65 



al, for economic prosperity, and to provide the rest of the country a 

 basis on which true prosperity can be built. 



I would suggest to you, Mr. Chairman, that this committee can 

 and must take back leadership of farm policy from those who have 

 controlled it these past years. We look forward to working with the 

 committee both here in Washington and around the country to 

 forge a common sense workable approach to solving our current 

 problems and creating new policies and programs that will restore 

 prosperity to farmers and therefore an economic recovery for us 

 all. 



Thank you for this opportunity to present our concerns. I don't 

 believe there will be questions. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Rohland appears at the conclu- 

 sion of the hearing.] 



The Chairman. Thank you very much. 



I thank all of you for your contribution. This is our beginning 

 process to document the economic situation in agriculture, rural 

 America, how it impacts on our urban brethren also. At further 

 hearings we will continue adding to what you have contributed 

 today, and then begin the process of considering some of your rec- 

 ommendations. The solutions won't be easy, if there are solutions. 

 But we need to document as accurately as possible the technical 

 aspect and then hear from the people, which is what you have 

 brought us today. 



Hopefully, we can put all that together and see where we go 

 from there. The fact is that I sense in this committee with 17 new 

 members that they are eager, willing, and certainly appear to be 

 very knowledgeable with the problems that we face. 



As you know, many of the concerns you have, like Mr. Eckel and 

 Mr. Rohland, are beyond the shores of this Nation and beyond our 

 ability to control, such as the value of the dollar, the value of the 

 Deutschmark, the weather, and all of those areas that we can't di- 

 rectly address. 



But if there is a niche for governmental policy and/or legislation, 

 I assure you we will endeavor to find it. There are other uncontrol- 

 lables that we can't address — not here in this committee, not in the 

 Congress, and maybe not even as a nation. The way the world lives 

 now is certainly in most parts of the world contrary to that prom- 

 ise of the future that all of us look to. We may have to turn the 

 world around. 



You mentioned the former Soviet Union. That is exactly what 

 happened. We were way over in Tashkent in the west and they had 

 this beautiful cotton about 8-feet high. I asked them how they were 

 going to pick it because it was almost beyond someone reaching up. 

 They said, "We have machinery. We're going to pick it by ma- 

 chine." 



I said, "It's too high for your machine." 



They said, "We think we may cut it down and then run the ma- 

 chine over it to pick it up." 



So I asked the obvious question, "Why didn't you plant seed that 

 will give you cotton for the height of your machine?" 



He said, "This is the seed they sent us." 



Someone had made the decision some other place. I don't know 

 that we are at that stage or that we would be close to that stage, 



