May 28, 1981 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 10945 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS THE GREAT ORANGE SQUEEZE: PRESS SUPPORT order controls how many oranges each "FORBIDDEN FRUIT" Newspapers, too, are calling for a grower will send to market during the study of the program. The Fresno Bee, season, how many of those will be shipped during any given week, and what size or­ the major newspaper of central Cali­ anges will be allowed. Depending on the HON. GEORGE MILLER fornia's agricultural region, in a need to restrict supplies, golfball-sized or­ OF CALIFORNIA March 18, 1981, editorial, called the anges might be illegal this week but okay IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES program outdated and lamented the next month, when the softball sizes have Thursday, May 28, 1981 unfairness to small farmers and the been eliminated. The cops remain the waste of food. The San Francisco Ex­ same-inspectors for the federal and state e Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. aminer editorialized, "The regulations governments-but the laws they enforce Speaker, I have introduced H.R. 3022, run counter to commonsense • • • shift with the speed of a ferret. to reform the Agricultural Marketing They provide an excellent example of Pescosolido quickly discovered that his Adjustment Act in order to better pro­ what President Reagan means when problems with the navel orange marketing tect the interests of independent grow­ he speaks of government grown too order were simply one piece of a regulatory ers and packers and consumers. puzzle established by the Agricultural Mar­ This program is a perfect example of large in its power." keting Agreement Act of 1937, a bill setting the kind of Federal regulation gone The industry press has joined the up legalized agricultural cartels that could call for a public hearing. The Packer, constrict production and inflate food prices. wild which President Reagan, most When the bill passed in a Depression econo­ Members of this Congress, and the a major agriculture trade paper, noted, "If the prorate system Cthe my, American agriculture was on the ropes, public have decried. A policy intended marketing order] is a godsend for milk was being dumped on the highways, some 40 years ago to aid farmers now growers, shippers, and consumers and fields went unpicked because wholesale oppresses independent growers, en­ prices were so low. Legislators believed that hances absentee speculators, encour­ alike, it should be able to withstand a overproduction and gluts hurt farmers and ages inefficiency and bleeds consum­ public debate and a vote by the indus­ that the resulting shortages hurt consum­ try." ers. So the bill they designed allowed the ers. An article in a recent issue of In­ creation of agricultural trusts; herky-jerky MEMBERS ENJOY ORANGES quiry magazine did an excellent job of fluctuations were out, stability was in. This year, millions of pounds of per­ outlining the issues in this debate, and As a result of the statute, more than half fectly edible navel oranges are being I want to share that article with my of all domestically grown fruits, vegetables, withheld from the national market be­ colleagues. and nuts are covered by forty-eight federal cause of Marketing Order 907. Several The article follows: marketing orders, separate state marketing hundred pieces of this condemned orders for thirty-six additional crops in Cali­ citrus were enjoyed by all of us in the FORBIDDEN FRUIT fornia, and eleven similar programs in other Members' dining room a few weeks <By Doug Foster> states. The orders cover crops as diverse as ago. Consumers will not be able to SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA-Along Idaho potatoes, winter tomatoes, Hawaiian the "Famoso Drag Strip," oranges are piled papayas, and Florida grapefruit; and include enjoy fruit exactly as good as that, in hillocks more than eight feet high, ex­ nearly all of the nation's supply of citrus however, because of the unfair way panses of bright, round fruit stamped with fruit, pears, nectarines, raisins, prunes, wal­ the marketing order operates. the Sunkist label and left to rot in the sun. nuts, almonds, filberts, hops, dates, and pea­ H.R. 3022 would not eliminate the Rivers of orange juice wind off the pave­ nuts. Under those orders most rigorously orders, but it would end the unjustifia­ ment and soak into the soil. The smell is al­ enforced-and oranges are a prime exam­ ble situation in which the Government ternately sweet and putrid at the site of this ple-the regulations are so restrictive that has given broad regulatory powers tremendous orange dump made necessary up to half the crop will be diverted from the over an entire industry to one segment by a raft of regulations governing agricul­ fresh market; in this case to be mashed into of that industry, to the detriment of ture, regulations that have become a source frozen concentrate, dried, and turned to of fierce contention this year. cattle feed, or simply left to rot. In Califor­ competitors and consumers alike. Forty miles away from the drag-strip nia this year alone, an estimated 3.5 million USDA REVIEW dump a major California citrus grower mo­ pounds of oranges-enough to fill 1750 one­ I am pleased that the Department of tions toward a bookcase full of files and re­ ton trucks-will be held off the open Agriculture has initiated a thorough ports amassed in his battle against these market. As though wasted food were not review of marketing orders which I am rules, shakes his head, and frowns: bad enough, the forty-eight existing mar­ hopeful will result in support for "They say these regulations are democrat­ keting orders cost consumers more than $10 modifications along the lines of H.R. ic. Yes, as democratic as the Kremlin. In million, from the nation's general fund, for fact, we call them the Red Menace. On the federal government's participation in 3022, and I look forward to public second thought, I wish you wouldn't use enforcing these orders. hearings this summer. that analogy because I don't believe commu­ Pescosolido and like-minded farmers have CONGRESSIONAL CONCERN nist Russia would ever allow this kind of just begun to rail against the entire market­ I am also pleased that Members of waste of food. It's not even a good socialistic ing order system. They have targeted a Congress have joined in the call for a system. I don't know what it is." dozen of the orders for legal challenges. But study of these orders by cosponsoring The farmer is Carl Pescosolido, a Harvard­ nowhere is the debate hotter than in or­ educated former oil marketer from Massa­ anges. Pitted against Pescosolido is the H.R. 3022. chusetts who "fell in love with this green­ mammoth Sunkist Growers, Inc., the INDUSTRY SUPPORT house called the San Joaquin Valley" on a eighty-five-year-old cooperative whose em­ Industry, too, supports reviewing the business trip west. Pescosolido bought into a ployees wrote the original marketing order marketing orders. It is very important 3600-acre citrus operation, became part almost fifty years ago. The U.S. Department to note that much of the displeasure owner of Exeter Orange Company, and set­ of Agriculture has also lined up against him, with the current progress emanates tled in for a taste of rural life. along with a considerable number of farm­ from the agricultural · community His first few years were pleasant enough. ers afraid of any sudden change in what Pescosolido guided Exeter Orange Company amounts to government-sponsored control itself-from growers, packers and han­ out of the Sunkist orbit, and business of the market. Meanwhile Pescosolido has dlers, large and small, who resent the boomed. But then the company hit a stone assembled as unlikely alliance, including orders' unwarranted interference in wall of government resistance to further ex­ other agribusiness entrepreneurs, Consum­ their right to do business competitive­ pansion: a federal "marketing order" estab­ ers Union, organic farmers who are placed ly. lished by Sunkist attorneys in 1953. The at a disadvantage by produce quality stand- e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. 10946 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS May 28, 1981 ards that favor heavy pesticide users, and At western regional offices of Consumers Pescosolido argues that the constraints of poor people's self-help groups. Union in San Francisco, researchers have the marketing order, which predetermine The pressure will be on the White House prepared documentation supporting Pesco­ how much fruit each grower can sell, de­ to referee the coming war between these solido's position. Union spokesman Carl stroy all incentive for producing particular­ two sides. Although Reagan has often Oshira reviewed the history of marketing ly good fruit, marketing ingeniously, or talked about getting government off our orders and found they hewed fairly closely farming efficiently. "Without the order, backs, it will take some political guts to to the orange model. "Where you have a there would be a much more aggressive mar­ stand on this principle when the largest cor­ dominant co-op, you usually have a market­ keting program nationally,'' Pescosolido poration in an industry bends over and lays ing order. Otherwise if Sunkist and Pure says. "Right now there's no reason to do it. out a welcome mat. "Philosophically the Gold Cthe other citrus cooperative) sat If you strengthen your label and create Reagan people are receptive to the argu­ down together and said, 'What are we going more demand, you won't benefit from that." ments against these marketing orders," one to ship next week?' It would be an antitrust Pescosolido has tried to make a profitable lobbyist says, "but politically, a lot of pres­ violation." Consumers Union, a lobbying end run around the marketing order restric­ sure is being brought by Sunkist and others.