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Show f June, 1967 UTAH FARM BUREAU Page 5 NEWS "Cheap Food Policy PARITY PRICE From an editorial in the taking into consideration the costs of production and the cost of living index. May,- . .This Administration has a deliberate cheap food policy. The present dairy fiasco is only the latest sample. Farmers will have no difficulty recalling others. They saw (Agriculture) Secre- - 1967, The Presidents Council of Economic Advisors recently called it a sign of progress that farmers prices were leveling off. And you recall that Secretary Freeman was pleased about it Presidents consumer counsel, egg stopped buying pork and butter for on the Denver housewives who boy- the military, it deprived farmers cotted in protest of food prices. of Mexican labor that wanted to work here. It has bought New Zealand lamb for our armed forces in Vietnam. It has continued a heavy deficit spending program for nonmilitary programs, thus fueling inflation and putting up costs of everything farmers buy. The milk strike was one sign. Bargaining by such giant co-oas Great Lakes Dairymen, which really did raise the price of milk substantially in a number of States was another. All this at a time when farmers are asked to feed a hungry world. They want to feed the hungry, but theyve got to be paid for it. And theyre going to have to be All of these are portents which alert consumers, and government too, should catch. What they indicate is that from here on farmers wont work for an unfair return any more than city people will. . . paid if they feed this country, too. ps April Parity 72 Administration lowered cattle prices with a limit on hide exports. The Administration The dropped "V SHUMAN ATTACKS "CHEAP FOOD POLICY" "Those prophets of disaster who have repeatedly claimed that ending government farm programs would result in farm prices dropping to the depression levels of the thirties do not need to wait any longer. Their doleful forecasts have already come true, but with all of the government controls and subsidies in full force. "The parity ratio hit 72 percent last month after an continuous downward slide in farm prices. The parity ratio is at the lowest point since the of 1934. This proves, beyond any reasondepth of the depression-mid-summ- er able doubt, that the Administration is continuing its cheap food policy in order to placate those who are unhappy with the deficity spending induced inflation which continues to force the cost of living upward. "Recent projections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that farm income would decline if farm programs were epded are ridiculous. The same Department that missed its 1966 estimate of the number of cattle by two million head is now trying to tell us not only how much farmers would produce but what prices would be in the absence of supply management programs. If the Department can't count cattle on hand, how can it predict how much farmers would produce under a market system in which each farmer would make his own decisions? "According to the May 10 crop report, the Secretary of Agriculture got some of the planting increase that he asked for and wheat prices probably will weaken further. The prospective big increase in wheat, soybeans, and other crops means that the Secretary will be back in business using surpluses to juggle prices and keep the 'cheap food' policy in effect, Shuman said. SQUEEZE ON FARMERS Smith, Manager of the Wichita Union Stockyards A The government is determined to hold down prices of farm products any way it can. They keep predicting a bumper wheat crop even when they see it blowing away in the dust. The idea seems to be to hold down prices. The new figures showed many more cattle than we had expected on the basis of previous estimates, said Mr. Smith. Prices dropped. Farmers think this was a deliberate move. They cant see how the Government could have been so far off in its estimates. At this point nearly everyone Elmo W. Hamilton, UFB President, in an address to an Institute on Utah Government and Politics at U.S.U. June 20: When the Depression struck, it left the farmers in utter chaos. The economic situation coupled with long years of drought resulted in emergency action by the Congress to help the farmers. Farm Bureau, at the time, was a young organization, devoted mainly to exchanging technical Information about farming practices. The county agent program was originated with the various farm bureaus around the country. Caldwell, Kansas, farmer in Farm Bureau supported this action by the Congress to bail the farmers out. After all, they told - us it was a temporary measure designed to put us back on our feet. Well now, a little more than thirty years later we not only have modifications of these same programs but a whole lot more. We have some degree of government control over production in the commodities of wheat, feed grains, tobacco, wool, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, and cotton. Those who defend these programs recite how the government Milford Thompson, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, dairyman Last year, we got supply and demand in balance after cutting milk production back by 3.6 million pounds. But the government let 2.3 billion pounds of Imported dairy products in to keep consumer prices from going up. They slapped us in the face with imports to protect the money boosts the net income of farmers. There is not any question on this point. Last year it cost 2.3 billion dollars of .taxpayers money for farm programs designed to stabilize farm income. It is on this point that Farm Bureau and other critics of many of these farm programs disagree with the defenders of the policy. Not only does the Secretary of Agriculture have the power to tell the wheat farmer how much wheat he can plant if he is in the program, but the secretary has the power to sell the wheat in government storage, at low prices when it appears that the market is going up. And livestock prices by selling large amounts of feed grains at low prices in 1961 and again in 1966. Administration continues to let large quantities of red meat imports increase, pushdown livestock ing The prices. Administration prevented farmers from hiring all the Mexican labor they needed. The Administration has permitted a flood of foreign dairy imports to drive dairy prices The down. U.S. News& World Report Dan equals A FAIR PRICE, issue of Farm Journal Freeman repeatedly sell too. Commodity Credit Corporation Since then the present Governgrain (when he had it) to beat ment has knocked off cattle prices down farmers prices. They watched Esther Peterson, then the with a limit on hide exports. It tary 100 Joe Berkley, publisher of the High Plains Journal at Dodge City, Kansas The farmer has become a tool of foreign policy. No other industry in the country would provide its product to the Government at less than cost to be sent to foreign nations. But that is what the U.S. farmer is expected to do. that does it. Last year was a withering example of the power of government over farmers. The Department of Agriculture sold at market depressing prices, wheat and corn numerous times and the effect was as easy to chart as the Within hours of each weather. announcement of sale of CCC stocks, the prices tumbled on the Chicago Board of Trade. Pork and butter were taken off the list of items purchased for our troops in Viet Nam, while New Zealand lamb was added. When beef prices started to climb, the tarrif commission imposed an embargo on export of Administration stopped buying pork and butter for the military when prices were The good. Administration has continually used sales of surplus stocks of wheat, feed grains and occasionally, dairy products, to lower farm The prices. cattle hides which hurt American cattlemen badly. In fact the bad beef prices in 1964 can be traced to heavy sales of government-owne- d feed grains beginning in 1961 which encouraged the production of too many cattle, and the government approval of heavy imports of foreign beef. Poor prices today for beef, pork and poultry go back to heavy sales of feed grains last year. At the present time, farmers are waiting for action on the curtailing of heavy amounts of foreign dairy products which are wreaking havoc without American dairy |