Food Outlook In West Depends On “Luck Of Harvest”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22808, 1 December 1948, Page 7

Food Outlook In West Depends On “Luck Of Harvest”

(10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, .Nov. 30.

For the first time since the war the food situation, at least in the Western world, has been greatly eased, but the world still “depends on the luck of next year’s harvest,” the Food and Agriculture Organisation said yesterday in completing its fourth annual conference.

The organisation’s report gave three reasons why caution should be exercised in appraising the future outlook: 1. This year’s harvest was far above what could be expected in an average year2. The world’s increased dependence on suppliers from North America increases the element of risk because of extreme fluctuations of output which may occur in the United States and Canada. 3. World food stocks are at the barest minimum and will still be low at the end of 1948-49. Russian Exports

The report said it is believed that Russia is planning expansion, mainly in respect of industrial crops and that, unless the developments envisaged for the Russian and Eastern regions are particularly rapid and successful, it is doubtful whether she will become a large exporter of foodstuffs in the near future, except in extremely favourable seasons.

The findings on other regions arc:— The Far East may be able t,o bring new land into cultivation to a limited extent but the main effort must be concentrated upon increasing yields. New Zealand is specialising more and more on animal products and relying singly unon Australia for the supply of cereals. Australian land use is characterised by more intensified farming and greater diversification of output in suitable rainfall areas. The conference affirmed that the maintenance of expansion of high levels of production in North America would be welcome provided satisfactory solutions can be found for the international trade and payments problems. Financing Reserve Stocks On the question of reserve stocks, the conference concluded that the bal-ance-of-payments difficulties for many importing countries puts the burden of financing the accumulation of reserves more and more on the shoulders of the producers and the Governments of Ihe exporting countries. The Food and Agriculture Organisation council was instructed to study the question of financing reserves with a view to reporting on the next con- ! ference. | The conference approves, in principle. the policy of international comI modity arrangements as a means of eliminating violent price fluctuations. It. was decided that the Food and Agriculture Organisation should encourage multilateral negotiations looking towards international agreements on single commodities. BRITAIN SUPPORTS ITALY LONDON, Nov. 29. I A Foreign Office spokesman said the United Kingdom would propose Italy as a member of the Council of Europe which Britain wants established after the present Paris conference of Western Union Powers. IGNORANCE OF THE EMPIRE LONDON, Nov. 1. Startling ignorance of the British Empire is revealed by a mass Observation survey, which shows Ihat one in six Britons cannot oven name a part of the Empire and fewer than one half of those interrogated could name any recent event in it.