Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1950. SURPLUS FOODSTUFFS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 128, 15 March 1950, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1950. SURPLUS FOODSTUFFS

According 'to a report from New York, it appears that the United States Government may have to start giving away butter to needy American families and welfare agencies as it is holding in storage huge quantities of foodstuffs. A recent report from the States says that the Commodity Credit Corporation is holding over 100,000,000 pounds of butter —a full month’s consumptionflaxseed and linseed oil supplies equivalent to a full year’s normal requirements, and dried eggs amounting to around 70,000,000 pounds —a ten years’ supply! It also owns large quantities of a wide range of other agricultural commodities including cheese, dried milk, peanuts, soyabeans, prunes, raisins, potatoes, potato starch, barley, dried edible beans, grain sorghums, oats-, dried peas, rice, rye, hay seed, wool, frozen eggs, wool, rosin, and turpentine. It soon is expected to go for the first time into new price support fields, including tung nuts, walnuts, almonds, honey and mohair. Under the new Farm Law recently, passed by Congress, which be - came effective on January 1, loans on the 1950 basic crops—wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, peanuts and rice—will again be held at the wartime 90 per cent, parity level. While discretion has been given to the Secretary of Agriculture to reduce supports for other commodities to 75 per cent, of parity and in some cases even lower, most parity prices will actually he higher next year under a-new formula which changes the base period and includes an allowance for the rise in farm wages. Reduction in acreage is being called for in cotton, wheat, corn., rice, and potatoes, but it is expected that much of this released acreage ;will merely be diverted into other crops on which no statutory controls are exercised, thus further piling up surpluses and adding to the price support outlays. .This information is of some interest, and gives a clear pointer to the effect of the dollar gap. With such heavy surpluses on hand, it can readily be understood why crop reduction plans have had to be worked out. These may have the effect of upsetting current markets, but they may temporarily overcome present difficulties. A situation such as described here prevents America from importing, but this she must do if other nations are to have any chance of earning dollars. Mr Hoffman, head of the Economic Co-operation Administr ati on, stressed this Very point recently when he said that Americans must increase their imports by 2,000,000,000 dollars a year if they did not wish to continue present subsidies to Marshall Aid countries.