 haven't here ever since. And my job here in the White House is to try to help the President know and learn what is happening out in the country with organizations of Americans of all kinds. And there are many, many of them, and you here today represent a very important organization, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. And also I would like to say that we have with us in the audience this afternoon another group, the Young Leadership Conference of the National Cotton Council. So on behalf of, and we especially thank you for the very extensive committee network that you have set up to help us develop recommendations for next year's 1980, on a daily basis here in the White House than the representations made by the Secretary of Agriculture. And I know the President is extremely grateful for the clarity with which those positions are expressed. The Secretary has just returned, as some of you probably know, from a trip to Japan. And in that trip, the Secretary has made a great effort to expand United States agricultural markets. The Secretary has also, at the request of the President, started a series of listening sessions. And this is an idea and comments from the agricultural community. And we have had three listening sessions to the occasion that we have with you. I would also like to introduce to you before the Secretary comes to the podium. And also we have here with us the Secretary of Agriculture, John. Thank you very much, Faith and gentlemen and ladies. Welcome to the old Executive Office Building and the Indian Treaty Room, and an opportunity to hear from the President. And I'm pleased to have a chance to address you beforehand, mostly pleased to have a chance to hear some questions from you and make an effort to answer those questions. We are, as an industry, very proud of agriculture. After all, those of us in this room are convinced that it is the backbone of this country and the backbone of the world, frankly. And we make a tremendous contribution to the United States and, in turn, a contribution to the freedom and the strength of the rest of the world. We've been very busy on a number of fronts. I've been working with you. I see a room full of friends of mine that I've worked with for three and a half years. Some of you I've worked with longer than that. And I'll say this without any reservation. We've made some progress. We've had some steps forward, a few steps backward some times, but we don't give up. And we continue to charge ahead. And I think that that is the only way that you achieve a goal or you achieve an objective. And I know that that is the kind of determination that we find here in this room. A little bit about the summit last summer where some of you were in participating, followed by a meeting on my farm with the vice president, other meetings. And then we're going to try and write policy next year. And it's going to be really a tough proposition. But I think it's a very healthy thing the more people talk about this. Farm leaders suddenly appreciate, maybe not suddenly, but more and more appreciate that there are many differences of opinion. And there's absolutely no will get the better balanced policy and a policy that will have a chance of long stick farm policies affect other countries and their policies affect us. And we need a fashion policy that will position America. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. Thank you. Well, good afternoon and welcome to the White House. And special greetings to your chairman and a fellow Californian, Roger Gacica Lupi. I'm delighted to have this opportunity to speak to the people who represent more than 30 state councils of farm cooperatives, over 35 cooperative credit system banks, more than 100 regional marketing and farm supply cooperatives, and nearly 2 million individuals. The National Council of Farm Cooperatives speaks for American agricultural cooperatives with skill and energy, and in doing so you benefit the entire country. And on behalf of all Americans, I thank you for that. All of us know that God has blessed America with a vast and fertile land, but it's your ingenuity, muscle and sweat that have made our farms the envy of the world. I don't mean to be sacrilegious or anything, but possibly you've heard about that old fellow that picked up some bottom land down by the creek that was all rocky and covered with brush, and he worked, and he worked, and he worked, and he cleaned it up and got the rocks all hauled away and the brush all scraped and then planted. And finally, one day after church, he just was so proud, he asked the minister to stop by and see what he'd accomplished. And the Reverend came by and he said, I've never seen melons like that. Look at that corn. He said, oh, the Lord has blessed. Well, he went on that way and the old boy was getting pretty fidgety, and finally he said, Reverend, I wish you could have seen it when the Lord was doing it by himself. But since 1950, farm output in America has jumped more than 90 percent, with less than three tenths of 1 percent of the world's farmers. America can produce 65% of the world's farmers and 1% of the world's farmers. America can produce 65% of the world's soybeans, 48% of the corn, 32% of the sorghum, 25% of the oranges, 31% of the poultry and 26% of the beef. Now, if one of the candidates in the recent primaries had known that last one, it would have taken that one line he had and was asking all the time away from him. But you provide the American people with a diet that gives them health, creativity, and energy. And just as you provide food for people here at home, you make food available to millions around the world. American wheat is used to make pasta in Italy. Our soybeans go into soy sauce in the Orient, and I'll say a little something else about that in a second. But first, our cotton seed is pressed into oil and gets shipped to Venezuela. Our grain goes into bread in Russia. African children are fed by the tillers of the Great Plains soil. I said I'd say something else about soybeans. Some years ago, when I was still governor of California, the president asked me to do a mission for him in Asia that included, among other places, going to Saigon when it was still Saigon and South Vietnam. And I was at a lunch in the presidential palace, and they served a very fiery and tasty liqueur. And I said what is it? And they said it's made from your soybeans. And I still haven't figured out how we let that one get by without finding out about it ourselves. But as a vast and growing industry, agriculture represents a driving force in our nation's economy. America's agricultural assets exceed $1 trillion. And the food and fiber industry employs some 23 million people more than a fifth of America's workforce. You contribute mightily to our level of exports. This year, our agricultural export revenue will be more than five times what it was in 1970, helping to offset the increased cost of energy imports over this same period. Today, one of every three agricultural acres are devoted to export, and about one fourth of all farm income arises from sales overseas. Jack Block just returned from Japan, and I understand if he hasn't told you already that the number of acres American farmers plant each year for export to Japan is greater than the number of acres that are planted in Japan itself. Yet proud as we are of all that American agriculture has accomplished, we must remember the terrible weight that is born by our farmers in recent years. By 1981, a decade of overspending and overtaxing and had pushed interest rates sky high and unleashed growing inflation. Nowhere did the economic chaos strike harder than down in the farm. They were caught worse in the cost price squeeze than anyone. There's a story about a farmer who won a million dollar sweepstake. You must know this one, but I'll tell it anyway. When a reporter asked him what he intended to use the money for, that million dollars, he said, well, I just guess I'll keep on farming until it's all gone. Our administration took office determined to bring prosperity back to the farm. One of our first actions was to lift the Soviet grain embargo. As long as I'm president, our farmers will never again be asked to bear alone the brunt of foreign policy. Since then, we've taken vigorous action to boost farm exports. Trade teams have gone around the world to seek new markets. Your chairman, Roger Bacigalupi, is helping in this important effort by serving on our advisory committee for trade negotiations. Jack Block has been tireless in his travels to Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and most recently, the Far East. And to help finance exports, our administration implemented the blended credit program and increased the level of agricultural export credit guarantees to the highest level in history. I think these efforts are paying off. I know there's great distress in some areas. But we've seen progress abroad in North Africa. We've had a recent breakthrough with Japan. The Japanese have agreed to raise their quotas for American citrus and beef, nearly doubling those quotas over the next four years and five years. Today, our administration is hard at work on the 1985 Farm Bill. The Department of Agriculture is actively soliciting farmers' views on this bill. And so far, they've accepted hundreds of pages of written recommendations and held listening sessions in California, Chicago, and Atlanta. And next week, another session will be held in Syracuse, New York. Yet despite the importance of each of these efforts, our administration has set up a program in place that has helped farmers more than all the others put together, and it's called economic expansion. When we took offense, inflation was well into double digits, and today, inflation has fallen by more than half. Farmers, I think, are seeing the difference. The month we took office, the prime interest rates soared to more than 21 percent, the highest level since the Civil War. And a cruel blow to agriculture and cash outlays are for interest expenses. Today, the prime interest rate has fallen by about half. But don't get me wrong. Interest rates are still higher than you and I would like them. And we're going to keep on pushing until we get them down. I've said before, and I will repeat, I don't believe there is an excuse for the present interest rates other than a pessimism or a lack of confidence that we do have inflation under control. Since we've restored our country's basic economic health, and if we go on pursuing a sound monetary policy and working to put the federal budget process in order, the interest rates will drop more. Throughout history, farming has been recognized as one of the pillars of a vital society. In ancient Rome, Cicero proclaimed, of all occupations from which gain is secured, there is nothing better than agriculture. Nothing more productive, nothing sweeter, nothing more worthy of a free man. Well, you have my pledge to see to it that American farming remains not only noble, but prosperous, and that the dream of a successful family farm remains a living part of the American dream. And we hope that we can all work together with you to make sure that you're doing what you can to achieve your goals. So I understand that I'm going to have a picture with your committee right here in front of the podium, but in the meantime, thank you all, and God bless you. Why don't you go?