beef came from, we think that they’ll want more. 80 percent of Americans want to know where the beef they eat comes from. The playing field. How many times have we heard that today? If the playing field isn’t leveled soon, many of the beef producers out there that are now teetering in the brink will soon be bankrupt. Remember, beef it’s what for dinner.