The only skills needed were a strong back and nimble fingers. Modern progress has made these skills obsolete.

B. Hypothesis

The co-op members and management can grow the food they need to supplement their diets.

The members are learning the value of vegetables in the diet and the art of preparation through the age old trial and error method, coupled with modern teaching.

There is pride and self esteem in contributing to their own well-being, and that of their neighbors.

There is an awareness of the validity of working discovered, nurtured and developed by charging individuals with responsibility for themselves and others. Many people that had been put on "the shelf" to die have found a new life through the co-op.

Conclusion

The families in the co-op have proven their desire to work.

The families appreciate an opportunity to do work that doesn't require new skills and additional "schooling".

The sons and daughters of the present membership will be encouraged to seek academic careers in agricultural fields.

The signs of malnutrition in the young will completely disappear with an abundant source of food and the proper education about those foods and their relation to good health.

The co-op offers freedom from hunger and unemployment that will result in the family unit being more secure. This should begin to end some of the social problems caused by hunger and desperation.

Land

NORTH BOLIVAR COUNTY PRESENT RESOURCES

The co-op has 457 acres of land. To provide more dried produce, they are seeking an additional 100 acres to plant in pinto beans, navy beans, peanuts, and opaque No. 2 corn.

Dr. Dale Harpstead of Michigan State University and Dr. Joseph Vitale of Tufts University, have visited the co-op and arrived at the conclusion that the high protein corn can be grown in the area.

The successful production of these crops will supplement the vegetable variety in the winter months.

In addition to regular vegetable crops, Dr. Harrell L. Hammett has assisted the co-op in developing a fruit and nut orchard. This will not produce food for members for three years, but will add another dimension to the diets of people in North Bolivar county.

Equipment

The co-op has the necessary equipment, two heavy tractors, two light tractors, a small seed vegetable planter, an air blast sprayer (various implements) to ensure vegetable production second to none.

Unlike cotton and soybean, vegetables cannot come up out of the ill-prepared soil. Small seeds will not germinate in large particled soil. Thus, good soil preparation is a must.

Planning, done by the co-op board and staff resulted in buying equipment with an eye on expansion. The heavy tractors not only cultivate and disc well, but they are capable of pulling dirt buggies, dirt spreaders, relay pumps in irrigation systems, and other heavy duty farm work.

The air blast sprayer is another evidence of planning. Presently, the co-op has one of the three like it in the county. It is designed to cover and completely saturate vegetable plants. As opposed to other means that cover one side of the plant leaf with spray, the effectiveness is demonstrated in the money saved by repeated applications by conventional machines.

In moving toward our goal of a co-op cannery, the air blast machine will be a valuable piece of equipment.

Some of the equipment, like the small seed planter, is geared for planting depths measured in fractions of an inch. This means less seed loss, in planting too deep, and less wastes by a free seed flow.

Many of the implements, large disc, graham plow, cultivators are large and heavy to do the best possible job in soil preparation, and weed control.

Centralized management

Unlike many cooperatives, composed of small farmers, the central management of our cooperative insures uniform production and control of insects, weeds, etc. Two people responsible for daily checks on the crops for early signs of disease, and pests.

An expert has been contracted to teach the Co-op management the science of discovering and treating diseases, pest control, weed control, crop rotation, and soil conservation.

Labor Reserves

Drawing from a membership that is likely to exceed the 1,000 family membership mark this year poses no problem of labor for the farm management. The farm co-op offers opportunities for farm families to supplement their income during the harvest season.

Last year over 300 families took advantage of this opportunity, by working in the fields, the frozen food locker, and the office.

Irrigation

Many of the vegetable crops require adequate water supplies to give the best yields. Some crops cannot grow in the delta heat. We have an adequate irrigation system that will insure the necessary water supply when needed. This, like the sprayer, is a must when attempting to sell produce on the fresh market and/or to a processor.

Staff

The most important factor is a staff that is excited about the cooperative. We have that staff. Men and women that work long hard hours, with no sense of time, but of accomplishment. Men and women that when confronted with the issue of no funds for salaries, continue working because they have a job to do, and take pride in the success of a job well done.

This ingredient coupled with a board of directors that take the business of running a cooperative seriously, is the background of the co-op story.

Note: 1. Dr. Dale Harpstead-Geneticist, at Mich. State University, and supplier of the opaque 2 High-Lysine corn. 2. Dr. Joe Vitale, Director of the Nutrition Department, Tufts University. 3. Dr. Harrell L. Hammett, Associate Director, Food Technology Department, Mississippi State University.

Senator MCGOVERN. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dorsey.

Dr. GEIGER. It has been suggested before we turn to Mr. Young and Mrs. Coleman that briefly we say a word or make a graphic representation of some of the situations they are about to describe and that they face, situations that are now being struggled with in Rosedale, but, in fact, are widespread all over Bolivar County.

I think I should have to assure you that these are not atypical. These are pictures of an overflowing shack with a contaminated pump in the front yard, three black children playing in human feces and raw sewage on a Rosedale street, this unbelievable contaminated toilet overflowing with human excrement used by children, women, the elderly.

There is one section of Rosedale that you will hear about in which 200 people have no toilets at all.

Here is a picture of an open cesspool. Mr. James described to me the technical reason for this. Cesspools are supposed to be closed. The landlords in Rosedale know that the soil will not tolerate a closed cesspool, so they open it up so it will overflow. That is human excrement ready to float down the street.

Here is a picture of a room with the table, stuff hanging from t1 mother and six children livi

kitchen, beds, articles of clothing, iling, a room 18 by 15 feet for a r their meals, and sleeping.

Here is a picture of the shack that Mr. Morris described, in which an old farm tenant is trying to keep something over his head for the remainder of his years.

Here is a picture of a kitchen, if it can be called that, without refrigeration, for keeping the kinds of foods Mrs. Dorsey talked about.

Here is a picture of a typical bedroom, with children of different sexes, six of them, sleeping in that bed.

Here is a picture of the kind of privy, collapsed, that we often find when the environmentalists go out, which we have reached because we have a baby with infectious diarrhea or worse. We have seen, in addition, encephalitis, meningitis, and other vector-borne diseases, and they relate to these circumstances.

(The pictures referred to above follow :)