The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-09-04
. NATIONAL
 SPOTLIGHT
Less Meat And
 Butter, More Oils And Grains In 1914
By JAMES TEzRAsHER NEA Stan Correspondent


 Washington, Sept. 4.--aave you been worrying about where your three square meals Q day are com- ing from this winter? Well, take heart-the War Food Administra- tion says there is going to be plenty to eat.
 This confident assumption is a challenge to the direful predictions of the drought, the shortage of farm labor and machinery, and the re- port of Secretary of Agriculture Wickard's food Investigating com mittee. But is based on the Bureau of Agricultural Economies usually reliable August crop report, and on the proposed allocation of the 1943 crop among civilians, armed services, and food-Shy citizens of other nations.
 The WFA's facts and figures add up to this outlook: This years crop, barring some unforeseen calamity, will be 31 per cent greater than the average crop for 1885, S9, and per cent above the record breaking 1942 crop. It will be dis trihuted as follows: 75 per cent tc civilians, 13 per cent to the armed forces, 10 per cent to lend-lease and 2 per cent to others. Others include United State territories South and Central America, the American Red Cross, and allocations to the Oft1ce of Relief and Relabili- tation Organization not covered, by lend-lease.
 VICTORY GARDENS
 SWELL SUPPLY
 This greatest potential crop in our history does not meet our full needs, or assure civilians that they will have their favorite foods. But it removes the possibility of no- ticeable shortages, at least as far as supply is concerned. For, If you multiply our l3l per cent crop for 1943 by the 75 per cent which is the civilian share, you get 98.25 per cent of the per capita consunp- ton in 1935-39.
 Tn fact, the per-capita picture is even rosier than that 98.25 view. For the crop report does not take into account the victory gardens that more than 70 per cent of Amer ican families have grown this sum- mer, nor the fact that, with some 8,000,000 men and women in uni- 1 form, there are fewer civilians to be fed than in the well-nourished years of the norm.
 Even though we eat nearly as much as we did in peacetime, the balance of our diet this year will be different. We shall find less meat and butter and other dairy products, and less processed fruits and vege- tables, unless we have home canned them. But we shall have Q more abundant supply of fats and oils, and of cereal grains.
 Nowhere, however, are these short ages alarming. Each of us, WFA predicts, will eat from two to six less pounds of meat in the year ending June 30. 1924, than we did in the average pre-war year; four pounds less butter, and 32 pounds less of other dairy products.
 Tn fact the civilian seems pretty fortunate, in view of the fact that both military and lend-lease alloca- tions have been increased over last year. Tn 1942 the armed services got 7.5 per cent of the total crop, while lease-lend exports were 6 per cent in 1942 and 3 cent in 1941. But the 1943 lease-lend allocation of 10 per cent stipulates that 1t will be furnished only If the de- mands of civilians and the armed forces can first be met.
 As for liberated or occupied en- emy countries, their l943 allocations are only for the bare necessities, with grains predominating.
 FARM PRICES FAR
 ABOVE COSTS
 How much civilians will pay for their 1943 food-or, if you want to be pessimistic, how they will pay for it-is not explained by WFA. Ra- tioning and price control are the business of OPA. not of this semi-in- dependent branch of the Agriculture Department. But WFA does provide figures to show that food costs rose 53 per cent from August, 1889, to May of this year, and that they are up l3 per cent from Sept. IS, 1922 the starting line of the Stahlization Act.
 WFA figures also include the in- formation that farmers this June were receiving 113 per cent more for their crops than they were four years ago, while their living and production costs, including interest and taxes, have gone up only 34 per cent.
 But anyway, there is going to be plenty of food this winter. Maybe you will ask for a head of lettuce and get cabbage instead, but that isn't shortage. You will get three squares a day, of one sort or an- other.
 And maybe it won't be so hard to pay for it, either. For Chester Bowles, OPA's new general manager, says he is going to have the cost of living back to September, 1922. levels faster than most people think"