34 



sonal comment would be that I don't think the USDA talked long 

 enough or listened well enough, because the program is a disaster, 

 in itself, to some nursery growers. 



The USDA talked about the containers. Then there was the fol- 

 low-up question about the acres of trees and that the rates and 

 yields were going to be established by the county committees. My 

 question would be, who on the county committee is going to be that 

 knowledgeable of specialty crops that they are going to be able to 

 establish guidelines, rates, yields, et cetera? 



That information has to be spoon-fed to them from somewhere. 

 I would like to know who is going to hold that spoon and feed them 

 that information. It is coming from somewhere. I think that is very 

 critical when we are looking at the dollars to determine the grow- 

 er's losses. 



I am only going to take a few more moments to tell you one story 

 about a grower in Des Moines. He had 30 acres of specimen trees 

 underwater last summer. This man lost 6,000 trees, trees that 

 were IV2 to 6 inches — trunk caliper or trunk diameter. 



If you have my testimony in front of you, the back page shows 

 color pictures of some of those trees that were damaged. What I 

 wanted to point out is just one inconsistency. If you look at the bot- 

 tom picture, it shows some pine trees. The bottom half of the pines 

 are brown, but the little part at the top is green yet. 



One of the specifications for crop loss is that the trees have to 

 be dead, totally dead. Those trees still show a little bit of green. 

 But I can tell you those trees are lost. Who is going to buy them? 

 They are totally unmarketable. Yet when we look at the tree assist- 

 ance program, those types of trees, trees that have been signifi- 

 cantly damaged, are counted in the mortality rate. 



You have inconsistencies like this, different provisions set up 

 that make it totally impossible to access any help or the needed 

 help that these growers must have in order to continue in their 

 businesses. 



So my comment would be that the Federal disaster assistance 

 program is not working for horticultural crop producers. We need 

 to recognize the uniqueness of these crops. We need to then take 

 a common-sense approach to making disaster assistance more re- 

 sponsive, more accessible to the needs of the specialty crop produc- 

 ers. 



We urge you to make the necessary changes as soon as possible. 

 Let's not wait for another disaster to occur and more specialty crop 

 growers to have to suffer the same problems that we are suffering 

 right now. 



So thank you again for giving the Iowa State Horticultural Soci- 

 ety the opportunity to testify and for inviting me here. 



[The prepared statement of Mrs. Peckosh appears at the conclu- 

 sion of the hearing.] 



Mrs. Thurman. Thank you, Mrs. Peckosh. 



Just for your information, when we were voting, I had an oppor- 

 tunity to talk to the chairman; and we are going to make sure that 

 we call some USDA representatives in — whether it is the people 

 who were here at this table or whoever — and this testimony will be 

 hand-delivered to them so that they have it available as they go 



