KEEPING YOUNG PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURE FOCUS OF CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

Washington, D.C. (Nov. 3, 1999) – The federal government can encourage more young people to go into agriculture by repealing the death tax and reforming environmental regulations that place a financial strain on cattlemen and women, Lynn Cornwell, vice president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), told congressional subcommittees today.

"There is no clear-cut solution to enable and encourage young people to get involved in production agriculture," Cornwell said. "It has gotten to a point in which you need a permit or license to do almost anything. Kids see dad going to public hearings just to protect what he has – forget trying to expand."

Testifying before a joint hearing of U.S. House Small Business Subcommittees, Cornwell, a cattle producer from Glosgow, Mont., discussed obstacles that stand in the way of attracting youth to the industry. Although cattle producers are seeing a rebound in beef demand, they still face such challenges as shrinking returns on their investment, complying with federal and state regulations, and enticing career opportunities off the farm, Cornwell said.

"As farm and ranch kids finish their education, they begin to think, ‘Why would I want to return to a lifestyle that requires me to work 16 to 20 hours a day to effectively earn $1,000 per month,’" Cornwell said. "The present average net return to investment in the cattle business in my part of the country is less than 1 percent."

American agriculture is changing. Producers are doing more with less, and agriculture industries are continually finding new markets for their products. Cornwell said this all means little if there is no incentive to bring another generation of farmers and ranchers into the industry.

The positive changes in agriculture for young persons are outweighed by the challenges, Cornwell said. While some farmers are seeing an increase in the value of the land, for example, they are finding that it’s worth more to sell to developers than to keep the land in production. Death taxes make it more complicated to pass land from one generation to the next. And it would be financially difficult for a young person to begin an agriculture operation from scratch because of the high cost of investing in land, equipment and other inputs.

"Agriculture needs to find ways to compete for the hearts and minds of young people," Cornwell said.

While the federal government can’t solve all these problems, it can ease the burdens on America’s agriculture producers, Cornwell said.

# # #

For the full text of the testimony, go to:
http://www.beef.org/newsrels/rel_ncba/110399_testimony.htm

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