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

for months in an effort to sell
dried eggs at half price, but Eng
land doesn't want them; there is
a consumer resistance to dried
eggs cultivated there during the
war - most people just don't like
them.
This illustrates a difficulty even
of giving away such things as
dried eggs and dry skim milk. If
they were to go, for example, to
the people Of India and China.
they would be unfamiliar foods.
difficult for the natives of such
countries to reconstitute in edible
form.
To make a quart of liquid milk
out of dry skim milk, requires
exactly three and a half ounces
of the powder, thoroughly mixed
with water. If the amount of the
powder is little less or a little
more than the three and a half
ounces, the milk is said not to be
palatable.
Hampering Even in the u. S.
Such problems are not confined
to the underprivileged natives of
backward countries: they hamper
free distribution of the SURPRISES
even in the country.
If, for instance, the director of
public welfare in st. Louis should
apply for some of those free eggs
stored in the famous cave near
Atchison, Kans., he would get per-
haps a carload of them.
But they would come in cases of
Sc pounds or, more likely, in drums
of 165 to 210 pounds, and 5 ounces
equals dozen eggs. There would
remain the problem of repackag-
ing them in a form suitable for
retail distribution, and of carefully
instructing those who received
perhaps a 1-pound package of
dried eggs, how to reconstitute
them, because here again, if pro-
portions and methods are not fol-
lowed exactly the product is not
palatable.
In the end, the welfare director
might well conclude that the
trouble and expense involved more
than offset the value of the
free eggs.
An often quoted figure in discus
sion of farm SURPRISES acquired by
the Federal Government in its
support program is that they rep
resent an outlay of $3.5 billion.
Actually, the December 81 report
of the CCC showed total invest
ment of s3,645, 129 900, but more
than half of this-S1 800 ,064 ,O00-
represented loans on commodities
still owned by farmers. The cor
poration had taken title to COM
modities which cost it s1,725.-
065, 900.
Under both listings, non-food
items bulked large. Cotton headed
the list of what CCC owned, and
the $6l7, 812,231 it had tied up in
cotton to which it had taken title
was more than one third of what
1t had spent for everything it
owned.
Secretary Brannan's Summary
Wheat and corn were the next
largest items on the list-164 mil
lion bushels of wheat and rs mil
lion bushels of corn-but both to-
gether hadn't cost as much as
the cotton. and a "carry-over" of
these storable grains is deemed a
prudent procedure as a safeguard
against crop failure in another
year.
Below cotton, wheat and corn
were listed, in this order; linseed
oil, flaxseed. dried eggs, butter,
wool, dry beans, barley, dried milk
and miscellaneous item which
included lesser quantities of such
things as cottonseed, peanuts,
sorghum, pasture seeds, turkeys,
rosin and turpentine.
In summary, Secretary Bran
nan, who has his own plan for
dealing with farm SURPRISES and
is no ardent advocate of the one
Congress enacted last year, thinks
the surpluses we have or antici-
pate, when considered in relation
to the quantities needed to provide
an adequate nutritional standard
for the world, are not large, al
though standing alone the figures
appear to be impressive.
THE problem of achieving a
better-fed world is an exceeding
ly complex one and we would be
deceiving ourselves to think that
anything done in the field of sur
plus disposal would be more than
step in its solution" Secretary
Brannan told a United National
Food and Agricultural Organiza-
ton meeting here last December.
II would like to emphasize that
the major long-range contribu-
ton to alternating malnutrition
throughout the world would come
through helping farmers of all
nations, everywhere, to increase
their production"
FAC Director Dodd's View
The view that the problem of
the world food shortage must
be attacked by teaching and en-
couraging the people of food
shortage countries to raise more
food on their own land is shared
by Norris E. Dodd, director gen.
eral of the FAC.
Some progress is being made by
FAC in that direction. Soon after
the war, there was a meeting in
Europe at which seed scientists
from member countries gathered
to learn what new and more pro-
ductive varieties of seed had been
developed during the war, chiefly
in the United States.
| Countries which produce sur
pluses would commit themselves to