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mainstay of our local economy, agriculture. Large and small grow- 

 ers alike, the storm did not discriminate, and that agricultural in- 

 dustry also included aquaculture. 



Prior to Andrew, the industry provided $1 billion plus in eco- 

 nomic impact to our area annually, and in excess of 23,000 full- 

 time equivalent jobs. To expand on what Mr. Wells has already told 

 you, Florida produces 50 percent of the ornamental foliage distrib- 

 uted throughout the United States. Of that, 50 percent of the Flor- 

 ida production occurs in south Dade County. 



To put this in perspective and to put it another way, in your con- 

 gressional offices you have tropical greenery. That means that the 

 chances are one in four that greenery came from the greater south 

 Dade area. 



If you enjoy eating domestically produced fresh vegetables in the 

 winter months and tropical fruits such as mango, avocado, 

 carambolas, and Persian limes throughout the year, then chances 

 are that you are consuming many of the crops grown in the area 

 of Florida dramatically affected by Hurricane Andrew. 



Immediately following the storm the Dade County Farm Bureau 

 began collecting data and compiling damage estimates. By the 

 grace of God our telephones did not go out, so we immediately 

 opened up lines of communication with Commissioner Crawford 

 and the Florida Department of Agriculture, with the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, specifically Deputy Under Secretary Charles 

 Resnick, as well as Mr. Randy Weber who appeared before you ear- 

 lier, the Office of Management and Budget, our Members of Con- 

 gress who I am sure you remember well, Representative Dante 

 Fascell, and Bill Lehman, Senators Mack and Graham, as well as 

 our good neighbor to the north, Congressman Tom Lewis and any 

 other elected and appointed official that would listen to us. 



These folks were keenly aware of the damages that we suffered, 

 and they were equally aware of the needs that we had. 



Some of the needs were addressed in the Bush administration's 

 disaster appropriations bill. The remainder, that was overlooked 

 due to haste, was addressed in the subsequent supplemental bill. 



I say addressed because as I said even going into the 16 months 

 following Andrew, many of those needs remain unmet and unre- 

 solved. Now, at the risk of sounding cynical, both current and past 

 administrations are no longer using our area for photo opportuni- 

 ties. Now, that we are no longer on the evening news, our needs 

 still remain unresolved and unmet. 



A case in point is the recent decision by Secretary Espy not al- 

 lowing destroyed fruit trees to be eligible for crop year losses. This 

 decision has put the domestic lime production folks out of business, 

 and has put a real dent in other tropical tree crops. His decision 

 flies in the face of the legislative intent of the law. We have talked 

 to Senator Graham. We talked to Senator Mack. We have talked 

 to Congressman Lewis and Congresswoman Carrie Meek and to 

 the current Deputy Under Secretary Bob Nash. We tried to talk to 

 Secretary Cisneros when he came on his first fact-finding mission. 



Like I said, we talked to anybody who would listen. Our Gov- 

 ernor, Lawton Chiles, Lt. Governor Buddy McKay and Representa- 

 tives Peter Deutsch, Carrie Meek, Lincoln Diaz Balart, Ileana Ros- 

 Lehtinen, Alcee Hastings all lobbied on our behalf. Our message 



