EC officials hope farmers will favor new price plan

William Ruckelshaus won a 97-0 confirmation vote in the Senate as European Community agriculture ministers settled on price increases for this year. There were hopes the agreement would bring an end to a wave of protests by farmers in the 10-nation trading bloc. Complicated changes in the system of translating unified farm support prices into national currencies would give the politically powerful French farmers much more of an increase than the Community average of 4.2 percent.