Excerpt from U. S. Department of Agriculture Research and Extension Priorities: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition on the Committee on Agriculture House of Representatives One Hundred Third Congress First Session March 25, 1993 The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., in room 1300, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Charles W. Stenholm (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Dooley, English, Volkmer, Holden, Lambert, Smith, Gunderson, Allard, Barrett, Ewing, and Kingston. Staff present: Glenda L. Temple, clerk; Stan Ray, Joe Dugan, Merv Yetley, and Pete Thomson. Opening Statement Of Hon. Charles W. Stenholm, A Representative In Congress From The State Of Texas Mr. Stenholm. This public hearing of the Department Operations and Nutrition Subcommittee will now come to order. Today we start a series of hearings looking at our Nation's agricultural research capacity. We are truly at a critical point in our Nation's history. Americans have increased concerns about food safety, the environment, and the economy. They are concerned about our production agricultural practices. Today's production system has served Americans well, but the priorities that were driving the system in the past are not necessarily the primary issues confronting producers ind consumers today. On the one hand, we still believe - and I certainly still believe - that we possess in America an agricultural system which is unmatched anywhere in the world. Our food supply continues to be the most wholesome, the most abundant, the safest, and the least expensive in the world. I am continually amazed at the resilience, the ingenuity, the initiative, and the ability to adapt that our farmers have. Commodity prices, though, continue to fall, production costs continue to rise, and yet the American farmer perseveres. This benefits all, as our food supply remains the least expensive in the world. Yet, on the other hand, we are challenged. We're facing a consuming public which has grown both complacent and overreactive to the greatest food-producing system the world has ever known. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.