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STATEMENT OF STEVE GARRISON, PRODUCER, ALMOND TREE 

 NURSERY, ASCS COUNTY COMMITTEE, HOMESTEAD, FL 



Mr. Garrison. Good afternoon, Mr. Lewis. I apologize for not 

 having a prepared statement. At the last minute, I came because 

 a couple of the other growers were unable to attend. On the early 

 morning hours of August 24, 1992, I spent the time with a mat- 

 tress in front of myself, in front of a closet where my wife and chil- 

 dren were huddled in a corner. When the Sun finally came up and 

 we came out of the debris and stood outside on what used to be 

 my back porch, my younger son, 12 years old, was crying and said 

 that he had intended to inherit a nursery one day and his life was 

 over and what was he going to do; and his older brother, 14, said, 

 "Shut up, Matt, daddy's not dead; you are not inheriting anything, 

 and we are not poor yet." 



I gave my sons the option of either helping to rebuild the nurs- 

 ery — I told them I wouldn't do it by myself. If they wanted to work 

 with me to help me rebuild it, we would rebuild the nursery. If 

 they didn't want to do that, I would plow everything to the road, 

 sell the land, raise enough money to buy a franchise in New Orle- 

 ans. They decided to stay in the Homestead area. 



We began working to put everything together. While my sons 

 were out there putting the irrigation systems back together, be- 

 cause a lot of growers lost more crops due to the lack of irrigation 

 than were lost in actual damage from the hurricane, I was busy 

 filling out Government forms and going from office to office looking 

 for assistance. 



The process was very cumbersome, as people related earlier. 

 After filling out many forms, I was told that actually that program 

 didn't apply to me. I was sent somewhere else and bounced from 

 office to office. After about 4 or 5 months, I finally prevailed. I did 

 receive a Farmers Home loan. 



I was discouraged and tried to apply for an interest buydown 

 loan. Those loans never occurred. A lot of the nursery people spent 

 valuable time they should have been using to restore their busi- 

 nesses to fill out all these forms. I understand the USDA is abbre- 

 viating a lot of their forms. It is very important. 



I think the things that were said earlier are very important 

 about the crop insurance. If crop insurance and loan moneys are 

 made available for the assistance on interest and no requirements 

 for all the land and all your possessions are committed for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining a loan, that those two things should eliminate the 

 necessity for a lot of the just giveaway programs. 



I think most growers would be happy to pay for insurance, would 

 be happy to borrow money and repay the money. No one is looking 

 for anything for nothing. But we work in a very labor-intensive in- 

 dustry. We employ a lot of people. We have payrolls that have to 

 be met. We have suppliers that have to be paid. In order to do our 

 business, we need financial assistance. 



My suggestion in addition to the crop insurance situation, is to 

 streamline the process for disaster loans where the money can go 

 to the growers initially, when they need it, and they do not have 

 to commit everything they own. 



For a loan of $250,000, I had to commit my entire inventory, all 

 the property I own, both houses, my boat, my son's boat, every 



