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Show Change seen in food production "Some folks may think food is a very exciting story in this age of rockets and planned moon trips. But these poor souls just haven't been very close to what has been happening hap-pening and what will continue to happen." These words come from President Herrell DeGraff of the American Meat Institute, which is the national trade organization or-ganization of the packing industry. in-dustry. They provide the conclusion con-clusion to a talk in which he traced the amazing changes in food production and distribution distribu-tion that have taken place in the last .century. The farmer of today has tools, mechanical and chemical, plus a vast abundance of scientific knowledge, know-ledge, that would have seemed inconceivable to our forefath- ers. And there is a vast industrial indus-trial complex which exists to serve his needs and demands. Then, as Mr. DeGraff went on to show, these advances have been paralleled by equally amazing advances in food processing. pro-cessing. The time the housewife house-wife must give to the preparation prepar-ation and services of her family's fam-ily's meals has been cut again and again. And the processed and prepared foods cost very little more in some cases, they actually cost less than if the raw materials were bought and utilized at a far larger expense ex-pense in terms of labor. All this is only the beginning. begin-ning. The food store of tomorrow tomor-row will be very different from that of today, precisely as that of today is so different from that of yesterday. To take one example, Mr. DeGraff cites meat. More and more of it will be sold in processed and packaged pack-aged form, as the 'problems connected with this are solved and every effort is being given to solving them. The goal is to provide a better product at the most moderate cost. It is a fascinating prospect. And Mr. DeGraff makes another an-other big point. Over a period of about 75 years, food costs as a percentage of American family income have gone down from 50 per cent to less than 20 per cent. In his words, "I have come to believe that the very advance of civilization is revealed in the degree and the rate at which food expenditures as a per cent of income move downward." |
