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Show Emery County Progress Castle Dale, Utah Tuesday August 14, 2001 9A OPINION Time is Now to Build Agriculture Markets By C. BOOTH WALLENT1NE Building agricultural markets in todays world is more complicated than cobbling together a roadside stand and waiting for patrons to flock in for the days harvest. The world agricultural market remains fraught with roadblocks trade barriers, tariffs and export subsidies that make foreign agricultural goods artificially competitive. Farmers in Utah and those across the country can compete with foreign farmers but they still find that artificial barricades block customers. During this months congressional recess, farmers from Utah will welcome home their lawmakers and ask them to take three immediate steps to help clear the remaining trade barricades and build new domestic market opportuhead-to-hea- d, nities. Farm Bureau members are urging Congress to pass trade promotion authority for the president. They are calling for the Agriculture Department to use approved funds to promote the movement of U.S. farm goods overseas. To build our domestic market, farmers are asking Congress to require a percentage of renewable fuels in the nations farm-grow- n, fuel supply. Momentum is heating up for a new round of world trade talks, and the United States must have a seat at the negotiations. Theonlyw'ayto accomplish this is for Congress to approve the Trade Promotion Act of 2001 (HR 2149). Trade promotion authority allows U.S. negotiators the freedom to discuss new trade deals, but without it, expanding our agricultural export markets remains impossible. During a new round of world trade talks, TPA would allow U.S. negotiators to hammer away at protectionist trade policies still on the books. Without TPA, Americas farmers may lose their existing share of foreign markets. Until the rules governing global agricultural trade are rewritten, the United States must be more willing to push old rules to the limit. Our competitors certainly are. Over the past decade the United States has reduced its commitment to expand agricultural exports through commercial programs and humanitarian assistance. This must change. Farmers are asking Congress to help correct years of benign neglect for these export programs. Congress must urge the Agriculture Department to fully spend the funds authorized to support the sale of U.S. farm goods and aid 1 billion malnourished people around the globe. When it comes to programs to develop and expand agricultural markets, the United States is outspent four to one. Competitors in the European Union and elsewhere have expanded their presence in our Think of Lawyers as Extremely Well Dressed Plumbers By CLAUDE T. HAWKINS Sometime around 4:00 a.m. stumbled from my bed and headed for the bathroom. My nightly ritual, which has become habitual as my body moves from middle age to true old manhood, requires little in the way of full, mental cognition. I strive to preserve a semblance of theta brain activity during these short expeditions, and so my sleep fogged brain failed to detect any irregularities in my well ordered household for several seconds. But the water swirling around my toes was too cold to ignore for long. I felt embarrassment as a first reaction. Did I leave the water running?" I checked the bathroom and found the tvb I overflowingwith tea colored water, my shaggy bathroom mats waving like exotic forms of coral but the faucets turned off. Clearly, this was not my fault. My mind still struggling to attain some level of mental acuity, I padded across soggy carpets to the front door. Perhaps I would discover the entire apartment complex partially submerged from a natural phenomenon. Wearing only my underwear I stood in the open door and scanned the moonlit landscape, finally noticing several neighbors lounging on lawn chairs and staring at me. The sewers are backed up, someone called out cheerfully. The plumber is on the way. Another raised a coffee cup. Put on some clothes and join us, she said amid general laughter. rented carpet cleaner through the muddle. It is during such repetitive tasks that I sometimes ponder the great issues and controversies of our modem society. For a number of years I have worked with lawyers, in a variety of research and support roles. In an hour, I would call the office and inform the receptionist that I would be otherwise occupied for the day, a prospect that would please neither my employer nor me. My current task of returning dirty water to its proper place led me to fixate on the difference between hiring a lawyer versus hiring a plumber. Why, I wondered, do most of us call a plumber at the first sign of a leak but wait until the legal world crashes down on our heads before we consult a . lawyer? This incongruity is not difficult to understand. Hiring a lawyer is intimidating, even frightening. Although lawyers would deny that they actively strive to intimidate clients, I see little compelling evidence to the contrary. Indeed, this intimidation factor is so persuasive that even after the decision to hire an attorney becomes inevitable, most of us feel an undeniable temptation to lay our problem at the attorneys feet - like a wounded mallard delivered by a bird dog- - then and back hope for the step well-train- ed best. I have long maintained that those of us who do not append the word Esquire after our names should permit ourselves to treat legal services as just another business relationship. We should establish boldly in our minds that we are the employers. Lawyers work for us, do they not? Even better, we should think of lawyers as extremely well dressed plumbers. Plumbers seldom intimidate anyone. You engage their services for a specific purpose, establish a price, monitor the progress and measure the results. These also represent the fundamental steps to managing a lawyer. Of course, there are noteworthy differences. Plumbers seldom face another plumber attempting to undo all their good work. Still, if all else fails, each time you feel that little shiver of intimidation, look across your lawyers oversized desk. . Envision him kneeling in front of your toilet, his expensive coat draped over your shower curtain, his arm deep inside the bowl, his cheek pressed . firmly against the rim. It is a compelling image. Dont you think? (Hawkins provides contract research and consulting services for lawyers in Florida and the Western United States.) Several hours later, the plumber having accomplished his good deed for the morning and gone off to present an industrial sized bill to the landlord, I found myself pulling the sucking end of a for(HI Vour Flootvcming Needs Candy Stripe Carpet mt MOKTENSEN'S sq. ft. 78 1 North Carbon Ave., Price 637-088- 4 markets. Congress must encourage Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to use all appropriated funds at her disposal for the promotion of U.S. agricultural markets abroad. Since the end of World War n, the United States has been a major resource for emergency relief to the needy around the globe. These efforts helped build long-tercommercial markets for U.S. farm products. Over the past decade, however, the nation has cut its funding for overall food aid programs in half, from more than $2.5 billion in 1990 to $1.1 billion in 2000. m Domestic markets can also be primed with congressional action. Farmers are urging Congress to pass the Renewable Fuels for Energy Security Act of 2001 (S. 1006 and HR biomass 2423). energy, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are renewable sources of clean motor fuel. Their production creates bigger markets for our commodities, benefits the environment and brings jobs Farm-raise- to d, rural America. The Renewable Fuels for Energy Security Act of 2001 would help bring prosperity back to rural America and energy security back to the United States. The measure would require 5 percent of the nations fuel to contain renewable energy by 2016. Congress should pass the renewable fuels measure, grant TPA to the president and urge the Agriculture Department to use money approved to promote and move Utah and other U.S. farm products overseas. Doing so will build domestic agricultural markets and help Americas farmers dismantle barricades that keep foreign customers from browsing the U.S. farm stand. (Wallentine is the Utah Farm Bureau chief executive officer.) MOTDCEOF JUOGjMEMTT LEVY TAX INCREASE Emery County Water Conservancy District is proposing to increase taxes to cover refunds ordered by the Utah State Tax Commission to centrally assessed property appeals. This appeals Canyon Fuel Co. is refund amount As a result of the proposed judgment, the impact on a $75,000 residence will be $1.16 and the impact on a business having the same value as the average value of a residence in the taxing entity will be $2.10. All concerned citizens are invited to attend a public hearing on the judgment levy tax increase to be held on August 20, 2001 at 7:30 p.m: in the Distict Office, 50 East 100 South, Castle Dale, Utah. |