Despite the difficulties of administering Congressional programs which
apply outmoded prescriptions and which aggravate rather than solve
problems, the past eight years brought notable advances in agriculture.
Total agricultural assets are approximately $200 billion--up $36 billion in
eight years.
Farm owner equities are at the near record high of $174 billion.
Farm ownership is at a record high with fewer farmers in a tenant and
sharecropper status than at any time in our nation's history.
The "Food-for-Peace" program has demonstrated how surplus of American food
and fiber can be effectively used to feed and clothe the needy abroad.
Aided by this humanitarian program, total agricultural exports have grown
from $2.8 billion in 1953 to an average of about $4 billion annually for
the past three years. For 1960, exports are estimated at $4.5 billion, the
highest volume on record. Under the Food-for-Peace program, the largest
wheat transaction in history was consummated with India in 1960.
The problems of low-income farm families received systematic attention for
the first time in the Rural Development Program. This program has gone
forward in 39 States, yielding higher incomes and a better living for rural
people most in need.
The Rural Electrification Administration has helped meet the growing demand
for power and telephones in agricultural areas. Ninety-seven percent of all
farms now have central station electric power. Dependence upon Federal
financing should no longer be necessary.
The Farm Credit Administration has been made an independent agency more
responsive to the farmer's needs.
The search for new uses for our farm abundance and to develop new crops for
current needs has made major progress. Agricultural research appropriations
have increased by 171 percent since 1953.
Farmers are being saved approximately $80 million a year by the repeal in
1956 of Federal taxes on gasoline used in tractors and other machinery.
Since 1953, appropriations have been doubled for county agents, home agents
and the Extension Service.
Eligibility for Social Security benefits has been extended to farmers and
their families.
Yet in certain aspects our agricultural surplus situation is increasingly
grave. For example, our wheat stocks now total 1.3 billion bushels. If we
did not harvest one bushel of wheat in this coming year, we would still
have all we could eat, all we could sell abroad, all we could give away,
and still have a substantial carryover. Extraordinary costs are involved
just in management and disposal of this burdensome surplus. Obviously
important adjustments must still come. Congress must enact additional
legislation to permit wheat and other farm commodities to move into regular
marketing channels in an orderly manner and at the same time afford the
needed price protection to the farmer. Only then will agriculture again be
free, sound, and profitable.