PURCHASING POWER

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 96, 20 October 1936, Page 10

PURCHASING POWER

FOOD ECONOMICS

PRODUCER AND CONSUMER

MANY-SIDED PROBLEM

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, September 12.

Suggestions for increasing the purchasing power of the consumer were made at the International Conference of Agricultural Economists at Edinburgh on September 5 by Mr. F. L. McDougall (New Zealand), economic representative of Australia on the League of Nations. All were aware, he said, of the enormous progress that had been made in agriculture through biological science. A very important, advance had ' been achieved 'in plant bettermerit, and the world was only-at the beginning of what could be done to increase the,volume of agricultural products. Under-nutritioh, he contended, was another important factor. They were all aware from reports like that of the International Labour Bureau, the recently published report of Sir John Boyd Orr, and the-research report of the League, of Nations, that consumption in all countries was below a desirable level. , ■

There was also the social aspect. The fact that the world could produce more food must lead to" a growing insistence for the demand for- everyone to receive something approaching optimum diet. The failure of the nations to realise this, and to make attempts to meet this demand, must inevitably lead to social unrest. ' The most helpful method of solving the problem was to bring about a revival of world trade. Australia, with, the present population, could increase, its output of agricultural products;" yet it looked in vain to find a market.-. : .; ..-■ ALTERNATIVE, TO SELFSUFFICIENCY. Although there ' was something to be commended in the' national policies of European countries • aiming at a .national self-sufflciency, there was) a perfectly sound.alternative in .main-j taining a. contented .peasantry by! protecting the more perishable, agra-j rian commodities, such as fresh eggs, I vegetables, fresh fruit, and milk. They could thus leave products like, wheat and sugar to the countries- where they were produced at much lower cost. • If,' by reason of the policy just stated, the liquid milk consumption were to be brought up to a reasonable level, the result would be that- it would be necessary to increase the cow population in Great Britain alone by something like 1,000,000 cows, an increase of about 40 per cent, of the dairy stocks. By the adoption. of such a scheme great industrial States could maintain their. agriculture, and- at the same time bring about a- revival of trade by exchanging their manufactured goods for the agricultural staples. . ■ ■ ' ■■••■■ Professor .R. B. Forrester,, Department of Economics, .University College of. Wales, Aberystwyth, who gave the opening paper oh the subject, remarked that a new and distinctive literature had recently sprung into prominence which dealt particularly with the nutritional conditions of various classes and countries, how far they must be deemed inadequate, and what problems were. raised by such deficiency of food in the. standard of living. It might be said, that'this work was an attempt to create a new line of approach to social policy: it might be termed the nutritional approach to the problems of poverty. ' . THE SPENDING OF WAGES, It was clear, he said, that the .conclusion to which those, studies pointed was that to obtain adequate diet' large numbers of the people in highly developed industrial, countries needed more income, even if all allowances were made for badly, directed expenditure and deliberate under-expenditure. If the relation between incomes and prices were to raise the real incomes of the relatively poor .either through incomes rising while prices remained stable, or through prices falling while incomes remained constant, increase in purchasing power would only • t>e partly spent in remedying' deficiencies in dietary, since people would attempt to increase their satisfactions on all items in the standard of living, and not merely oh food. It would require some specific measure of public intervention to secure the whole of the increase for food expenditure. . ■ '■ ;

A point about the present position which complicated the issue - was' that nutritionists, and in fact the public themselves; laid increased emphasis upon a changed kind of output. It was the expansion of the supply of protective ioods such as' milk; meat, fruit, butter, etc., which was required; these liad relatively high real costs of production and did' not: appear, as yet to yield the same opportunities of lowering costs as crop output. Changes in the whole productive organisation of agriculture might also be involved in efforts. to lower costs. A factor which could be used to keep prices reasonably .near to world levels was a country's commercial, agricultural, and fiscal policy. It could not be said that recent experience afforded any ground' for thinking" th'af_ either European or American" countries intended to move in this direction. • Most countries were attempting' to insulate their agricultural and' ' often their other major industries'from world influences indirect; taxation had increased, and the revenue from such taxes was deemed essential by many Governments. ' If it were -to become possible to trade more freely in: certain food products by ' international agreement, a factor favourable to better nutrition-would be set in motion. COLLECTIVE FEEDING. In so far as members of the' lower income groups failed to obtain as high a food value from their expenditure as would be possible' by other methods, educational efforts might be used to reshape and alter dietary habits, for example, to strengthen the recent tendency towards1 increased consumption of milk, fruit, vegetables, and other protective foods. A further field which, seemed to deserve exploration and experimentation was that covered by the unfortunate term "mass feeding" or collective feeding. There was a long tradition in most countries of collective feeding in hotels, . institu^ tions, canteens, boarding establishments; colleges, and.so on; employers had often specialised! in the creation of restaurants and cafeteria, for their staff. It was, of course, true, that few people would care to take all their meals in a restaurant but from the nutritional standpoint it would often be enough if they were able to eat one good meal in such.a club. , A last conception which had recently been given prominence was . that of separating markets .so that a special price may, be charged in each market. How far such a method of price discrimination could be applied to food products sold to' different income classes in the,community might be considered. The theory'would be to sell cheaply to' low-income groups and at higher levels to those with higher purchasing power. . . ...