36 



provisions. It is very easy to see that that was done deliberately. 

 There is no reason why that provision cannot be extended to every 

 perennial crop producer, that both crop loss and replant provisions 

 could be added in with simply changing the word "orchard" to "pe- 

 rennial." That is very important. 



They also want to use historical records to determine loss. Well, 

 if a nurseryman was planning to harvest 2,000 of 6,000 trees this 

 year, he is going to have to take a 40 percent loss on the 2,000 he 

 would have harvested this year. He will get paid on the remaining 

 60 percent of that 2,000. 



Now, the other 4,000 trees that were lost, because he did not 

 plan to harvest those this year, he will have to take that total loss 

 himself. If you do not have an historical sales record equal to your 

 loss, your coverage under the disaster assistance act is very limit- 

 ing. 



And so we would recommend that historical records not be the 

 determining factor in calculating loss, but recognize all acres in 

 production, not just those ready for sale. 



We also need very desperately to look at the direct-to-consumer 

 marketing channel. USDA does not recognize farmers markets, u- 

 pick operations or on-farm markets as a market channel under the 

 Disaster Assistance Act. They only have two prices for fruits and 

 vegetables that they use. The processing market — and we lost 

 8,000 acres of sweet corn this year, destined for the processing 

 market — and the fresh wholesale prices as established by the ter- 

 minal market in Chicago. 



What that means is a small grower who lives totally off of 10 

 acres of berries or 10 acres of vegetables will find himself in the 

 position of getting a mere fraction because they do not recognize 

 the marketing channel that is utilized by 80 percent of all the hor- 

 ticultural producers of our State. They need to, and the law re- 

 quires them to, recognize marketing channels that are appropriate. 

 They can do that and they can do that today. 



They have a March 4 filing deadline for us, and if you have tree 

 crops of any kind, you do not know whether they will be dead on 

 March 4, necessarily. A tree can have enough energy stored within 

 its system to leaf out, but it will not leaf out until April; but it 

 could still die. It is very inappropriate to have a March 4 filing 

 deadline. 



I think the other thing that you need to be aware of is that while 

 they say they have consulted the industry, I can guarantee you 

 that that consultation needs to be more vehemently addressed and 

 they need to work much closer with industry; and I, for one, would 

 volunteer from the State department of agriculture on behalf of our 

 secretary of agriculture to sit in any capacity USDA would like to 

 help formulate policies that are more workable for the specialty 

 crop industry. 



Thank you very much for this opportunity. Thanks very much for 

 the time that you have committed to this. I look forward to working 

 with you in the future. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Cooper appears at the conclusion 

 of the hearing.] 



Mrs. Thurman. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. 



