Milford chronicle., 1962-12-07
AMERICA HAS NO FOOD PROBLEM


Just about all of us complain about food
prices, as we do about other prices. This,
in the postwar inflationary era, has become
almost an automatic, matter-of-course a t.
tit1de.
But, in the case of food at least, we're
off on the wrong foot when we do that. For
in the United States, food is bargain -
we get more food and better food for a
smaller percentage of our incomes than any
people on earth.
That's the story that John Strohm, one
of the nations foremost agricultural writ
ers and world traveller who has visited 20
countries, tells in the September issue
Readers Digest. He sets his stage in hi s
opening paragraph: 'If | could show any
visitor from abroad just one thing in the
United States, | would turn him loose in a
small town supermarket with S25 - n e
average amount the American homemaker
spends weekly to feed her family. For food
is our No. success story, a far bigger bar
gain here than in any other nation"
That's a strong and unqualified state
ment, but Mr.. Strohm has the facts n d
figures he needs to back it up. We - the
typical American family - pay 20 percent
of our after-tax income for food The Rus
siahs, on the other hand, pay Sc percent,
the Swedes 27 percent, the Italians 38 per-
cent and so on, with Nigeria challxing up a
massive 70 per cent.
Mr.. Strohm also nails the common fic-
tion concerning those e. good old days
when prime beef was Is cents pound and
bread two loves for nickel" For, he tells
us. those prices had to be paid out Of an
$11 week family income, and food took
40 percent Of the whole. That isn't all,
either = for today's food is higher in quail
ity, and comes in infinitely greater variety.
The fact that we spend so small part
fox. f<1 L.
ing standards in every way-more of the
lExuries, better housing improved educa-
tio4 for our children. And better diets have
been significant factor in producing a
sharp drop in infant mortality and in ex-
tending the life span by nine years in a
mere two generations.
What are the reasons for our abundance
of food and its relative cheapness? M r.
Strohm goes into detail here. All manner of
forces play their parts. New seeds, new and
better fertilizers and insecticides, marvel
ously efficient farm machinery, bug-resist-
ant crops, are among them. The substance
of it is that one u. S. farmer can feed him
self and 26 others, where, by way of COM
parison, Russian collective-farm worker
can only feed himself and three or f % ur
more people. AS Mr.. Strohm puts it, IF our
farms were no more efficient than t h e
Soviet colIectives I've visited 20 to 25 mil
lion u. S. industrial workers would have to
quit their jobs for the farm. Think what
that would do to our standard of living and
to our ability to shoot for the moonp'
And the food story doesn't end on the
farm not by any means. Mr.. Strohm
speaks again: "Some eight million process
sors, package manufacturers, transporters,
wholesalers, retailers take our raw arm
produce and place so billion dollars worth
Of food on store shelves Packing plants util-
ize all of the hog except the squeal, conserv-
ing once wasted by products for medicines
and other valuable items Jets carry Holsters
from Maine to Iowa, fresh vegetables from
California fields to Boston tables in "a
hours at price the housewife is glad to
pay"
Mr.. Strohm makes what seems to be an
unassailable case. Yes-food is bargain in
this country.