Sanford Bishop: “I am appalled. I believe that this amendment is clearly nothing more than a fraud. Proponents would have us to believe…”

“I am appalled. I believe that this amendment is clearly nothing more than a fraud. Proponents would have us to believe that it will lower the cost of peanuts, peanut products to the consumer. That could not be farther from the truth, as has already been stated. Not one single manufacturer anywhere in this country has agreed to lower the cost of a candy bar, a jar of peanut butter or a bag of salted peanuts one red cent if this amendment passes. Instead the amendment would put a ceiling on what a farmer who has weathered the storms, the droughts and all of the other risks of growing to what that farmer can get for his product after he has worked so hard. It seems to me what we are doing here is artificially, as the gentlewoman from New York pointed out, artificially fixing the price. If this is not a violation of antitrust laws, what is? No matter what the market price might be, this amendment limits the amount of profit that a poor farmer in Georgia could make on his peanuts. This is price-fixing, pure and simple.”