104 



technologies, based on microelectronics and microbiology, promise to 

 accelerate innovation and increase productivity in that oldest piece of the 

 simple and misleading slice that underlies (and undermines) this rudimentary 

 stages-of-development position. Hands-on technical mastery and direct control 

 of a substantial and internationally competitive production capacity in 

 agriculture is the source of a substantial quantity of high-end -- and also low- 

 end - industrial and service employment. Were that production to have moved 

 elsewhere, sooner or later, those tightly linked industrial and service jobs would 

 have followed". 



Agriculture is a viul U.S. domestic and export industry. With solid public/private 

 sector cooperation in the future, it will remain so. 



Mr. Chairman, I started my testimony with the premise that agricultural exports are 

 exceedingly important to the positive trade balance of this country, and furthermore 

 that in the Foreign Agricultural Service we have an agency that embodies the success 

 and track record that the industrial sectors are finally beginning to awaken to. Yes, 

 FAS needs some refinement at the edges and a refocusing on what it does best. But 

 most imporuntly, FAS and its programs and its panners need to be adequately funded 

 and unburdened from the onerous regulatory environment and constant sniping of 

 those who are perhajjs jealous not only of its well-financed programs but of its very 

 success. 



Mr. Chairman, I would hof)e that the Administration and the Congress in striving to 

 improve the services of FAS, reaches out to the private industry and farmers. FAS can 

 only hope to be as effective in the next 40 years as it was in its first 40 years by clearly 

 structuring itself to serve its client group - the U.S. private sector that produces, 

 processes and exports its bulk and value-added products to the world market. A solid 

 public/private sector partnership is as key to the future of U.S. agricultural exports 

 and farm income as it was to the past. 



Thank you again on behalf of the National Cotton Council of America for this 

 opportunity to provide this statement. 



