MR. MOTT: My name is John Mott, my family has a family ranch out by Great Falls, and I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Sorry I don't have any notes, I figured it would be easier this way.

I've been to school the last couple of years and I have a masters in International Management. I didn't really do very much with agriculture, but I really understand international strategy on businesses and corporations, and that's kind of my focus today. And I took economic classes and one of the earliest things we ever did learn was Adam Smith and the invisible hand that's supposed to be out there and do everything. My philosophy today, it's not very invisible, it's pretty visible and there's only a couple of strings attached and that's about the way it goes.

My family struggles. We went through the eighties and, my family, we lost a ranch in the mid-eighties during trickle-down economics, you know how well that worked. For us, it didn't work at all and we lost it. And I've had to seek out -- I've been able to go back to the ranch a little bit, but basically I can't go back and get into ranching again, it's too much money. I'm not Ted turner, I can't afford one.

But what I want to concentrate on is we hear an awful lot of talk, and I understand trade issues and quotas and tariffs and limits like that, but in some ways my understanding of a lot of this is almost like we're chasing the wrong rabbit. I don't believe in a lot of stuff that I've researched that the EU is the enemy or Japan is the enemy or Canada is the enemy. We're being manipulated right here. The charts that we've seen today, and a lot of the talk that's been talked about today, is we're selling our product for less than we did.

My family, because I went back and I asked my dad this morning, I went back and I got figures for '92 to '98 on what we got for our calves. In '93, before the Uruguay Round and before NAFTA, was the last time we had very good prices. In '96, during the record year, was the lowest price we received since 1992. And this is supposed to be free trade, and this is supposed to be we're going to open up the export markets and happy days are going to be here again for the producer? Well, it's not happening. Something is wrong with this entire system. We go through -- I mean, I studied an awful lot of this and we entrust a lot of our products to the care of these agribusiness corporations. ADM has been fined for price fixing with a foreign firm, who is supposedly the enemy. This is a foreign firm. We have companies, major agriculture companies -- it doesn't matter, ConAgra is in Australia and 37 or 40 countries. ADM is in South America, they have processing plants, they have huge trading companies in Europe. I don't know how much these impact -- these trade negotiations impact these companies.

We talk about the STEs and state trading enterprises and we want transparencies. I spent 18 months trying to do a school project on meat exports in Japan, and I went to the FAS, I went to the senators' offices, I went to every resource I could. And do you know what I wanted? I wanted simple information, I wanted to know how much meat was exported by company, not by the United States, by company into Japan. I never did find it. I know down to almost the pound how much meat was exported, but I can't tell which company exported that. But, yet, in school, they'll sit there on the computer and they'll say Compaq sent 10,000 computers and IBM sent in 12,336 computers. How come we can be that specific? And we want transparencies from STE and Cargill, private company doesn't have to report anything. And we want STEs to be transparent, but our own companies don't have to be transparent.

We're getting killed on the farm, absolutely murdered. We can't -- my dad -- in your magazine, one of the things that they're trying to do is for the farmer to be a low-cost producer. How low would you like us to go? My father is driving an '87 pickup that's falling apart because he can't afford a new one. We can't cut costs any more. And when we get in these trade negotiations, I'm really worried about how far it's going to go. And I understand an awful lot of these issues, but I talked to one of your officers and I asked a question, I said, these big companies, did they have to testify? Some of them have, but a lot of them haven't. How come they don't have to sit in front of a table like I do? I'm getting five minutes, are they getting five hours a day? Five hours a week? Are they in your advisory committee? You consult with the agribusinesses, are you going to take advice from farmers and ranchers? And we're getting killed out here in the country and we need something done.

The trade negotiations -- I will quit because the amber light is on and I'm not going to take up very much time. My question is this: In the trade negotiations, who are they for? Are they for the benefit of the agribusinesses or are they for the benefit of the agriculture producers? Because today, the way it sits, you can't do both. I don't think you can satisfy both. You're going to have to make up your minds on the negotiating team, what side are we going to help? Are we going to promote big business or are we going to help the producer? And that's a question that I can't answer, but I will see the results very quickly. In the end, I will see the results very quickly. Any questions?

MR. NELSON: Thank you, John. Any questions or comments for John?

MR. MOTT: There's one comment. Mr. Galvin, you said USDA and the packers in the packing plant in the processing line, it's the USDA officers who inspect the meat; correct?

MR. GALVIN: They either inspect or they have supervisors there who oversee the inspectors.

MR. MOTT: 15 seconds. I was a QA for one of the meat packing companies, I spent a year on the processing line. We were told on the line, as employees of the company, that USDA officers are the enemy, you do not go to these people. I know what goes down that line. And I can eat meat today, which is a rarity, but I can still eat meat today after watching what comes down that line and I sat on the end of those lines for a year. So some of what was talked about today, for them to self regulate is a joke. That's about it.