Evening star., 1946-06-27
Scarcity. Of Poultry
Predicted as Result
0fD.C. Meat SHORTAGE

With fish, fowl and vegetable
plates the main items on most fam
lily and restaurant menus here
Washington retail and wholesale
meat dealers today anticipated a
serious shortage in poultry in this
area unless the acute scarcity of
meat rapidly improves.
A substantial increase in such
meat supplies depends on settle
ment of the OPA price control sit
uation, in the opinion of Secretary
OF Agriculture Anderson who in
Burbank, Calf, today was quoted
by the Associated Press as declaring
that you can't blame farmers and
cattlemen for holding their prod
uctS when they don't know what
the price will be-"
Representatives of two groups of
wholesalers and retailers here agreed
with Mr.. Anderson's comment inso-
far as it touched on the OPA and
the current Senate debate.
Loses Hope" for Deliveries.
Paul D. Herman, an official of the
Independent Food Distributors As
sociation, asserted, however, that he
has almost lost hope" that earlier
expectations of an increase in meat
deliveries would materialize in this
section by July TO-
The poultry supply, while fairly
good here, may grow progressively
worse, in the opinion of Joseph B,
Danzansky. counsel for the whole
sale meat division of the Merchants
and Manufacturers Association. He
reported that deliveries of chickens
to this market are dropping off, al
though not yet enough to cause a
real shortage. A major crisis is in
the making and may develop next
September because of the sharp drop
In recent output of baby chickens
at plants on the Delmarva PENN
sula, from which the District gets
about 30 per cent of its supply, he
said.
The output last week Mr.. Dan
zansky said. was about 100000 as
compared with normal production
of more than 100000. These
chickens will be ready for market
In September. Meanwhile, this sit
uation is affecting the current sup
ply of chickens because many deal
ers are beginning to store fowl now
against a probable scarcity next
fall, he explained, Another factor
that may be building up to a poul-
try shortage in the next few weeks.
unless the general meat supply i'm
proves, is an increasingly heavy
public demand now, he added.
Most ID. c, Stores Open.
Country wide reports by the Ma
tienal Association of Retail Meat
Dealers that half of the Nations
retail meat shops have shut down
are not believed TO apply in the
same proportion to the District.
Mr.. herman reported that "un-
doubtedly most meat counters have
very little except canned meat" in
addition to poultry Or fish. But
comparatively few have closed
down completely, so far as he knows
He explained this to some extent
by the fact that meat is usually
sold here in combination stores
which handle other commodities.
He said he did not believe that
meat shortage has resulted in any
extensive laying off of employees in
Washington.
While Secretary Anderson, Ell
route to Washington after attend
ing funeral services for his mother
at SusanVille, Calf, was comment
ing on the meat situation, another
Department of Agriculture official,
g. a Meyer assistant administra-
tor for the production and market
ing division: said in Chicago today
that meat production in the IL
months beginning July would total
about 81 00,000,000 pounds, about
9 per cent under the total for the
previous l2 months
He told the National Cheese In
stitute that civilians would have
from l35 to l40 pounds of meat per
capita as compared with 145 to $50
pounds last year and a preWar per
capita consumption of 1875 pounds.
In Washington, as throughout the
Nation. restaurants and hotels were
concentrating more and more on
salad dishes, vegetable plates and
other meatless menus An Official
of the Restaurant Association of
Washington declared that reports
he has received show great re-
sourcefulness' by stewards. He
added that the vegetable and fruit
supply is adequate. A bright part
of this picture is that the public
naturally accepts such dishes during
the hot weather and 1T is es-
pecially good for. them he re-