National Ag Symposium Asks Tough Questions

More than 250 leaders from 26 states gathered in Athens, Ga.,
Aug. 25-27 to discuss the
future of agriculture.

But it was hard to get past the present.

“Things are not well in rural America,” declared
Tommy Irvin, Georgia
Commissioner of Agriculture. “If something is not done and
done now, we’ll lose tens
of thousands of farmers across America. That’s a certainty. You
can count on it.”

The urgency of a disastrous summer drought, low prices and
high foreign tariffs brought
out a parade of politicians, academic experts, farmers and
business people.

Senate Ag Committee
Hearing

In fact, Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell prompted the
University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to put together the
National Symposium on the
Future of American Agriculture.

After economic predictions and small-group talks to outline
key issues, the symposium
ended with a U.S. Senate Agricultural Committee field hearing,
chaired by Coverdell.

“Agriculture is at the heart of our national
security,” Coverdell told the
group. “It is a huge, significant component of the nation’s
economy, its balance of
payments and its quality of life. You have given a mandate for
all policy makers to be
attentive to the general health of this sector.”

Questions Cut Through
Analysis

Agricultural economists, food scientists and other experts
trotted out charts, graphs,
statistics, theories and concepts. But Burke County farmer Cleve
Mobley cut through the
analysis with his own questions.

“How can American farmers compete against other countries
that don’t have the same
regulations we have?” he asked. “If the American family
farm dies, who will
produce our foods? Corporations? Is the American family farmer
subsidizing cheap food for
the rest of the country?”

Global Trade
Issues

Robert Shulstad, a UGA agricultural economist and chair of the
symposium, said all of
the discussion boiled down to three primary issues.

“The No. 1 concern of participants was global trade
issues,” Shulstad said.
“Prices are at the lowest levels in the past decade,
primarily as a result of lost
export demand. As the world economy strengthens, we expect demand
to increase, and prices
should go up. But we don’t see much improvement before
2002.”

Profitability,
Ownership

The second concern was profitability and ownership.

More than 40 percent of farmers across the nation have
significant cash-flow problems.
Equity in farm equipment is declining, and land prices are
expected to fall.

“Losses vary greatly by crop,” Shulstad said.
“But none of the row crops
are predicted to be profitable in ’99. And we expect very little
improvement for
2000.”

Unstable Prices,
Income

The third area of concern was instability in prices and
income. The price of cotton has
dropped each year since 1995, and prices for corn, wheat and
soybeans have fallen in each
of the past three years. Record carry-over stocks have
accumulated as U.S. and
international production has continued to expand.

“This excess supply, coupled with the loss of export
demand, has resulted in these
low prices,” Shulstad said.

Regions’ Farmers
Suffer

Growers in much of the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic have
suffered severe crop damage
from the drought. The rest of the country will have a record
harvest.

“Southeastern farmers are in the worst situation we’ve
seen in years,”
Shulstad said. “They have low prices and very little to
sell.”

Symposium recommendations will be printed for the
Congressional agricultural
committees. Participants were urged to conduct similar
state-level discussions.