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STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN FARM BUREAU FEDERATION 



TO THE HOUSE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE 

 REGARDING THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FOR RURAL AMERICA 



Presented by Keith W. Eckel, President 

 Pennsylvania Farmers Association 



February 3, 1993 



Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony on behalf of the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation. I am Keith Eckel, President of the Pennsylvania Farmers Association and a 

 member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation. I produce tomatoes, sweet corn, hay and grains on my farm near 

 Scranton. 



Agricultural outlook sessions have usually focused on such issues as the supply and demand 

 for agricultural products, world trade developments, agricultural credit and the availability of 

 inputs. These continue to be areas of concern. 



We expect 1993 to be a good year, at least in terms of production, if we can avoid the wide 

 variance in weather. That's the basic optimism that keeps us motivated to do what we do 

 day-in, day-out, year-in, year-out Certainly the detailed economic information presented by 

 USDA and other witnesses today provides you with the statistical data you need. 



But, Mr. Chairman, there is a growing pessimism among farmers all across this country. The 

 pessimism traces its origins to the regulatory constraints on private farm activities. Most of 

 this burden is coming in the name of environmental improvement. 



Farmers have been good stewards of the land for decades. Farmers were pursuing land 

 conservation practices such as terracing, crop rotation and grass land filter strips 40 to 50 

 years ago, long before environmentalism became popular among non-farmers. Farm Bureau 

 supported the sodbuster and Conservation Reserve Program provisions of the 1985 Farm Bill. 

 There are areas where we can improve our land and water resources. There is a question, 

 however, regarding how we can go about improving these resources in such a manner that 

 enables farmers to remain economically viable in a highly competitive global market. The 

 question is: How do we achieve the sometimes conflicting goals of environmental enrichment 

 and economic competitiveness? 



What farmers now face is uncertainty about how they can manage and efficiently use private 

 farm resources. When the law is fundamentally altered and future farmer liabilities are 

 uncertain, risks are high and decisionmaking grinds to a halt. I'm certain that this same 

 pessimism pervades many other productive sectors of the economy, particularly those sectors 

 which are natural resource based. 



