are approached and asked to help. These leaders and volunteers act as a nucleus to attract other participants. When people in the program are placed together on a common property that has to be collectively maintained, a sense of community participation evolves. This continues in the preparation and preservation of food aspects of the program. At the same time, participants are encouraged to beautify their garden plots and their homes by planting flowers and other ornamentals.

Even though adults account for two-thirds of the total participants, there are over 64,000 youth actively involved. These youth are participating with their family and neighbors and, therefore, learn to care about family and community relationships as well as the gardening and eating of proper foods.

All participants do gain an appreciation of the efforts necessary to grow produce and use food and will better understand agriculture and its related sciences.

Mr. WHITTEN. According to page 295 of the Notes, you state that 300 Extension specialists in the 16 cities worked with more than 2,600 volunteers. Would you please describe, in a little more detail, the role of these volunteers in the urban gardening program?

Dr. BERTRAND. The volunteers involved in the 16 cities' urban gardening programs work in the following three areas: gardening, food utilization, and food preservation.

The volunteers in the food production aspect of the program serve to extend the Extension staff's time. These volunteers help participants in cultural aspects of vegetable production in community, home, and container or mini-gardens. They do teach pest control, proper soil management, and other practices. The volunteers in the diet and nutrition aspects of the program teach participants the possible substitution of foods, the nutritional value of the foods utilized and how to best utilize them to attain a better diet. The volunteers in the food preservation programs teach freezing and canning techniques through personal, one-on-one contacts, and through workshops in which the actual preserving of the product is accomplished.

Mr. WHITTEN. Under the urban gardening program, how many senior citizen projects have been started?

Dr. BERTRAND. Senior citizens account for about 65 percent of the adult participants in all of the 16 cities' programs and number over 85,000. These senior citizens participate in all aspects of the urban gardening program, including the learning of gardening skills, the learning of proper diet and nutrition, and food preservation.

OTHER GARDENING PROGRAMS

Mr. WHITTEN. According to your Notes you states that a large number of states have incorporated similar gardening information and assistance within their normal responsibilities through the Master Gardener Program. Would you please describe, in greater detail, the Master Gardener Program?

Dr. BERTRAND. The Master Gardening Program is now a part of horticultural programs in 35 states. It consists of persons interested in horticulture and willing to undergo formal classroom and practical training and then donate some of their time to expand Extension horticultural programs. The program is as follows: announce

ments are published in newsletters, through gardening clubs, and garden centers to identify possible candidates for the Master Gardening Program. After identification, these candidates are given formal classroom and practical training in horticultural, pest management, and other related areas by Extension specialists. This educational period is usually about 40 hours. After this point if the candidates are competent, they are then asked to reimburse the original cost of the 40 hours of instruction. These candidates then become Master Gardeners and help Extension programs in the areas of their own expertise. What this accomplishes is that they are trained in group sessions, and, therefore, a multiplier effect is achieved. The Master Gardeners are then used to answer questions from other beginning and avocational gardeners on various topics. The Extension county agent still acts as a resource or backup person for these Master Gardeners. The program, however, does not stop there. The Master Gardeners are retrained and their knowledge updated every two or three years. The program has been extremely successful in all the states in which it occurs and has been spreading since its inception. It is a way in which Extension can, through the use of volunteers, reach more people with the correct methodologies and facts in a certain program area.

Mr. WHITTEN. Exactly how many states now have gardening programs that are separate from the urban gardening program? Dr. BERTRAND. All states are involved in gardening programs that are not part of the urban gardening program. However, specific effort in the 16 cities involved in the urban gardening program is not present in all 50 states.

Mr. WHITTEN. What resources are devoted to these programs? Dr. BERTRAND. Exclusive of the urban gardening program, approximately 600 staff years annually are devoted to home horticulture programs. This includes the state, area, county, and paraprofessional staff members of the Cooperative Extension Services.

FUNDING FOR URBAN GARDENING

Mr. WHITTEN. Does the urban gardening program receive any matching funds from the states or any local contributions?

Dr. BERTRAND. The urban gardening program receives matching funds or contributions from the states, cities, and industries in the areas. They are: matching funds-$178,550; funds for supplies or equipment, or supplies and equipment donated are valued at $279,770; office space donated to the program is 39,340 sq. ft., and there are 2,592 garden sites made available to the program.

Mr. WHITTEN. Now, I have to go to the floor, along with my colleagues here, and justify these actions which the budget recommends. You didn't request this cut, did you? This was handed to you. You didn't capture it. They handed it to you. What did you ask for in this instance, do you remember?

Now you recall, I started off by saying your work is the backbone of agriculture, and that is true; but all of this information you give farmers to get them to do a better job doesn't help much if they don't have the means to do the job at all. This budget would have us show them what to do and then not let them do it.

Dr. BERTRAND. Your specific question, sir, was what did we ask for as an agency and a department?

Mr. WHITTEN. Yes.

Dr. BERTRAND. We asked for $3 million.

Mr. WHITTEN. Three million dollars?

Dr. BERTRAND. In this urban gardening area.

Mr. WHITTEN. Then you did not ask to cut out city gardening? Dr. BERTRAND. No, sir.

Mr. WHITTEN. Well, that's an Office of Management and Budget decision, or the Secretary's decision.

I'm reminded of the other day when I mentioned another program to the Secretary of Agriculture, and he said we had too many dairy cows. People around the world are just as hungry as they can be and in need of every bit of spare food we've got; half the world is crying for it right now. I told him, you can get into the hog business in nine weeks. But if you cut down the number of dairy cows to barely meet our immediate needs, it would take five or six years to build them back up. I can't imagine anything that would be more ridiculous than to run that risk, particularly when we have furnished you with a salesman to dispose of our surpluses. You know, back yonder, we had billions of dollars of surplus commodities available for sale. We had tons and tons of butter, and one reason the General Sales Manager couldn't sell it, besides the fact that he might not have tried for a while, was that we wouldn't leave out the salt. We like salt and even if we were going to sell the butter to countries that don't, we insisted upon putting salt in. And we still do, so I'm told.

PRIORITY OF RESEARCH

Now all of this goes back to the question of what you are going to do with the money that is being cut from soil conservation, nutrition, forestry, and rural electricity, and given to you. Now, why do you think what you're doing is more important than these programs that we're trimming back?

Dr. BERTRAND. Mr. Chairman, we think that research-

Mr. WHITTEN. That's a decision OMB made. I tried to take you off the hook.

Dr. BERTRAND. Believe me, I appreciate that. And to finish my answer, the Secretary of Agriculture recommended that urban gardening programs be continued in fiscal year 1982.

IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE

Mr. WHITTEN. I'll tell you in all seriousness that, with less than 5 percent of Americans owning farms, I appreciate the members of this subcommittee who have stayed here, when all of us have more glamorous assignments. As Chairman of the full Committee I'm an ex officio member of all the other subcommittees, but we've stayed here because we think agriculture is basic to our country. As I've said many, many times, the standard of living of just about every nation in the world is dependent upon how much of its time the population has to devote to providing food, clothing and shelter, and our country is better in this respect than any country that I know of. So that's the key to our prosperity, and I think there should be no question. But with such a limited number of farmers it becomes imperative that we keep the support of our city col

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leagues, and I am proud that this subcommittee pushed through the urban gardening program. But we have had to restore it every year. OMB doesn't seem to have a practical politician in the group who realizes that you've got to get votes in Congress, and a lot of Members don't come from rural areas. It's been that way since I've been here. This subcommittee also set up 4-H type work in the cities, and I'd like to mention on account of my friend, John Myers, that the biggest 4-H club is in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.

NUTRITION AIDES

We also have nutrition aides. Now, the Extension agents were very important where I grew up, and I am a big believer in home economists, and the 4-H. We also had home workers employed by the state. They were helping the wives apply improved nutrition in the home. So I believe in all of that.

I think it's been proven through the years that to go into a woman's kitchen an aide has to be somebody in the same social status; somebody that is accepted. In major cities I think we have done lots of good with nutrition aides.

Way back, you had what I believe you called Aunt Sally's Cookbook, at that time. We changed it because it wouldn't sell with that title. We called it a Book on Human Nutrition. Some of my colleagues who were big dairy men and supported keeping livestock healthy objected to the book. I told them, if you say any more against it, I'm going to show how many times you voted for nutrition research for livestock; this is for nutrition for human beings. And they quit.

I mention that here for consideration by all of us, because I think we have to be practical and see that we put together a package that our colleagues will be able to support.

FARM-CITY COOPERATION

I want to say here that all Americans are greatly indebted to the city Members of Congress. But I think we were wise in including in our bill some of the things that are relevant to them, such as the study and planning of urban wholesale market facilities.

I once went to New York City when they had the old 14th Street wholesale market going. There were requirements on safety, health, and protection that applied inside the grocery stores, but you could go out and see sides of beef lying on the streets in this downtown run down area. They would take this same beef into the grocery store where they would take care that the facilities were clean, but by then, what was the point?

The City of Philadelphia, the City of Detroit. There are so many of them that have taken advantage of the program for planning new wholesale markets where food would be protected at all times and where you had air conditioning, where you could have the right kind of chill rooms for apples and other types of fruit and produce. All of these things are beneficial to the American people, but they also are very practical in helping us get our bill through the Congress.

I want to repeat, we are deeply indebted to the city Members, because they do stay with us. They realize we have things of

interest to their people back home, so they stay on the floor and listen, and they come to see that agriculture is everyone's concern. Now, you didn't come here to listen to me but under the circumstances, I guess you had to. [Laughter.]

What statements do you have to make at this time?

INFLATION IMPACT ON SEA

Dr. BERTRAND. Mr. Chairman, as Dr. Farley has pointed out, the increases sought by the Technical Information Systems are primarily to offset the cost of inflation and price of books that have gone up 18 percent to 20 percent from last year as well as the cost of periodicals that we must subscribe to in order to run a decent library.

The increases that Dr. Greenwood described in Extension are primarily just to keep up with inflation as well as to meet increased operating costs of that program and to have a slight increase in the nonpoint source pollution area to help the farmers conserve the soil.

The areas that we mentioned in Cooperative Research we think are essential in helping the farmer meet those needs and in helping the agricultural experiment stations cope with the cost of doing business today.

We consider this a very frugal budget. In fact, in terms of meeting the needs Dr. Greenwood has a rather interesting diagram with her that I would like her to show you, if she may, about what has happened to our extension funding since 1977.

[The information follows:]

EXTENSION FUNDING

The following table reflects Extension's funding compared to what those dollars are worth on a constant basis. As shown, Extension, which has increased its program responsibilities to respond to Congressional mandates, including title XIV of the 1977 Farm Bill, has had difficulty during the last few years in initiating new programs and expanding existing ones because of high inflation. With more and more people requesting assistance from Extension on a broadening range of subjects, the need exists for additional funds to offset these rising costs and allow Extension to continue to meet its main purpose-help people identify and solve their farm, home, and community problems through the use of research fundings.