RURAL CRISIS CENTER SPEAKS AGAINST NAFTA

"When you take a look at the people who favor the North American Free Trade Agreement, you have to know it is not good for small-business owners, family farmers and workers."

That was the message delivered Tuesday by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, a nonprofit corporation founded in 1985 by a group of family farmers and rural activists.

"Supporters for NAFTA are comprised of the elite, the factory owners, big business, and that segment of our economy that deals in largest figures who profit from the labor of the masses," said Bill Christison, president of the center, in presenting its views at a press conference in Cape Girardeau.

"The people who oppose this legislation are the same people who pay the taxes, fight the wars, and supply the sweat so that America can be great," said Christison, one of five people who spoke against NAFTA.

The center, also known as MRCC, which has statewide membership, is holding a series of conferences throughout the state this week to discuss the trade agreement's impact on agriculture, the environment, women, and labor.

"NAFTA will result in lower world prices for farm products," said Christison, a fourth-generation farmer from Chillicothe. "U.S. farmers would lose the ability to establish supply management and reasonable prices for farm products such as sugar, dairy, cotton, beef, fruits and vegetables. Off-farm jobs now being held by farmers will move south of the border."

The center's view on NAFTA is just opposite that of another farm group, the Missouri Farm Bureau, which supports the agreement.

"We feel that many Missouri farm products are a good fit for Mexico," said Charles Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, recently. Kruse, also a farmer, said, "Mexico wants our livestock, cotton, dairy products, corn, wheat and rice."

"Farm Bureau is one of the examples of big business supporting the agreement," said Christison. "Nationally, the Farm Bureau has more than four million members. Two million of those members are in Cook County, Ill., which means the Chicago area. Our group represents the smaller farmers."

Christison was joined Tuesday by Chuck Hudson and Norma Hudson, both of the Missouri Environmental Action Network; Rhonda Perry, MRCC Women's Action Network; and Jerald Slinkard of Cape Girardeau, representing the Amalmagated Clothing and Textile workers locally.

All urged people in the area to contact 8th District U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson and urge his vote against the agreement.

"Mexico does not adequately enforce environmental standards for keeping pollution and pesticides out of the ground and water," said Chuck Hudson. "The American consumer should understand that products produced in Mexico could be treated with several pesticides which are illegal in the U.S."

Slinkard discussed the possible loss of jobs in the U.S. in the textile industry.

"We will lose jobs," he said. "Mexican textile labor includes 16-year-old workers who are underpaid."

Perry touched on the women's view of NAFTA, and agreed with Slinkard that the U.S. would lose jobs, especially for women.

"It will definitely affect women's jobs," she said. "Women make up 45 percent of the workforce in the U.S, and 78 percent of workers in the apparel industry."

Perry said women here average $6.38 an hour in the apparel industry, more than four times the sewing wage in Mexico.

"A lot of these women are rural area women who are working because the family farm failed," she said, adding that according to a recent economic study these are the type of jobs that are most likely to shift production to Mexico under NAFTA.