OCR Text |
Show WINNERS" L& LOSERS A number of people are writing, wiring and calling their legislators about recently re-cently proposed regulations that many consider a real loser. They would reduce or prohibit the crop protection chemicals American growers use. This, scientists say, could cost us up to 50 percent per-cent of our food crop every yeai and quickly drive up the cost of food. rfr-M r a w wop ioo 1 I 1 p..,.M.,j The American people have generally been winners as far as food prices are concerned. con-cerned. Despite the 43 percent per-cent increase in the food price index since 1973, the average American family spends only about 17 percent per-cent of disposable income on food. In the Soviet Union, it's 56 percent. Losers to plant disease were the people of Ireland in the 1840s and of California Cali-fornia in the 1960s, among many others. In Ireland, a million people died of starvation starv-ation and malnutrition because be-cause of potato blight. In California in 1965, brown rot disease caused peach growers to lose some $55 r million. |