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| THEIR VOICES |
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| Written by The Perez Family | |
| Saturday, 06 October 2007 | |
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“Mr. Hiatt's column and the Irrigator’s previous farm bill article give superficial treatment to farm program issues, obscuring the fact that much of it has to do with complex trade issues and attempting to emphasize farm programs as petty political pork and vote buying.”
— the Perez Family This is to respond to Earl Hiatt’s column in the Sept. 29 edition, titled “Farm bill: Socialism in action.” Mr. Hiatt asserts that farmers are socialists for participating in farm programs, and then specifically mentions Perez Farms and members of the Perez family. This is an unwarranted, offensive insult to the Perez family. If the Irrigator would exercise better judgment, we would not have to endure Mr. Hiatt’s confused ramblings, and this response would be unnecessary. Mr. Hiatt’s column and the Irrigator’s previous farm bill article give superficial treatment to farm program issues, obscuring the fact that much of it has to do with complex trade issues and attempting to emphasize farm programs as petty political pork and vote buying. Farm programs began in the Depression as a way to assist farmers in financial crisis. As time went on, farm programs evolved to address rural development, commodity overproduction, surpluses, soil conservation, natural resource conservation, environmental quality and foreign trade issues. The Perez family has farms in Westley, Crows Landing and Firebaugh (Fresno County), as well as fresh produce packing and equipment businesses. Perez Farms grows cotton in Firebaugh on land involved in the cotton program. Cotton makes up about 3 percent of the family business; the other 97 percent is nonprogram. The Perezes are not fans of commodity subsidies, but realize they are necessary when foreign trade issues are involved. The U.S. is in the middle of a trade dispute with China, along with other cotton-growing countries. China heavily subsidizes its cotton production and is now the world’s largest cotton producer. Since 1996, farm bills have been written to conform to international trade agreements made in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade talks and now the World Trade Organization. The U.S., China and other cotton-growing nations agreed to eliminate all worldwide agricultural subsidies by 2006. The Perezes supported the stoppage of worldwide subsidies, but the agreement fell apart, and it is still being disputed in the WTO. If the U.S. ends domestic cotton subsidies and other nations do not, the U.S. cotton industry will be destroyed. The Perezes are committed members of this community and have been for many years. We feel it is important for our friends to know that we are not abusing the farm program system, as we have been accused. Farm programs are not perfect, and there is plenty of room for improvement, but they serve a legitimate purpose. The Perezes are not absentee landowners collecting subsidy checks, nor do we make windfall profits on cotton. We are active participants and work extremely hard in the farming industry and hopefully for the betterment of this community. For Mr. Hiatt to broad-brush farmers who participate in farm programs as socialists lining up at the subsidy trough and then smear the Perez family in the same stroke is absurd and outrageous.
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