Recent Testimony Before the Joint Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Agriculture
Recent testimony by Stephen Bales, Jr. before the Joint Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Agriculture
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
My name is Stephen Bales, Jr. I am a 5th generation Buckeye, Arizona farmer. We have been in the ranching, feedlot and farming business. Currently I grow cotton, grain and forage crops.
I earn my keep full-time as a farmer, but spend considerable time with professional, civic, business and church organizations. I serve on a bank board and am well versed with the challenges of our times.
One of my volunteer roles is President of the Arizona Cotton Growers Association. One of the strengths of Arizona agriculture is its embrace of technology and its innovations.
Cotton is a fruit – fruits require insecticides. Arizona cotton used a lot of insecticide until the past few years. Gains in technology have reduced insecticide applications to less than 10% of the crop. Good for the environment – good for profitability.
There is a new cotton picker which combines picking with module building all in one pass…eliminating trips through the field, labor and dust. So far only 5 of these pickers have been sold in the United States but 3 of them are in Arizona.
Water is an expensive input. We continue to be innovative in our irrigation systems – to reduce our water usage -you might have read about some of this in the paper a week ago. Arizona agriculture uses a lot of water, but our use also provides flexibility for the future.
We are finding new ways to direct market some of our products into Arizona urban populations.
These are but a few examples. Innovation & technology are hallmarks of our agriculture, but so is diversity.
We grow an alphabet of crops – sometimes relatively small acreages that produce a huge supply of the country’s roses, or leafy greens, vegetables or nuts…just to name a few.
So we are marked by diversity. We are either planting or harvesting a crop every month somewhere in Arizona.
We are an industry that does not get to name its price. We are at the mercy of the market – both in this country and overseas. We absorb our costs and that includes new regulatory costs and burdens.
Of course, overall supply & demand dictates prices, but in most cases the markets are so big that individual producers or even regional producers cannot impact price.
You can buy your house & garden plants at Loews or Home Depot or your milk at the grocery store pretty cheap right now. But there is another side.
Arizona has had a very successful wholesale nursery business, but the margins are negative, given the recession. Arizona dairies are losing more than $100 per cow per month – and that’s real money if you are milking a few thousand cows.
These two agricultural sectors, just to name a few, are undergoing huge strains and many are going out of business – never to return. Allied sectors that are involved with either inputs or outputs are also suffering.
The state cannot do much about these markets. Markets can create rough justice at times, but the state can avoid placing more stressful burdens on struggling businesses like agriculture.
It is not what you do but perhaps what you don’t do that might be more helpful. Isn’t the first adage of government: “do no harm?”
We accept regulation in order to move our crops and livestock in commerce. We accept regulation so the public has confidence in the safety or our foods.
In these times we do not need new regulations that are not well thought out as to the consequences and especially when they impede small business and job creation.
I could comment for a long time, but lastly I would like to leave you with the thought that Arizona agriculture has a history of solving its own problems in the areas of pest and disease interdiction, marketing and research.
We are also marked by not asking for much in the way of general funds.
Let me give you an example. There has never been a food borne illness from Arizona produce. Nevertheless, we recently formed an entity to help insure this never happens – we did it with our own money – we took our own food safety programs and dialed them up a notch. The same has happened with cotton research and protection.
And then recently, I saw both of these entities we created on a list for funds sweeps. Our problem, our solution, our funds and the state takes the money? That is not only wrong, it is not business friendly.
So as I look at the work of this committee, we should focus on ways to allow agriculture to function as a business. We are not asking for subsidy. We don’t need regulations that impede our commerce and we do need certain regulatory actions to allow our products to move.
And we understand the public needs regulation to have a high degree of confidence in the safety of our milk, meat and other food products. We accept being highly regulated – we just don’t accept being over regulated.
Hopefully this committee can get into these matters.
