Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-03-26


plus crops. The other is that
many in this country, and millions
abroad, go without the food they
should have, either because they
can't afford to buy it or haven't
been able to raise it.
Yet it is an oversimpliflcation
to conclude that our farm price
support program. whatever may
be its other deficiencies, is re-
sponsible for hunger in the world
or that distribution of our sur
pluses could make a major con-
tribution toward elimination of
that hunger.
Much Surplus Not Food
To begin with. much of what
the Commodity Credit Corp. has
acquired in taking surplus farm
products off the market is not
food. Much of the food is not in
q form In which it could be used
by those who need it most-for
instance, dried eggs and dried
skim milk which must be carefully
and exactly reconstructed to be
edible.
It sounds impressive to say that
the Commodity Credit Corp. has
more than $3.5 billion invested
In the farm price support program.
The figure is less impressive, how
ever, when allowance is made for
the loans on crops still controlled
by farmers and still less so when
whitfield down to the food COM
modities actually owned by the
CCC. OF these wheat and corn are
by far the greatest in quantity and
value. Together. they represent a
cost to CCC of $516 million and
of the non-food commodities, cot
ton alone cost more than wheat
and corn combined.
If all the food held as surplus
could be distributed to the under
nourished of the world and used
by them, Secretary Of Agriculture
Brannan is authority for the state
ment that would provide only a
few meals.
Appealing as it may be on hui
manitarian grounds. the idea of
free distribution Of our surplus
foods becomes disappointing re-
Atty when examined in terms OF
its overall effect.
This Is best understood by re-
ducing the problem to single
commodity. Nearly every one has
heard of that famous cave in Kan
sas where the CCC has accumu-
lated vast supply Of dried eggs
over a period of several years.
One Omelet Per Person
II that whole stock of dried
eggs-69. 036, 207 pounds, according
to the latest fgure-were given
away on one, day and eaten on
that one day by all the worlds
undernourished Mr.. Brannan says,
it would provide for each of them
about the equivalent of one omelet,
that is to say, two and a half eggs.
1t is for this and similar reasons
that our efforts, through the
United Nations Food and Agricul-
ture Organization, have been di-
rected chiefly toward meeting the
food shortage problem by helping
those countries which do not pro-
duce sufficient food to develop
their own capacities of increasing
food output.
AS Of now, 80 per cent of the
food grown is consumed in the
countries where it is produced.
A large factor in the imported 10
per cent is represented by the
luxury items rather than the
nutritional foods-by tea, coffee,
spices, bananas and such things
rather than by wheat, corn, rice
and potatoes. for instance.
Potatoes are a special problem
because they do not ship well, and
although they have been offered
at nominal prices to foreign gov
ernments, there have been vir-
tually no takers. Meantime, the
Agriculture Department continues
to buy them at the support price
Of more than 81 bushel and sell
them back to the farmers who
raised them at nominal prices for
use as livestock feed.
OF the SURPRISES acquired by
the CCC in it's price support pro-
gram, it says only potatoes, dry
skim milk, dried eggs, dry beans
and Mexican canned beef, &C
quired in connection with our
effort to stamp out hoof and
mouth disease in that country, are
in actual surplus"
Under the law only those sur
plus commodities determined by
the Department of Agriculture to
be in danger of spelling are avail
able for free distribution. The
law sets up a priority of agencies
which can claim such free COM
modities.
First comes the Munitions Board
or any other Federal agency which
can use them in barter transac-
lions to acquire other commod-
tiles not produced in the United
States. Then, in the order of pri-
GRITTY Of claims, come school lunch
programs, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, Federal, State and local
welfare organiza tons; private well
fare organizations helping those
in the United States and, finally,
private welfare organizations for
the assistance of persons outside
the United States.
Potatoes, Dry Eggs, Dry Milk
So far, the surplus commodities
found to be in danger of spelling
and so eligible for this free dis
tribution have been potatoes, dried
eggs and dry skim milk. In &C
cordance with the order of prior