390 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



storable agricultural commodities in storable condition and effectuate 

 the purposes of the act. 



I would like to call the attention of the committee to one instance 

 where that becomes very important. We are not suggesting that the 

 Government spend a lot of money to build storage. We are suggest- 

 ing that the funds be made available on a loan basis either to individual 

 farmers or to cooperative associations of farmers because, after all, 

 the storage of farm crops is merely an extension of a farmer's 

 business. 



Out in Wasatch Valley in Utah last summer the Independent Can- 

 nery — that is an area where they raise peaches and apricots particu- 

 larly and primarily — closed down last fall at the beginning of the 

 canning season. There was no other place where the farmers in 

 Davis County, Utah, could take their peaches or their apricots. They 

 approached the owners of the plant and offered to lease the plant on 

 their terms. 



They refused. They offered to pay them in advance for the pack and 

 carry that themselves. They refused. Finally, during the course of 

 the discussions they said to the group of farmers from Davis County, 

 Utah, "Those who financed my operations will not permit me to open 

 this cannery this fall because the warehouses are full of canned goods 

 and if we pack this crop it will have the effect of breaking the retail 

 market on canned goods." 



That was at a period when peaches and apricots were as high as 

 they had ever been. The farmers in that area and a number of others 

 had to let their apricots and peaches fall on the ground and rot. 



They lost the total crop because facilities could not be made avail- 

 able to them, and the consumers of canned fruit in the United States 

 paid the highest price in history while the farmers' crop rotted on the 

 ground. 



Tliat was in 1948, Mr. Chairman. We suggest that where a situa- 

 tion of that kind arises funds ought to be made available to a group 

 of farmers to organize a cooperative cannery or whatever the facility 

 might be, so that he could do the first processing of their commodity 

 and put that in a position where it could be stored against a time of 

 need. 



I should like to say also that if you study the language of those sec- 

 tions, those three or four sections that we are proposing, not something 

 that is radical, but something that is generally accepted and has re- 

 ceived as much favor from the Congress and as much favor from the 

 farmers of the United States as anything that the Congress has done 

 in years. 



We are suggesting that an operation be carried on similar to the 

 operations of the Rural Electrification Administration. 



Mr. CooLEY. Will the gentleman yield for a question ? 



Mr. Talbott. Yes, sir. 



Mr. CooLEY. Cannot the canneries borrow money from the banks for 

 cooperatives for the purposes you mention here ? 



Mr. Talbott. They can borrow that money if they carry on the 

 initial phases, if they can find management that is adequate and ac- 

 ceptable, and if they can raise an adequate portion of the cost of the 

 facilities and an adequate portion as determined by the bank for co- 

 operatives for the cost of operation. 



