Kevin, come on up and get positioned, and we'll get you in place. Now let me give you a couple of ground rules as we get started here. There are a number of people that want to make remarks. As we mentioned early, we will mention again because of the fact that there were still some people out during the break, but if you want to participate in the open mike session and have not yet checked in at the front desk to get on that list, you need to do that so that you can participate in that later on in the day.

Now the way we're going to work this is that each individual that wants to make remarks has five minutes to do so. We have a light system, and we'll get a demonstration here. The first four minutes, you will see the green light. As the fifth minute begins, you will see the blue -- is that blue? And then when the five minutes is up, you will see the red. At the end of the five minutes, I will stand, and I will give a 30 seconds over reminder. If we still haven't wrapped up, we're going to get this. I warned Kevin I was going to demonstrate on him.

Also we may use that same method if you stray off the subject area. We want to stay on the subject of trade issues as much as possible today because that's why we're here, and that's why these gentlemen have come to listen.

And while there are many other issues that pertain to agriculture, if you could confine your remarks as much as possible to the trade issues, we would appreciate that. Kevin, go ahead.

KEVIN SWANSON: My wife tells me I'm color blind when I dress, so do I have to pay attention to colors?

MICHAEL LEPORTE: When I stand up, you can wind down.

KEVIN SWANSON: Representatives of Nebraska's Congressional districts, Governor Johanns, members of the USDA and USTR, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity not only to provide testimony today on behalf of Nebraska's 30,000 corn producers, but also I want to thank the people that took the time yesterday to visit my family farm including the media and members of the USDA.

My name is Kevin Swanson. I'm currently Vice Chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board and Chairman of the Board's Government Affairs Committee. I raise corn and soybeans along with my wife Kelly, my son Taylor and with the help of two hired men and my father. I'm the fifth generation of my family to farm in the area and hopefully my nine-year-old son Taylor will have the opportunity to be the sixth.

Today you have the opportunity to hear from those of us who work the land, feed the livestock and are trying to make a living at what we do best. I hope you leave here today with a better sense what the U.S. must do in the upcoming rounds of the WTO talks to help me and my friends and family farmers stay in business. The three national cooperators we provide funding to, U.S. Grains Council, the National Corn Growers Association, and the U.S. Meat Export Federation have already communicated with in your office regarding specific trade problems and solutions. Today, however, is where the rubber meets the road. We are the real faces behind your efforts.

I've come straight from the field this morning from applying herbicide to my crop. And as soon as I'm done, I'm going back to try to beat the wind and the rain that is supposed to be coming. So we truly are the people that will be affected by the results of your efforts.

Freedom to Farm was designed to not only enhance my livelihood but to help me enter the new millennium serving the growing export market and receiving my livelihood from the marketplace and not the government. I hope enough of us are still in business to see the benefits that supposedly await us.

I have to share with you what the ag economy is really like. According to the Nebraska Farm Business Association based at the University of Nebraska and the Nebraska Farm and Ranch Management Education Program operated by the state's community colleges, their members experienced the worst net farm income in ten years. The 1998 net farm income for those enrolled was $4,800, and that figure includes $33,000 from the federal government's farm programs. Without that $33,000, the net income would have been a negative $28,246.

Obviously, we cannot wait much longer for the United States to negotiate a market for us to sell our products. It's apparent that we've met our match with the EU. It may be that we win a battle or two on some issues with the EU, but they are clearly winning the war. Either they are better at deceiving the world and the U.S., they have better negotiators or they feel that the rules of the WTO flatly do not pertain to them. Whatever the case, we appear to get the short end of the stick.

My written testimony covers a lot of specifics including Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China with big emphasis on the EU including both grain and red meat issues. So I urge you to read through the rest of it because I'm leaving some of it out here. The corn prices this morning in my community, and I checked, it was $1.80 per bushel, and we still have corn in someplaces that has yet to be picked up from the harvest last fall piled on the ground. Corn production costs exceed what I can sell my crops for. The EU certainly knows how to look out for their producers with extremely high domestic supports. While U.S. agricultural subsides are scheduled to decline.

I'll close with comments regarding what potentially could be at best a developing market for U.S. products or at worst a giant land mine in South American. My sense is the latter and the Big Bang Theory if the WTO does not properly address the issue. American farmers may not be able to compete with Brazil and Argentina if the playing field is not level.

For instance, the limiting of imports or requiring domestic end users and processors to purchase a certain percentage of domestic products before being given a license to purchase import product will hurt our farmers. Add to this the low interest loans and free access of American agriculture technology, and it may mean that South American agricultural balance of trade will replace what American farmers have worked so hard to provide this country.

Eliminating export subsidies, leveling internal supports and opening market access are excellent if achieved. I want our negotiators to know that farmers and ranchers in Nebraska want to produce the most abundant, the highest quality products and be reliable suppliers. If the doors are not opened and the world is not open for business, then our producers will certainly perish just like our perishable products.

Agriculture is one of those industries in America that have consistently provided a positive balance of trade, but that is slowly dwindling as we speak. We cannot survive by praying for a drought in China or South American or heaven forbid a drought in another corn-producing state in the United States. We can survive by being the best at what we do and that includes representing our best interests in the WTO. American farmers cannot be the scapegoats for internal support costs. Remember early on in my comments where Nebraska farmers would have been in 1998 without internal supports all the while we are producing for the world market. I want to thank you for the opportunity I've had today.