AUSTRALIA’S FOOD

Grey River Argus, 7 May 1942, Page 5

AUSTRALIA’S FOOD

WIDER RATIONING Reserves Adequate I j PROBLEM OF TRAINSPORT. [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Special to Press Assn.) (Rec. 10.15). SYDNEY, May G. "Australians will have to put up with the rationing of products other than tea, before the war goes much further.” The foregoing is the warning of Hon. Mr. J. Beasley, the Commonwealth Minister of Supply. Mr. Beasley emphasises, however, that Australia has adequate; stocks of essential foods, though it is a major problem to transport these supplies to the centres of population where they are in demand. Plans are in train, he states, for the distributing of vital supplies to keypoints throughout the Commonwealth. As part of these plans the Federal Supply Department has organised a drive of more than thirty thousand cattle from the Northern areas. There have been slaughtering and canning depots organised in Western Australia and in Queensland. This Supply Department is primarily responsible for the providing of food for the Allied fighting services. There has recently been established the Australian Food Council, which is concerned with the ensuring of adequate supplies of essential foods for civilians. "No one will go short of anything that is necessary for physical wellbeing,” states. Mr. Beasley; but the present facilities for obtaining OTI types of good food may continue. ‘ The co-operation of the Army is being secured so as to ensure that agricultural production snsvll be maintained, and even expanded. The New South Wales Government has contracted to buy forty thousand tons of vegetables from farmers this season. Greater vegetable production is considered to be necessary. Householders are being iurged to do their part by increased /planting. , "If ten thousand of the householders grew vegetables in their own back-yards, Sydney’s vegetable tion would be infinitely better, declares the N.S.W. Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Mr. Dunn. ■Agriculture experts estimate that Sydney could grow eighty per cent, of its vegetable needs, though it is at the moment growing only ten per cent. At the most, an are# ot sixi> thousand acres is normally planted with vegetables in New South Wales. The increased service and civilian needs make it necessary that the area should be increased to between eighty and one hundred thousand aC No' primary products will be exported from Australia This yeai, until full provision is made for the Australian and Allied fighting services and civilian population, says a Supply Department spokesman. There are'considerable surpluses of sugar, rice, meat, and wheat being held. One of the principal problems to be faced is that of processing and converting these into foodstuffs that can be stored. Of butter and cheese, there are stated to be ample stocks. None will be exported until the position is reviewed by the Food, Council, which is expected to meet shortly. Potatoes are in need of control. It is hoped, by publicity methods, to induce a greater consumption of rice in the place of potatoes. Representatives of the - farming and pastoral organisations emphasise the serious consequences at a continued agricultural labour shortage. Dairying,' pig farming, and vegetable raising,'* which require expansion, urgently need labour. Hundreds ot poultry farms are stated to have been closed since the war, because of the labour problem.