Porter Goss: “this morning in Lake Worth, FL, the Subcommittee on Risk Management and Specialty Crops held an important field hearing…”

“this morning in Lake Worth, FL, the Subcommittee on Risk Management and Specialty Crops held an important field hearing regarding Florida's winter fruit and vegetable industry. I commend our colleagues, the gentleman from Florida, Mark Foley, and the gentleman from Illinois, Tom Ewing, for making this effort. Although I was not able to be there myself, I want to share the feedback that my staff who were there got, because it definitely matches the information from the recent meetings we have been having in my own southwest Florida district, and that information is not good. The situation on the ground in Florida for these farmers is grave. Bankruptcy, in fact, looms for many, many of whom have been in farming families, growing winter vegetables and fruits in Florida, for literally generations. Planted acreage numbers are declining and they are declining rapidly. In some places we understand the contraction of the industry this year has been as much as 30 percent. That is a giant impact and it is a negative one. We have also heard from local bankers in my district who, despite longstanding relationships with the farming community, today just simply have to say ``no'' to new loans because the risks are too high for them. In the long term there are legislative steps this Congress can take, such as country-of-origin labeling laws, we know about and have been working on to assist our growers' in the transition to what we call a post-NAFTA trade system.”