U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

 RESEARCH AND EXTENSION PRIORITIES 



THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1993 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Department 



Operations and Nutrition, 

 Committee on Agriculture, 



Washington, DC. 



The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., in room 

 1300, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Charles W. Stenholm 

 (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 



Present: Representatives Dooley, English, Volkmer, Holden, 

 Lambert, Smith, Gunderson, Allard, Barrett, Ewing, and Kingston. 



Staff present: Glenda L. Temple, clerk; Stan Ray, Joe Dugan, 

 Merv Yetley, and Pete Thomson. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES W. STENHOLM, A 

 REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS 



Mr. Stenholm. This public hearing of the Department Oper- 

 ations and Nutrition Subcommittee will now come to order. 



Today we start a series of hearings looking at our Nation's agri- 

 cultural research capacity. We are truly at a critical point in our 

 Nation's history. Americans have increased concerns about food 

 safety, the environment, and the economy. They are concerned 

 about our production agricultural practices. Today's production sys- 

 tem has served Americans well, but the priorities that were driving 

 the system in the past are not necessarily the primary issues con- 

 fronting producers £ind consumers today. 



On the one hand, we still believe — and I certainly still believe — 

 that we possess in America an agricultural system which is un- 

 matched anywhere in the world. Our food supply continues to be 

 the most wholesome, the most abundant, the safest, and the least 

 expensive in the world. I am continually amazed at the resilience, 

 the ingenuity, the initiative, and the ability to adapt that our farm- 

 ers have. Commodity prices, though, continue to fall, production 

 costs continue to rise, and yet the American farmer perseveres. 

 This benefits all, as our food supply remains the least expensive in 

 the world. 



Yet, on the other hand, we are challenged. We're facing a con- 

 suming public which has grown both complacent and overreactive 

 to the greatest food-producing system the world has ever known. 

 The environment, water quality, the use of chemical fertilizers, pes- 

 ticides in the food supply, microbial contamination of meat, and 

 biotechnology are all examples of issues where many consumers are 



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