American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1915-02-11
MARKETING WORLDS GREATEST PROBLEM.

The economic distribution of farm products is
today the worlds greatest problem and the war.
while ii has brought its hardships, has clearly
emphasized the Importance of distribution as a
factor in American agriculture and promises to
give the farmers the cooperation of the govern
ment and the business men the solution Of their
marketing problem.
The result will, in a measure, compensate us for
our war losses, for the business interests and gov
eminent have been in the main assisting almost
exclusively on the production side of agriculture.
While the department of agriculture has been
dumping tons of literature on the farmer telling
him how to produce, the farmer has been dumping
tons of produce in the nations garbage can for
want of a market.
At no time since Adam and Eve were driven
from the garden of Eden have the Inhabitants OF
this world suffered from lack of production, but
some people have gone hungry from the day of
creation to this good hour for the lack of proper
distribution. Slight variations in production have
forced a change in diet and one locality has felt
the pinch of want, while another surfeited but the
world as a whole, has ever been a land of plenty.
We now have less than o~ne-tenth of the tillabie
land of the earth's surface under cultivation, and
we not only have this surplus area to draw on but
it is safe to estimate that in case of dire necessity
one-half the earths population could at the pres
ent time knock their living out of the trees of the
forest, gather 1t from wild vines and draw 1t from
streams; no one should become alarmed, the world
will never starve.
The consumer has always feared that the pro-
Queer will not supply him and his fright has
lOunu expression OH the statute DOCKS OF our states
and nations and the farmer has been urged to pro-
duce recklessly and without reference to a market,
and regardless of the demands of the consumer.
The city people have been urging each other to
move back to the farm, but very few of them have
moved. We welcome our city cousins back to the
soil and this earth's surface contains 16, 092, 1907
900 idle acres of tillable land where they can make
a living by tickling the earth with a forked stick,
but we do not need them SO far as increasing pro-
duction is concerned; we now have all the produc-
es we can use. The city man has very erroneous
ideas of agricultural conditions. The commonly
accepted theory that we are short on production
is all wrong. Our annual increase of production
far exceeds that of the increase in population.
Taking the world as one big farm, we find two
billion acres of land in cultivation. OF this amount
there is approximately 0,OO0.6 500 acres on the
western and 1890, 900, 900 acres on the eastern
hemisphere, in cultivation. This estimate, of course
does not include grazing lands, forests, etc, where
large quantities of meat are produced.
The worlds annual crop approximates fifteen
billion bushels of cereals, thirteen billion pounds
of fibre and ~sixty-five million tons of meat.
The world shows an average increase in cereal
production of 10 per cent during the past decade,
compared with the previous five years, while the
worlds population shows an increase of only three
per cent.
The gain in production far exceeds that OF our
increase in population, and 1t is safe to estimate
that the farmer can easily increase production 25
per cent if a remunerative market can be found
an increase during the past half decade in pro-
duction of Is per cent against a population in
crease of three per cent.
The people of the nation should address them
selves to the subject of improved facilities for
distribution.