101 



Prior to the Farm Crisis of the early to mid-oightles, Iowa's 

 crops were primarily made up of corn and soybean production. 

 However, the farm crisis provided us with the realization of 

 the vulnerability that resulted from our specialization. In 

 bad times the devastating effects transcended from our 

 individual farmers to the State a6 a whole. Individual 

 producer efforts aa well as ctatewide efforts have 

 concentrated on establishing a diversified agricultural 

 economy made up of enterpriseb that react differently in the 

 marketplace. Our hope was to insulate ourselves from the 

 devastation that can be created when market conditions become 

 unfavorable for a given crop. 



In thie transition to diversification, many acres in Iowa, 

 which were not conducive to row cropping, were diverted to 

 horticultural enterprises. The benefits from this change 

 have been two fold. First, it has taken environmentally 

 sensitive land areas out of row cropping, and allowed the 

 farmer the ability to pursue economically viable ventures, 

 such ae Christmas tree production. Secondly, it has enabled 

 a producer to become actively involved in the marketing of 

 his produot, through understanding and satisfying consumer 

 demand. 



In 1989, the Agricultural Statistical Service conducted a 

 survey to quantify the horticultural industry in Iowa. The 

 findings indicated that sales of horticultural products had 

 jumped from $61 million to $89 million between 1937 and 

 1989. Recent estimates set the annual value of Iowa's 

 horticultural crops at well over $100 million. I would 

 estimate that we now have over 2,500 families relying on the 

 income from these specialty crops either for their entire 

 income or as a major component of their household earnings. 



We have learned much over the last decade since the Farm 

 Crisis, but unfortunately we underestimated the impact of 

 nature and federal policy in determining success or failure. 



Compared to major horticultural production regions in this 

 country, Iowa's horticultural industry is small. It i6 

 nonetheless, extremely important to our state's economy. But 

 due to its small scale, only a couple of horticultural crops 

 in isolated areas of Iowa are eligible for Federal Crop 

 insurance. There are very few businesses that exist without 

 universal access to insurance for minimizing the associated 

 risks. Such should be afforded every horticultural producer 

 in the country. However, until an adequate Federal crop 

 Insurance program or some viable alternative can be 

 developed, it is essential that Disaster Assistance be made 

 available to all producers in an equitable manner. 



During the Drought of 1988, the Disaster Assistance Program 

 was formulated by Congress and placed under the authority of 

 the ASCS. Many of our horticultural producers were not 

 familiar with ASCS and the Agency wac not familiar at all 

 with specialty crop production. Yet our producers were 



