MR. GERMAN: Hey, Earl, how would you like a notebook?

MR. MANNING: I don't like it.

MR. GERMAN: My youngest son graduated from kindergarten. He's six years old now. It took him the whole first half of the school year this year to be able to say his color without saying to go big orange when he got to orange.

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, we appreciate the opportunity to share our thoughts regarding negotiations on agriculture and the World Trade Organization. At a time when future U.S. population and consumption levels are predicted to remain constant, we must anticipate that most growth and consumption of agriculture commodities will occur in other countries. Capturing the agricultural markets associated with this growth is crucial for Tennessee and U.S. farmers. Therefore, the Tennessee Farm Bureau believes that it is imperative that the United States, along with agricultural representatives, must be at the negotiating table in the next round of the World Trade Organization talks with trade negotiating authority to ensure that our agricultural trade surplus continues.

International trade is a key contributor to a higher standard of living and full employment in the United States. Over two million jobs depend on exports. The impact of trade on agriculture has been especially profound with well over of 20 percent of our country's agriculture production shipped and consumed elsewhere. Locally grown and processed the agriculture and forestry products are Tennessee's leading category of exports, totaling 2.1 billion dollars in 1995. For every dollar Tennessee farmers received in 1996, 22 cents of that was due to exports.

One of the recommendations included in the summary report of the Governor's Council on Agriculture and Forestry was the need to increase the demand and profitability of Tennessee's agriculture and forestry products in international markets. As you well know the passage of the 1995 Farm Bill entered farmers into a free market system. In order for this to work, we must look to the world market place for selling products. This mean that we must make sure that there are no artificial impediments in the way for U.S. agricultural sales. The export levels for wheat and soybeans has been done 13 percent. What would prices have been for Tennessee and U.S. farmer if exports had been up? We need free and open trade opportunities for Tennessee tobacco, lumber, cotton, horticultural crops and soybeans as well as all other commodities. Agriculture cannot afford to sit back and allow the free trade process, which the U.S. has led and championed, to generate. Today 96 percent of the world's population lives outside the borders of the United States. Reliance on the domestic market will not secure U.S. agriculture's place in the world agriculture system.

Therefore, we urge you to assume a leadership role in the upcoming World Trade Organization negotiations and find ways to help transition Tennessee and U.S. farmers to utilize the potential offered by foreign buyers in these foreign markets. With today's market prices we need to boost U.S. agriculture through various trade initiatives. The action items supported by farm Bureau include: Policies that promote open and free access to world markets, the removal of agricultural sanctions and an effort to deal more aggressively with countries that erect tried barriers and trade unfairly using export subsidies. With our prime geographical location, transportation, infrastructure and production capacity, Tennessee farmers are poised to fully participate in the world market of food and other agricultural products. However, we need to assure that Tennessee farmers with their many products will be able to take advantage of the constantly evolving world market. Our country has invested too much in the cause of trade liberalization to relinquish our leadership now. In addition, Tennessee farmers must have the confidence that they will be able to sell their products on the world market without restrictions in the years ahead. Farming has experienced some trying times right now. We produce more than we can sell apparently. Many of our customers in other countries cannot afford to buy our products because of our strong dollar and their stagnant economists. The U.S. has also placed trade restrictions on some of these countries. It is very depressing and almost impossible to produce our food at prices below what they were worth 25 years ago.

I don't want to sound pessimistic, but I went all of you to understand that our farmers are in a desperate situation. Sometimes it makes me feel like we're feeding the whole world but starving our whole families. That will conclude my comments on behalf of the Farm Bureau. I, like Mike, farm. That's how I try to make a living. Mike and I started out as young farmer, young farmers and ranchers they call them now. Mike, it's been 20 something years ago. Of course, when we first started we had a dream that we were going to farm. Everything we heard, you know, is the population was going slow. There wouldn't be enough food to supply the growing population. And I know when I was a senior in high school I had 25 or 30 acres of soybeans. I got over seven dollars a bushel for them back then. That's when was fertilizer was 30, 40 dollars. Of course, Daddy furnished the diesel and all but I know it was 12, 15 cents a gallon. I know a new combine in 1977 was 30 thousand. That wouldn't buy the headed today. Last fall we sold beans in the four -- below the five dollar range.I have never done that before. Farming has been good to me up till last year.

I have been farming on my own since 1977, started from scratch on 150 acres of own rented land in 1978. This was the worse the year I ever had even with the drought back in 1983. '98 was the worst year we ever had and we didn't have this terrible yield. Yields were exceptional. It was the price. Dollar a bushel for our corn. There was lot of farmers at home put their -- they had a place to store it. They're sending to (inaudible) right now and they're not even checking (inaudible) so something is wrong. So we do appreciate the opportunity to express our views. As Mike said, your job is so important and we hope you the best and hope you'll our requests. Thank you.