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TESTIMONY OF CURT ROHLAND 

 PRESIDENT 

 NATIONAL FAMILY FARM COALITION 



Mr. Chairman, and members of the House Agriculture Committee, I 

 appreciate the opportunity to testify here today on behalf of the 

 National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) an organization representing 

 family farmers in 30 states around the country. This hearing today 

 strikes at the heart of what must be addressed - the state of the 

 rural economy. 



All farm prices have been on the decline: dairy prices are starting 

 to tumble, corn farmers have the lowest harvest price on record, 

 and wheat farmers are facing record low net farm income. We, the 

 nation's food producers are in deep trouble. Current programs and 

 policies are certainly neither meeting the needs of family farmers 

 nor those of the citizens of our rural communities. If their 

 "intended objectives" are to produce an abundant crop without 

 regard for the producers then they have succeeded with this year's 

 9 billion bushel corn crop. Our productivity is lost when our 

 prices continue to fall below the cost of production and farmers 

 must constantly ask themselves why they struggle to remain in a 

 business void of any financial reward. The only beneficiaries of 

 this policy are the grain companies, processors, and food industry 

 conglomerates who continue to reap record profits both here and 

 abroad, within this country and through international trading. The 

 real impact of both these trading practices and the implications of 

 the 1990 farm bill need to be re-examined closely. 



Our rural communities are crumbling. Tax revenues are down. Farm 

 income is so low that farmers cannot replace broken eguipment and 

 are foregoing other necessary improvements to their operation. 

 Many are forced to find off-farm employment sometimes displacing 

 another worker struggling to maintain a basic standard of living. 

 The real costs of low farm income need to be analyzed and factored 

 into the eguation. We call on USDA and the Office of Management 

 and Budget (OMB) to take a broader look at who is currently paying 

 for the export-driven low loan rate policies of the past decade and 

 to analyze how much would be saved by increasing loan rates to a 

 level that more closely meets the actual costs of production. 



The current situation is not sustainable. Many farm families in my 

 area who have been struggling to survive since the mid - 1980 's 

 will not make it. Some have received FmHA delinguency notices and 

 are trying to cashflow an impossible situation. A number have been 

 liguidating their dairy herds. Others have attempted to "diversify" 

 their operations yet the bottom line is still too low. 



This vicious cycle must be broken to achieve real economic 

 revitalization in this country. That revitalization can only occur 

 on the basis of a vital rural economy - one in which farmers begin 



