Once of the problems that we face in production that hopefully you can take into account is that we have a unique situation in Florida with having some of the highest priced farm land in the country. Consequently, that adds -- when you get into the area of competition, that adds yet another burden that we in Dade County have to deal with.

I've watched my membership dwindle. I was born and raised in the Homestead, Florida area and indeed south Dade where all the farming takes place. I have seen families that have been in farming for 100 years go out of business due to NAFTA. What George Cooper from Belle Glade, the equipment dealer that spoke to you earlier, failed to mention is that he used to have a dealership in Homestead also but he had to close that operation up.

Dade County agriculture is a big business. Prior to NAFTA it equated to about a billion dollars in economic impact annually to the Dade County area. Today, following NAFTA, those numbers -- recent numbers came out of the University of Florida put that figure at 732 million.

We produce three major crops in Dade County. The biggest used to be the winter vegetable crops -- tomatoes, pole beans, eggplant, zucchini, cucumber -- all the traditional winter vegetables. We also produce tropical fruits -- mangos, limes, avocadoes, carabola, and some of the more exotic tropicals. The mango industry in Dade County has literally gone down the tubes for the simple reason that we're again in a non-competitive situation. Mexican mangoes are flooding the market.

Our biggest industry today is ornamental horticulture and the people in that industry are just waiting until the day comes when they are going to be affected. So far they feel rather fortunate that they're not affected at the moment, but they know that sooner or later it's coming with the liberalization of trade policies.

We were promised by the present Administration prior to NAFTA that Florida growers, vegetable growers, would be protected and they haven't been. We want those promises lived up to. We want those promises taken into account and fulfilled prior to any more trade negotiations with anybody anywhere at any time.

We need remedies in place that are effective and that are realistic. If it hadn't been without the help of Commissioner Bob Crawford and our Florida Legislature, the recent tomato wars would have never been resolved. It was just too expensive a process for the average grower.

So we beg you, please fix the inequities in NAFTA before proceeding with any other trade negotiations. We understand -- we don't have our heads in the sand in Dade County. We understand the importance of trade. We're home of one of the busiest airports in the world, Miami International, and one of the biggest seaports in the world, the Port of Miami. International trade has taken over. It's the number one industry. It exceeds tourism in Dade County. So we know that the trading has got to take place, but as has been repeated time and time and time again here today, it's got to be fair trade, not necessarily free trade.

Let me draw an analogy, and I'm not sure you'll connect with it but it makes sense to me. Back before the NAFTA agreement, Florida tomato growers had an economic impact and cash receipts in this state of about 750 to 800 million dollars annually. That figure, according to Department of Agriculture statistics, has dropped to 487 million. It used to be -- tomatoes used to be the number two crop in this state, second only to citrus.

As was published in a recent Florida Trend article, and I don't think anybody in this room would be proud to admit this or it's not something that they're going to boast about, but tomatoes are now the number three crop in Florida. The number two crop that used to be tomatoes is now illegally produced marijuana. Something is askew with our trade policies and the Administration needs to focus on taking care of Florida's winter vegetable producers. Thank you very much for your time and allowing me to make these comments to you.

(Applause.)