America Is Not Starving

...Should the weather prove unfavorable, rationing will return quickly, and will be tight...

...February, 1944, was to be the black, black month when, perhaps, Americans would be eating the grass that grew in the streets, if any, in the far South...

...and second, that the Government is gambling on the weather to give us a big pack of canned goods this summer...

...If the Government's present program succeeds, consumers will be having much less meat in 1945 thau now...

...Real reason is desire of the Government to have us eat up a good part of our present livestock population...

...This doea not mean that we shall have to adopt a vegetarian diet It does mean that our diet will not be a* carnivorous aa during peace...

...Again the economics of scarcity are put to work...

...To be sure, local shortages of certain foods did develop, particularly in concentrated areas...

...Releasing meats from ration points was not forced upon OPA by crowded storage space...

...i i.ilian food supplies for the entire year 1944, therefore, cannot yet be announced taally...

...Agriculture is full of unpredictable factor*, of course...

...Livestock was 8 per cent above the recprd of 1942 and a full third above the five-year average, 1937-41...

...If this occurs, and the expected proportion of the output gees into manufactured product*, American cheese production will be up 8 per cent, evaporated milk 5 per cent, and butter production will decrease about 6 per cent...

...Bean*, peas, soybeans and potatoes also will be abundant The citrus fruit supply will be good, with oranges exceeding last year's all-time high by 9 per cent...

...The production of hay and the four principal feed grains was second only to the record crops t>f 1942...

...AIL fats and oils will be greatly needed when the times comes to help feed the people of Europe...

...Any more questions...

...Soap sales last year were running at all-time record levela...

...But they expect to handle that by requiring the Government to sell the stuff back to them at attractive prices...

...At the end of 1943 we had an inventory of 8 per cent more cattle, 19 per cent more hogs, and only 4 per cent fewer sheep and lambs than a year ago—the greatest such inventory in our history...

...It waa going to put u* on the defensive at the peace table...

...For consumers this means two things, that rationng of canned vegetables will come back, probably in the Fall...

...It was going to end Lend-Lease...

...It was going to provoke wars to come...

...Indeed, Jeremiah Bromfteld put it: "1 would rather not think about next February...

...The figure for peanuts is 211 and for flaxseed 36o per cent We also stepped up our production of dried peas 415 per cent, of beans 152 per cent, and of potatoes 128 per cent of that same prewar average...

...Production for processing was 14 per cent smaller in 1943 than in 1942...

...Sometimes the crops do not turn out well, sometimes weather is unfavorable to proper growth and development...

...Some prediction* can, hewever, be made, and they certainly do not sdd ap impending starvation on the heme front There will be about the same quantity of laid milk for civilian as* ss in 1948...

...War Food Administration has made this csrar in recent statements...

...Civilian supply of milk and dairy products will depend, finally, not only upon how much is turned out, but upon that required by our fighting men and our Allies...

...What with Selective Service deferments, some importation of foreign agricultural workers, prisoners of war, Japanese evacuees, conscientious objectors, inmates of penal and corrective institutions, and 54,500 volunteers from the armed forces, farm labor was ample and government action made it ample...

...Meanwhile, the civilian meat supply ia rendered more hopeful by the fact that we had more livestock and poultry on hand January 1, 1944, than ever before...

...But production of fats and oils will start to go down by next Fall and will be much smaller next year than now...

...Farmer Louts Bromfleld told everybody so in Reader'* Digett in August, 1943...

...Looking the thing right smack in the face, I find that in 1948 the nation's total food output was 32 per rent above the 1935-89 average and 5 per cent above the previous all-time record of 1942...

...Between 1982 and 1989 annual losses of planted acres, caused in the main by adverse weather, varied from 9 to 47 million acres...

...That doesn't mean there's more food than we need...

...Hoover...

...Well, indeed...

...Food supplies of rye nd wheat will be plentiful, civilian consumption of the latter exceeding that of 1943...

...Meanwhile, with a great abundance of these fats on hand, the War Food Administration finds many reasons why it can't build up larger reserves for later use and OPA stands ever willing to stop rationing and encourage heavy consumption...

...Egg production was at record levels...

...Ia short, abundance has caught np with us again...

...A recent promise by War Foods director of distribution that stockpiles will be held low has been.greeted by the food trade with cheers...

...Nothing in the food picture of today resembles the laky blackness Fictioner Bromfleld saw when he went into that necromantic trance of hi* and dived off the deep end...

...Farmers may make every possible effort to reach their goals and yet fail for reasons beyond their control...

...Bromfteld, however, said: "We Aren't Going to Have Enough to Eat," and he added: "Though ours is the richest agricultural nation, our people are not going to have enough food...

...Others chimed in- including the grave Mr...

...Just recently the soap industry reported that in the first three months of this year it topped last year by 10 per cent This column has frequently referred to the Government's readiness to promote the boom sales which the soap industry is enjoying, while using up more and more of these fats and oils, including edible lard...

...The "dream army" became reality...

...These depend on developments of projection, processing, snd shipping, a* well aa upon changing demands as the war progresses...

...We are eating much more meat than we did in peacetime, and have a generous supply of most kinds of fats...

...Really tight food conditions are still ahead of us, but Government propaganda persuades us that rationing is a hardship which we find harder to take (you might think) than the casualty lists...

...Acreage lost in 1943 was 14 million, not unusual at all, in spite of dire prophesies...

...Sufficient machinery, equipment and farm supplies were at hand...

...It was 13 per cent above normal, i.e., the...

...Price supports wire provided as needed...

...He said farm production was shot to hell and that no "dream" army could remedy the catastrophic situation...

...In the rase of meats, re-rationing may result in plenty of meat* in some parts of the country and not enough in others...

...Civilian supplies of canned vegetable* for the 1943-44 season will be from three-fourth* to four-fifths of the quantities consumed in 1942-43, but slightly larger than the 1936-39 average...

...Behind this policy is the fear of food processors and meat packers that once again their markets are threatened by surplus supplies, that the war may end any day, that the Army will turn back large quantities of foods to the civilian market, etc...

...All of this can only be summed up as calculated and advertised waste, with the Government helping both on the calculations and the advertising...

...The crops were harvested...

...The Pacific Coast, for example, will probably get little meat from mid-western packers and will feel the pinch after it has eaten up the good supplies now at hand in the coast States...

...In spite of enhanced consumption by a record number of livestock in 1943, the year ended with the largest total supplies of feed grain Jor any year before 1942...

...In several congested areas the War Food Administration helped establish and expand in-plant feeding facilities and improve meals served to industrial workers...

...OPA, however, is deliberately trying to see that as little as possible carries over from this season to next...

...Lard and shortening and soap are still a different story...

...Consider the oil crops...

...America Is Not Starving The Facts on Food Production Answer "Prophets of Starvation" By T. Swann Harding IT is rather ludicrous to think that I should be starving as I write these lines...

...Bromfleld went on that our bungling about food was going to put Russia out of the war...

...Fruits other than citrus will be more plentiful than last year...

...Ihe food that won the war will not be on hand to write nV peace...

...There i* more food in sight than the Government knows what to do with...

...Supplies of corn, oats and barley may be as much a* id per cent lower than last year, assuming normal yield* and attainment of acreage goal...

...In 1942 our total farm production was, for instance, 36 per cent above th-t for 1932, though our harvested (not planted) acreage was 6 per cent less...

...In areas where local abundances developed, new market or processing outlets were found, warehousing facilities were obtained, and programs were developed for urging the sale of these foods during periods of heaviest supply...

...Military requirement alone will compel civilian* to get along with a half pound less butter apiece-in 1944, but there will be more margarine and ample edible fat* and oil* to maintain good health...

...If present trends continue, we shall produce 2 per cent lea* milk ia 1944 than in 1948...

...It was going to leave us hungry...

...Though milk production fell a little below that of 1942, it was enormous...

...We are cursed with too much...

...They prefer to sell the stuff now, and let the rainy day take care of itself when it comes...

...The same commercial influence that is now forcing food past cash registers at record speed (and with record profits) will oppose postwar export of food for European relief at the expense of the sales they will want to make at home...

...The more sober observers of Government here see in the new spendthrift policy a return to isolationism...

...41 ten-year average...

...That is its purpose—to reduce the number of meat animals because they are eating up more feed grains than we .can afford to provide for them...

...But, In 1948, we produced half as much food again as we did in any year of World War I! Talk about industrial plant conversion...

...P. S. to the Legion of Starvation: I'm not starving...

...I'm not even hungry...

...Livestock and feed production must be better balanced...

...Allocation* of variou* foods to the various claimants are alio subject to periodic revision...

...The wheat carryover in June, 1944, will be about 300 million bushel* aa compared with only 40 million buahel* on June 30, 1918...

...Great prophets said so, over and over again...

...But they have done amazingly well despite flood*, droughts, and so on...

...Only fear in the food trades is that the reduction of Government stockpiles may temporarily glut their markets, eut into their own sales—and profits...

...In 1943, we produced 380 per cent as many soybeans as we did during the average year in the 1932-41 decade...

...Production of fats and oil* will exceed that of 1943 by 8 per cent Civilian supplies of food fats will be slightly less than in 1943, however, because of increased military, Land-Lease, and other requirements...

...These involved a million and a half different workers...

...We did not fall down on any of our commitmenta despite the preachmnets of the Legion of Starvation...

...These fears may be part real and part makebelieve, but in any event they are being used at full steam in Washington to pressure Government into measures designed to protect their msrket* and their profits...

...In 1943 also we did not fall down on Lend-Lease...

...Canned vegetable supplies for civilian consumers are expected to be from 10 to 20 per cent smaller next season than they have been during the past season...

...Many acres of planted crops always go unharveated...

...Present stocks in warehouses will be reduced...

...Consumers may well find ether fears in the new policy...

...Now it is reported that War Food Administration will give this industry unlimited quantities of fats and oils— the sky is the limit...

...Office of Price Administration goes along by taking lard, shortening and canned vegetables off the ration list...

...Food Bloc Happy as Government Cuts Into Surplus Supply By Donald Montgomery Consumer Cowl, V AW-CIO WASHINGTON—"Eat it while we have it" is the Government's nev policy with respect to food...

...Well, it wasn't...

...We will have enough to eat...

...Stockpiling pf foods for future needs will be held to a minimum...

...More space ia available now than two months ago...

...Under war conditions, allocations can only be firm for about three months ahead...

...But Bromfleld wept in August that the grain in our Ever Normal Granary was gone and that the 1943 wheat crop would be 20 to 40 per cent below normal...

...It means that the Government doesn't know how to hold on to the temporary abundance to take care of us, and of Starving people in liberated nations when later on we shall need more food than we can find...

...While 75 per cent of our food production was reserved for our civilians, 12 per cent went to our Allies and friendly nations, and 13 per cent to the armed forces...

...Food manufacturers welcome the news that the Government will not build up "contingency reserves...

...About four million placements of workers were made under the government's farm labor program...