Chairman Lugar and other distinguished Senators,

I am Rod Kuegel from Owensboro, KY and I am here today to represent farmers, those that grow burley tobacco in Kentucky and surrounding states. I am a tobacco grower, I produce two different kinds of tobacco but I want to talk today, not from necessarily my own viewpoint or situation, but those of four of my neighbors. Those neighbors are at home today with their families harvesting tobacco.

First, let me tell you about Carl and Nancy Lewis. Carl and Nancy didn't ask to be born into a family of tobacco farmers, but they were. Neither Carl or Nancy work off the farm. Their entire life has been spent on the farm raising crops, cattle, and to some extent children. They're not large operators, as tobacco growers go they are about average in size. Carl and Nancy will grow approximately 4,000 pounds of their own tobacco and they go onto neighboring farms and grow an additional 25,000 pounds. Along with growing tobacco, they milk a few cows, raise a few calves, grow an acre of peppers and seem to be making a decent living. During their some thirty years of marriage, they have educated a daughter who is now a cooperative extension agent, they have educated a son who has taught school and wants to farm along with Carl and Nancy. Sometimes we are asked, "How important is tobacco, when you look at Carl and Nancy's situation it's 80% of their income and even more importantly, it's 100% of their life. They were born to tobacco growing families.

Another neighbor that I want to talk about is Arthur McKinney. He could not be here today - and would not, even given the opportunity - because all this would be much too intimidating for him and his family. Arthur has been a farmer all of his life, was fortunate enough to be able to work for the railroad a good number of years, had seven children born to him and his wife of sixty some years and grew tobacco. Now, tobacco was not everything that fed them. The railroad money was good during the hard years of the war and so forth. But what made it especially important for them was that one-half acre of tobacco that came in at the end of the year - at Christmas time and at mortgage payment time. What was the most important thing to Mr. McKinney growing tobacco, the program that allowed him to do so. It was being able to depend on it year after year after year. While a lot of farmers like Mr. McKinney could not sit down and quote a lot of facts about the tobacco program and how it works or what the Farm Service Agency actually does for him, what he does know is what the program overall has done for him and what stability has done for him, because through train wrecks, through foul weather, through war and all other adversities he knew that the tobacco check would be there. That kept him going, that kept him looking forward to growing another crop and depending upon the stability that the program has offered him. Oh, he would try other things along the line, but he was completely at the mercy of those buying a little grain or hams or eggs or milk. And it always came to the fact that he depended on tobacco.

Chairman Lugar, the third family and neighbor that I want to talk about today is Rusty and Martha Thompson. Now, Mrs. Thompson works off the farm for the University of Kentucky. Rusty works on the farm day in and day out. They depend on agriculture income for a living. Tobacco is a major part of his operation. Just recently, Rusty told me how he had just purchased an additional farm and a lot of sleepless nights were spent - not whether he wanted the farm or not, not whether he could afford it or not - but all in the context of would we still have a tobacco program so he could buy and pay for this farm. The tobacco program is everything to the tobacco farmer. Now, Rusty operates on a fairly large scale as average burley growers go. Rusty will grow upwards of 75,000 or so pounds this year. His is a family operation though his wife works off the farm. And being in the 40-year-old bracket and married, he still works hand in hand and day in and day out with his parents who are tobacco farmers. The Thompson's own some very prime land and are somewhat surrounded by horse country, but they are not horse farmers. The lack of capital to get into other projects is prohibitive, the lack of number of large level acres prevents expansion into other commodities and though Rusty owns very desirable, rich, fertile land, with larger fields than the average burley farmer, tobacco is the best commodity to help him and his family pay for their home and pay for their farm. Not too many of us would go out and buy a farm hoping that kumquats or rhubarb would maintain a profit level that we could pay off a $300,000 debt, but with the tobacco program and with the history of tobacco our farmers are willing to do that.

All four of my neighbors that I have mentioned today have some things in common, they are hard workers, they like to grow tobacco, but the one thing that brings them closer than anything is the program that is a shield in front of them, a shield that protects them from a market that is shared only by a few buyers compared to many for most commodities, a shield that protects them against weather, against all the forces that a farmer has to deal with in any commodity. When all is said and done, we have to have rain, we have to have sunshine, we have to have a willingness to work, but the program is what has kept all these people going.

Now, permit me to switch just a little bit and talk about a tenant farmer. In order to protect his privacy I don't want to give his name today, let's just call him Paul, a neighbor who grew up as the son of a tenant farmer, whose family did not possess very many worldly goods. Paul was one of several children who worked out in the community for other farmers doing farm labor each season. After a good number of years, Paul had saved up enough to buy some farm equipment. Later he had inspired some landowners enough that they trusted him to rent tobacco to him and now he is a tenant farmer. Paul has a family well on its way and because of tobacco Paul has been able to shelter, feed and educate several children. Paul does not own much land other than a few acres around his house. Paul does not own a lot of equipment: a tractor, transplanter, a disc harrow, and a spray. But Paul has the opportunity, because as a tenant farmer he can produce as many pounds as he feels he can justly handle. Paul has an arrangement with neighbors so that he can use their land, their barns, their tobacco sticks, and in some cases use their credit and in that manner he is able to make a profitable living for his family. In order to be a tenant farmer one must have some equipment, must have some operating capital, and all of those things are hard to come by as a tenant farmer. It is very difficult to go to a banker to borrow funds but Paul has been able to do that. Why? Because that banker just happened to be familiar with the tobacco program and more importantly, that banker knew the stability - Oh, he knew Paul and he knew Paul well enough to know that Paul was going to work and that Paul would do everything in his power to make it a successful crop - but given all the threats against tobacco, weather related or not, it takes a little more for that banker to extend credit. In Paul's case it is because of the stability of the program and that puts Paul on a level playing field with a lot of other folks, he has the opportunity then to compete in the market.

All of the people I have talked about today are home harvesting tobacco. They are doing that because of a program that has protected them, a program that has made it possible for them to compete regardless of size.

Chairman Lugar, we want to keep our tobacco program. We want to grow tobacco. That is the business we are in. I was born to a tobacco farmer. I do not like being condemned because I was not born to a rice farmer or a wheat grower. I am a tobacco farmer - like my father and my grandfather, who were both tenant farmers. I want to continue operating under the program that we have, with its ability to protect and preserve my chance of profitability. I don't think this distinguished committee or any other committee in Washington wants to put me in a position of having to compete against labor across the world of five dollars for ten hours of work. Is that what we want to drag our farmers down to. I doubt that and yet when we talk about level playing fields or free trade and fair markets, what it boils down to -how are we going to then level the playing field as far as me paying $8 an hour labor and competing with someone that practices slave labor? Quite often we try to fix something, and in the end we tear up more than we fixed. I hope this will be considered when we look at a program that has worked, a no net cost program, that is the model for what all agricultural programs should be. It stands for stability -stability for those that cannot stand alone. I encourage you and others in your position to make sure the tobacco program continues.