Next is Robert Griffin, who is Chairman of the Grass Roots Ag Coalition. And Robert will be followed by John Mott, who is a Montana producer. So, Robert.

MR. GRIFFIN: My name is Robert Griffin, I farm and ranch northwest of Chester, northeast of Shelby, north of a little town called Galata up in Sweet Grass Hills. In essence of time, I'll talk real fast because I got a lot of things to say. I would like to thank the US Trade Representative Office and the US Department of Agriculture for holding these listening sessions prior to the upcoming WTO negotiations in Seattle. Basically, I'm a grassroots ag producer in northern Montana. While I'm not completely versed on the intricacies or details of trade negotiations, I am very knowledgable about the end results of these trade agreements on the grassroots ag producers. Every day I live with the consequences of these decisions, financially and emotionally.

As most of you know by now, the agricultural community is in a crisis that parallels and, by some comparison, is worse than the Great Depression. While the rest of the US economy is enjoying unprecedented prosperity, American farmers are facing bankruptcy in alarming numbers.

The average American farmer and rancher is not the stereotypical farmer often depicted with bib-overalls, straw in the mouth, and pitchfork in his hand. American agriculture has, like the rest of corporate America, become as efficient as possible, enlarging our operation, and tightening production costs. We continue to expand and explore new ideas in agricultural production including low-input, sustainable agriculture processes. We effectively use computers and data processing systems to keep us abreast of daily marketing conditions and opportunities. Since NAFTA and GATT agreements, these opportunities have declined and dwindled substantially. We watch helplessly as the EUC manipulates the world market with their decisions to lower and raise their subsidies.

Agriculture is the only business that's not able to calculate the cost of production, add a reasonable profit, and price our product. As John F. Kennedy once said, "Farmers are the only segment of the economy that buys retail, sells wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." Agriculture is the only segment of the economy that is given a below-cost-of-production or below-cost-of-living wage and expected to parlay it into a profit or a living wage at the world trade. We continue to plant our fields hoping that by some miracle, the price of our product will cover the cost of production. We cannot continue on in business under the current marketing processes.

As with any business or corporate entity, we need a competitive and aggressive marketing arm that promotes and solicits sales of our products. Given the current global agricultural structure, it is virtually impossible for the US Government to get out of agriculture. The US Government and USDA is our marketing arm in global markets. American producers realize this is a world market and recognize the need to be competitive. We are the most efficient and capable producers of agricultural products in the world. The US Government and the USDA need to be as efficient and capable in sales and promotion of agricultural products in the global markets.

There is an old saying, and I believe it came from my wife originally, it's simple but it holds a lot of wisdom, "If you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you got." And, basically, if we keep doing what we're doing in the world trade negotiations, we're going to keep getting what we got, which is losing more and more of the world's market share, farmers and ranchers going broke in record numbers, and a mass exodus of the younger generation leaving ag production for more lucrative and rewarding occupations. We feel these points must be rectified if American agriculture is to survive.

The US needs to match the EUC subsidies dollar for dollar to American farmers. I've heard here, let's eliminate the subsidies, this is a good rhetoric, but don't fly. We've got other things, we shouldn't use agricultural products as power, negotiating powers and other things like that. The USDA and US Government needs to be committed to aggressive marketing of US products. Grassroots agricultural producers should be represented at the World Trade Negotiation table and have the power of input in marketing agreements. Tariffs should be imposed on imports of agricultural products. I say this in the event that these products are coming in at a less than our costs of production, then there should be tariffs imposed on them to subsidize the farmer for his cost.

Rather than America the beautiful, with amber waves of grain, we're becoming a country of waves of CRP grass. Are we going to set aside and idle some of the most productive land in the world and become a nation of importers of agricultural products? Has it become more financially sound to pay American farmers permanent, long-term subsidies to plant our nation to grass, or is it a more financially sound decision to compete in world markets and let the demand for food products ultimately be a positive force in balancing trade?

Farmers who are forced financially to idle their land in CRP sell off their machinery, and their sons and daughters leave the land never to return. It is very unlikely this land will ever return to production agriculture. Young farmers don't stand a chance. If agriculture would again become profitable through competitive marketing strategies, the reverberations would be felt across the nation. The WTO organization meeting in Seattle will be a critical meeting. The decisions made at these conferences have the power to permanently change the landscape in future rural America. We've done our part by becoming as efficient and positive as we can, it is now the part of the USDA and the US Government to do their part as our essential marketing arm to ensure we will become profitable by becoming a competitive force in the world market for agriculture commodities.

In closing, I'm going to make one statement here, I thought of this on the way down. I've been listening to the radio, Allen Greenspan is talking about the robust economy. I would like him to take a look at the grassroots producers, basically we are something like lemmings going over the cliff, and that's about how fast the bankruptcies and foreclosures are happening and will happen at a more rapid rate than the speed it's doing right now unless something is done to and for production agriculture. These give-away programs and bail-outs that the government has been giving to us, we graciously accept, but that's not the way to fix the farm. Are there any questions?

MR. NELSON: Thank you, Robert. Panel? Robert, thank you very much.