National Cotton Council (NCC) Vice Chairman John Pucheu told the House Agriculture Committee that a significant majority of California's upland and pima cotton producers strongly support current farm law and see it as a sound basis for future farm policy.
Testifying at that panel's farm policy review hearing here today, the Tranquillity, CA, cotton producer said current farm law must continue to operate without major modification through its scheduled expiration with the 2007 crop because “producers have made substantial long-term investments and cropping and marketing decisions based on current farm law.”
“We are particularly concerned by repeated efforts to further reduce limitations on benefits or limit eligibility to the loan, and we you to continue to oppose these proposals. Current limitations already place most commercially viable California operations at a disadvantage because of our costs and economies of scale.”
He said California cotton producers support using current law as the basis for “future farm policy” noting that: 1) the combination of a marketing loan, counter-cyclical payment when prices are low and a direct payment for stability are a sound foundation, 2) there should not be limits on loan eligibility or on marketing loan gains because it would disrupt orderly marketing and 3) payment limitations, which already unfairly penalize growers in the San Joaquin Valley, in the irrigated West, and across the Sunbelt, should not be reduced any further and current eligibility requirements should be maintained.
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