CFBF President Bill Pauli Remarks at Farm Crisis Rally
Remarks of Bill Pauli, President,
California Farm Bureau Federation,
To the Farm Crisis Rally, State Capitol, April 16, 2001
Good afternoon. On days like this, we should be out trying to make a living on our farms and ranches. Today, we are fighting to stay alive in agriculture. Tractors that should be running up and down fields and vineyards, are running up and down Capitol Mall.
These are extraordinary times in agriculture. We face one of the most difficult and challenging times in our state's history. We face a farm crisis.
Many lawmakers and the public would be surprised to learn that farmers are in trouble. There's plenty of food on store shelves at reasonable prices. There's no evidence of a farm crisis in the supermarket. The farm crisis is real. Just look at the face of a farmer.
Crop prices are depressed. Farm costs are sky-high. Water and energy are scarce. We face unfair trade practices. Government regulations threaten to plow family farmers under. Farmers are fighting to hold on.
It is not a pretty picture for an industry that provides high-quality food, fiber, flowers and forest products for 34 million Californians and millions more across the nation.
Agriculture is woven into the fabric of our state's towns and cities. When agriculture suffers, Main Street suffers, too.
Today's event publicizes our plight, but we need action and support, not sympathy.
We need tax relief. I want to thank Assemblymember Dennis Cardoza for organizing today's event. He understands our problems. As author of AB 7, he understands the unfairness of the state sales tax on farm machinery. He wants to stop it.
Elimination of the tractor tax is long overdue and will help ease the pain for many family farmers. We also need to kill the death tax. Farm families should not have to sell the farm to pay the estate taxes.
We need fair trade. We face non-tariff barriers and quotas in exporting our farm products to many markets. Our market is virtually open to imports. Trade is a two-way street. When heavily subsidized Greek canned peaches, Australian lamb and Chinese garlic flood the U.S. market, we need to stand up and fight for fair trade. Enough is enough.
We need regulatory relief. Regulations are killing our industry. The cost of federal regulations alone costs U.S. farmers $20 billion annually. California farmers deal with added regulatory burden because of state-imposed regulations.
We need affordable and reliable energy. We can't pass on the costs of fuel, electricity and natural gas. We're price takers, not price makers. Recent increases in electric rates will push farmers deeper into the abyss. Blackouts add injury to the rate increases that are coming soon.
Energy is not the only crisis we face. Blackouts threaten many segments of agriculture, but when water stops flowing, so will the benefits that farms and ranches provide. Let me be very clear—this state faces a water crisis that will make the energy crisis look like a walk through Capitol Park.
Look at what's happened in the Klamath Basin. Water has been cut off to Tulelake farmers because of environmental restrictions. A dry winter and commitments to salmon mean farmers will get no water. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
In the past decade, California farmers have lost 10 percent
of our
water deliveries to in-stream and environmental use.
We have few options when water is scarce. If we can't get surface water, we pump more expensive groundwater—if we can afford the energy to pump. Farmers are fallowing land because there's no water. When we can't plant, it means less food, fewer jobs and reduced benefit for wildlife and the environment.
We need a comprehensive water plan that treats farmers and farmland as valuable economic and environmental resources worth protecting.
When are state leaders going to get off the dime and address the water crisis?
Farmers are an effective voice when we are united. We are united today in our call for action to help family farmers.
Do we want our state lawmakers sit up and take notice of our crisis?
Should they protect agriculture and our state's economy?
Should they protect the food security of 34 million Californians?
Should they protect the one million jobs in this state related to agriculture?
When do we want their help?
Thanks.
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Coverage of Farm Crisis Rally: Farmers, tractors descend on state Capitol (Ag Alert: April 18, 2001) |