Editing 78-05-B4 (section)

=== Transcript ===
Food being the thing we probably buy most often, many of us think of food
prices as a measure of inflation. The family shopper comes home from the
supermarket and with shock and surprise in her voice says, "do you know how much a
roast is now?" Or a head of lettuce, pound of butter or whatever.

Strangely enough, as a percentage of income after taxes food has been steadily
going down for years. Last year the nation's food bill was 17% of earnings after
taxes. This year it is 14.8%. Of that, only 5.3% goes to the farmers who produce
the food. And that's why we're hearing about farmers striking, protesting and
driving tractors to Washington.

Only a few years ago under then-Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz the farmers
were getting out from under the federal program of direct regulation, control
and subsidy and back into the free market. Now there is a crisis caused by
increased production costs and higher prices for equipment, machinery and fertilizer.
Much of the problem is caused by government restrictions on the free market.

I've been trying to find an answer that wouldn't increase government involvement
in the farm market. The other day I heard some views expressed by a
Congressman who happens first to be a farmer--Idaho's Steve Symms. He, too,
is against more government which leaves him understanding the farmer's request
for 100% parity but unable to accept that as the answer. He says, "obtaining
government insured farm prices" is not a realistic long term solution to the
farmers' problem.

Congressman Symms says most farmers recognize the need to maintain extra
inventories of food so there won't be hardship in the event of crop failure. But,
he points out that government held grain reserves have been used to held down
prices by dumping them on the market when prices rise.

Fearing a bureaucratic monstrosity if government went into the marketing
business, Congressman Symms suggests some alternatives to government-insured farm
prices. Decrease production costs by eliminating excessive regulation, he says.
Current government regulations, he believes, have reached such ridiculous extremes
that they seldom do what they were meant to do . The farmer suffers not just as
a producer, but also as a consumer.

He says, open foreign export markets to farmers so they can work out their
own trade agreements with foreign buyers, without the government as a middleman.
After all, why should the State department be negotiating fixed prices with foreign
governments for farm exports?

Symms proposes tightening up food programs involved with foreign aid. We often
provide food to a government that then turns around and sells it to its own people
at high prices. Those governments make an unholy profit at our farmers' expense.
And of course he would prohibit government from dumping food surpluses on the market
to hold down prices.

Basically, Steve Symms calls for cutting government costs and taxes. It's funny
how many problems could be solved by doing that. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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