CLIMATE PROPOSAL WOULD HURT CATTLE PRODUCERS

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 26, 1997 -- The Clinton administration's climate treaty proposal would sharply increase agricultural production costs, which would force a decline in consumer demand and place U.S. ranchers and farmers at a competitive disadvantage against developing countries, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA).

NCBA and other members of the coalition Farmers Against Climate Treaty at a Nov. 25 press conference in Washington, D.C. unveiled a new study by Sparks Companies, a Memphis, Tenn. agricultural consulting company, that shows the severe negative impacts of the climate proposal on ranchers and farmers. NCBA urges U.S. negotiators to keep these aspects in mind when they meet next week in Kyoto to consider signing a binding global climate treaty.

"As stewards of the land who stake their livelihood on the earth's renewable natural resources, cattlemen will always value the resources that allow them to produce the world's food and fiber," said Chandler Keys, NCBA vice-president, Center for Public Policy. "We must continue working to ensure that cattlemen can conserve and improve these natural resources on an ecologically- and economically-sound basis."

The Sparks study shows that production costs would rise by as much as $15.9 billion and export sales would decline by $3.6 billion dollars under the proposal. Net cash income for U.S. agriculture producers could decline nearly 50 percent with higher energy costs.

"NCBA believes environmental protection can be enhanced through the private action of individuals operating within a system of well-defined property rights, individual choice and responsibility, sound scientific analysis, and limited government," Keys said. "The proposed global climate treaty, as it is written, does not adhere to these fundamental principles."

Initiated in 1898, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is the marketing organization and trade association for America's one million cattle farmers and ranchers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation's food and fiber industry.