GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1201 



Mr. AIuRRAY. But you had a reason for that. It was because you 

 did not come under the OPA. That was because of the difficulty 

 with the flocks being from 5 hens up to 5,000 hens. 



Mr. Hubbard. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. Thank you very much, Mr. Hubbard. We will next 

 hear from Mr. John Rice, president, Northeastern Poultry Producers 

 Council. 



STATEMENT OF JOHN RICE, PRESIDENT, NORTHEASTERN 

 I POULTRY PRODUCERS COUNCIL 



Mr. Rice. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name 

 is John Rice. I live at Trumansburg, N. Y., where my brother and 

 I operate a farm on which we keep approximately 7,000 layers and 

 produce about a hundred thousand chicks and grow about 500 acres 

 of field crops and fruit. We appreciate the invitation to appear 

 before your committee now dealing with one of the most perplexing 

 and far-reaching problems facing American agriculture. 



On May 18, 1949, our organization presented to your committee 

 the policies concerning price support problems as developed by careful 

 deliberation of our board of directors. You were told that we believe 

 it is not economically sound for the Government to attempt to con- 

 trol price on production within the poultry industry. 



We further stated that since some form of price support and pro- 

 duction controls will be applied to those products which make up 

 the basic materials of egg and poultry production, the poultry industry 

 should be protected with a minimum of floor price for its products to 

 prevent disaster and that such a floor price should by no means 

 reflect any profit in production. 



We further recommend that if we must have price supports a 

 so-called flexible price support policy be applied to the poultry 

 industry. In the face of some sort of a price support program, we 

 believe firmly that our recommendations are most sound and practical 

 from the standpoint of both the poultry industry and the Government. 

 We believe it would be impractical to apply production payments to 

 our industry because, one, the cost of administering a production 

 payment plan on some 5,000,000 poultry flocks would be tremendous 

 and hardly in keeping with the public's demand for economies. It 

 is estimated that the cost to the Government of writing one check a 

 year for the poultry flocks of the Nation would be no less than 

 $1,000,000. 



Two, tremendous local political pressures could and undoubtedly, 

 would develop. Much chance for paper expansion of records would be 

 possible and many statements about such performances would reach 

 the public to the detriment of the poultry industry and the Govern- 

 ment, too. 



Thi'ee, production payments at a high level will lead to production 

 controls, and it is the opinion of the poultry industry leaders the 

 Nation over that it will be impossible to control production in this 

 industry other than by price. In fact, Government officials leported 

 to us that even dm-ing the height of the rigid Hitler regime in Germany 

 poultry was the one industry they were unable to control, possibly 

 because small flocks are very often managed b}^ the farmer's wife. 



