The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1959-07-24
GARDENING
and FARMING
IN DARE
By J. L. REA, Co. Agt.

All of us are concerned with FAC
tors that will affect our well being
and standard of living from month
to month. Many of us are concerned
with what will happen to our eat
ing habits and to our demand for
food over a longer period of time.
Many authoritative sources have
estimated the population will be in
excess of 2O0,000,000 people in the
U. S. during 1865. This will GER
tainly be one influence upon our
food industry, not only with respect
!. to production, marketing, and re-
failing, but it may have some eff
feet on consumption trends and ha-
bits. There has been a trend for
many agricultural firms to grow
larger in size but smaller in num-
bers. Many of the food products on
the shelves of our stores today
weren't there ten years ago. There
lras been a tremendous number Of
new types of Observation-Disclosures
ing, canning, and preservation by
irIadiation-wil be very important
in putting convenience into food
packages.
Our demand for food has changed
from that of only a few years ago.
To-day we eat less cereal than we
ever did before. We eat fewer po-
tatoes, less lard, less fats, and con-
sumo more low calory foods. This
has been the change in our con-
sumner demands. When we go shop
ping we buy fewer products from
this group.
During 1856 we expect to see al
larger proportion of teenagers rel
lative to the total population than
is prevalent today. We also expect
to see larger portion of senior
citizens, people over 55 years of
age, than we are seeing today. We
can expect to see fewer babies re-
lative to the total population than
rs prevalent today. Although these
factors may be insignificant to
many they will be a tremendous in
fluence on our food marketing ha-
bits, our consumption patterns, and
the types of food which we buy.
Certainly, with the larger proper
ton of older people, we can expect
an increase in eating away from
home and a shift in diets which !
will influence a larger consump-
ton of dietetic foods. For teen
ayers, we can expect to see def
Unite shift-or at least an increased
demand high calorie diets con-
summed by many teenagers to de-
velop a large amount of energy.
These factors all add up to
what's ahead in the food industry
during the next five years. Other
factors relative to consumer de-
mand will be dependent upon popu-
lation shifts. We are currently I'M
dergoing a dynamic trend for rural
folks to move to the city. This has
been underway for some time, but
it is expected and will likely con-
tinue to be the trend at least dur
ing the next five years. We can ex-
pect to see a trend from the crowd
ed metropolitan areas to the SUI
burban areas. This will have a
tremendous effect on the demand
for charcoal grills, backyard cook
ing and the types of foods adapt
able to this type of cookery.
Our consumers are being trained
at an early age to eat out through
school lunch programs, boarding
houses, etc. This will continue to
develop an increase in the number
of meals eaten away from the
home.
These factors all add up to the
food industry's competing with
other industries for the consumer
dollar. The food industry will be
competing with other appealing
products which will catch the CON-
sumer's eye. The food industry will
be competing against itself to
bring to the consumer convenience
and built-in maid services. From
this we might continue to see a
boom in the food business keeping
pace and maintaining it's status in