price per unit = $22,741.92 Gross Return
Hour percent allocation

Total Units produced 11,149 x $2.04
Average Yield Per Acre 128 Bu Per Acra
IC Indirect Costs LC Land Costs OW = Operators Wages - MC- Managnant Coats

I do not produce corn, but since I think it is essential that corn costs be documented for this testimony I have worked these costs up by combining indirect cost factors developed on my farm with direct cost inputs from one of my neighbors.

Variables have been adjusted on the basis of yield and time coefficients where necessary to arrive at accurate coat inputs.

It is my judgment that these cost compilations are as accurate as they would have been had this corn been produced on my own farm.

STATEMENT OF BERT BACCHETTI, CALIFORNIA TOMATO GROWERS ASSOCIATION,

TRACY, CALIF.

Mr. Chairman and Distinguished Members of the Committee:

My name is Bert Bacchetti. I am a diversified grower in Tracy, California, where I farm 2,000 acres of tomatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa, and some grain. My operation is an incorporated family farm; however, there are only two people in the corporation-my wife Gloria and me. I am here today as a representative of California Tomato Growers Association whose 700 members produce processing tomatoes, the largest of the California canning commodities.

This hearing, as I understand it, is called for the purpose of determining the condition of agriculture in the United States and of seeking possible solutions to some of the problems that agriculture is facing.

Although the nature of California agriculture is somewhat different from that of the remainder of the nation, California farmers share the same problem of realizing an adequate return for their crops. Some 200 crops are grown commercially in California, with twenty crop and livestock commodities accounting for about 82 percent of the State's gross farm income. Cattle, calves, dairy products and eggs dominate the livestock industry, with cotton, hay, grapes, lettuce and canning tomatoes as some of the important crops. However, most crops individually account for less than two percent of the State's total gross farm income. We lead the nation by a wide margin in the production of fruits, nuts and vegetables, accounting for more than 40 percent of the nation's cash farm receipts for fruits and nuts, and one-third of the receipts for vegetables. The vast number of our crops are not affected by subsidy or supports and do not rely upon parity. But California's growers are concerned with one matter that concerns every farmer in the United States and that is escalating costs for everything that must go into crop production, and decreasing net returns. Most California growers do not believe in strikes as a method of achieving equitable returns, but every California grower understands the frustrations that have led some segments of the farm community to strike and to "tractor" on Washington, since farm income is of nationwide concern. These farmers have focused media attention on our plight and have struck a blow for all of us in our attempts to enhance our agricultural returns.

Since most of our California crops are grown under contract between the producer and the handler, growers of particular commodities have banded together in bargaining associations in order to achieve some strength in the marketplace. They have long since discovered that the individual grower has no equity in dealing with a buyer unless he is a part of a strong association which can bargain for the majority of a crop with the buyers of that crop. California Tomato Growers Association is such an organization and annually bargains for price and contract terms with the 28 California processors who pack 85 percent of the nation's supply of canned tomatoes and tomato products.

It was necessary for our State's tomato growers to fight long and hard to achieve our present status as a bargaining association. Processors were reluctant to see their unilateral price setting ability for their largest canning crop destroyed by a grower association. They used every tactic to discourage growers from signing our bargaining agreement, even to the point of raising the price for which we were bargaining during one year to convince growers that they had no need for a bargaining association. It took three years of intensive organizational work for the association to achieve recognition from the handlers as the bargaining agent for the vast majority of tomato growers.

From our experiences, we have come to the belief that there is great need to strengthen the federal legislation which protects the right of farmers to organize in bargaining associations and to require handlers and associations to bargain in good faith.

Such legislation, the National Agricultural Bargaining Act of 1978, is now being drafted in its final form for introduction in the present Congressional session. It establishes standards of fair practices by handlers and producer associations, provides standards for the accreditation of cooperative associations of producers, defines the mutual obligation of handlers and associations to bargain with respect to the production, sale and marketing of agricultural products, and provides for the enforcement of such obligations.

It appears the bill will have the full support of the majority of national farm organizations. We trust that we will also have the support of the members of this Committee whom we know are deeply concerned with the farm problem.