Day 233 - 26 03 96 - Page 4
DAY 233
HOWARD LYMAN, Examined:
1 tilth of the soil had changed from a living soil to soil
2 that appeared like asbestos. In the hospital, reflecting
3 on that, I had to admit to myself that I was the cause of
4 that happening; and I believed the reason for it was the
5 type of practices I was using on the farm.
6
7 Q. Were they unusual practices or -----
8 A. No. Those practices were the ones that -- they were
9 unusual prior to the 1960s, but they became more and more
10 usual as we went along. They were the standard of the
11 industry, and are the standard of the industry today.
12
13 Q. Now, from 1983 to 1986, you were an agricultural advocate
14 on farm foreclosures. Can you just tell us what that
15 involved?
16 A. After I sold my farm in 1983, I spent the majority of
17 my time consulting with other farmers in their production
18 practices. I worked with them as far as organising
19 co-operatives, changing their practices to farm more in
20 accordance with nature. I spent almost full-time
21 travelling round the States, going to hundreds of different
22 farms, working with farmers, making changes that I believed
23 would have been more cost beneficial to them.
24
25 Q. So, in terms of actual practical running of farms, did you
26 have involvement after you closed your farm in 1983
27 or -----
28 A. Absolutely. I probably spent more time in management
29 of more farms after I sold my farm than I did in my own
30 when I had it before.
31
32 Q. Then two down from that, we see that you were a senior
33 lobbyist for the National Farmers Union from 1987 to 1992.
34 Can you explain what is involved in that?
35 A. At that time, I was basically stationed in
36 Washington DC. When Congress was in session, I spent the
37 majority of my time up on the Hill working with
38 legislation. When Congress was out of session, I spent
39 almost all of my time travelling around the entire country,
40 meeting with farmers that were members of the National
41 Farmers Union. I worked with them on organising co-ops.
42 I worked in depth on the analysis of whether they had the
43 financial ability to come together to form co-ops and form
44 their own businesses. In that time, I probably visited
45 thousands of different farms, met with thousands of
46 different farmers, looked at financial statements,
47 different methods of farming, and was very involved in the
48 modern methods of agriculture at that period of time.
49
50 Q. The farms that you visited, were they just in one or two
51 states, or were they right across the United States, or
52 what?
53 A. The entire United States is the area that I covered.
54
55 Q. Have you also visited slaughterhouses and processing plants
56 or just concentrated on the farming side of things?
57 A. I have been to hundreds of slaughterhouses, probably as
58 many as 50 processing plants. When I was in the business,
59 I made sure that I went to every slaughterhouse that I ever
60 consulted with as far as selling cattle. It was a normal
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