35 



through their process, again to make sure that they have a real un- 

 derstanding of the issues that you have brought to our attention. 

 Next, Mr. Cooper. 



STATEMENT OF DAN COOPER, STATE HORTICULTURIST, IOWA 

 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Mr. Cooper. I always think I am going to come and keep my de- 

 meanor and say nice things and read from my testimony, and I al- 

 ways find myself in a position of not doing that. Today will be no 

 different. You do have my testimony. I appreciate the fact it will 

 be part of the record. 



I want to tell you that I find this whole business very frustrating. 

 In 1988, during the drought in Iowa, I worked diligently; in fact, 

 I and a colleague spent over 50 percent of our time for 6 months 

 helping farmers access the program that the Federal Government 

 handed down to provide assistance. 



In Iowa, we are a State of primarily corn, soybeans, hogs and 

 cattle. We also happen to be a State that produces $110 million in 

 horticultural crops. That has grown by almost $50 million in the 

 last 5 years. 



We, in the mid-1980's during the farm crisis, decided that it was 

 very important to offer the opportunity for our growers to diversify 

 their operations so they could see a positive cash flow, because hor- 

 ticultural crops do not normally react in the marketplace like corn 

 and soybeans. We found through a lot of market research and de- 

 velopment, a series of programs could be developed to overcome the 

 barriers that existed. The only barriers we were not able to help 

 them with were nature and the Federal Government. 



Unfortunately, we still find that to be the case. 



This is the second disaster that we are dealing with. Almost all 

 of the farmers in the horticultural industry call me before they go 

 to the ASCS office. The reason they do that is because they are 

 afraid. They are afraid they will be told no; they are afraid they 

 will be denied access; and they are afraid that if they ask for help, 

 they are only going to receive frustration in return. 



I want to give you a couple of examples, and then I want to de- 

 lineate the issues that Shirley talked about real quickly. I think 

 they are important to verbalize. 



I can tell you, for instance, the tree assistance program was de- 

 veloped to help people who lost seedlings during a drought. Be- 

 cause Christmas tree growers normally lose their trees under 

 stress conditions like drought in the first 2 or 3 years, after the 

 tree is 4 or 5 years old, you very seldom lose one from drought con- 

 ditions. 



However, they didn't change the program conditions for a flood. 

 So now what we have is a program that if you lost 10,000 Christ- 

 mas trees and they ranged anywhere from 1-year old to 12 years 

 old, the only ones you would receive payment or replacement help 

 on are the ones you planted this year or last year, 1992 or 1993. 

 The ones that you have the most investment in, you receive noth- 

 ing for, according to the TAP program guidelines. 



There are also other inconsistencies. We know very well if you 

 have an orchard and lose a crop of apples, you can receive crop-loss 

 payments. Under the TAP program, you can also receive replant 



