OCR Text |
Show Food Industry Leads Iron and Steel fe 8 1 1 8 S EQ't ,r JUULMJLBJLL 1 flf PFttOP FACTO '"PHE popular conception that the iron and steel industry is the largest single one In the, country is declared de-clared by the Department of Agriculture Agricul-ture to be erroneous. The greatest Industry In-dustry is that of food manufacturing. It outstrips Iron and steel, the department depart-ment says, as four outstrips one. As emphasizing the need of additional addi-tional food-control laws, the department depart-ment calls attention to the great growth In recent times of food manufacturing manu-facturing in factories as against preparation prep-aration in homes. A few years ago, It says, most food was prepared at home or near by, and since the consumer knew about the conditions of its preparation prep-aration there was little need for food laws. Today, as so much food Is produced pro-duced and prepared a long way from those who consume It, some sort of government control Is regarded by department de-partment officers as necessnry. The meat-packing Industry alone, ihe depiirtnient declares, represents a greater value than the steel industry. The totul value of manufactured food products In lfn9 was $13,391,914,000. Among the food products that mnke I up the total, flour-mill products stand cext to packinghouse products. Considering the Klr.e of the task, the expense Involved In federal Inspection of food is low, the cost having been less than one-hundredth of 1 per cent of the value of those products. That the Job Is a large one is shown by census cen-sus figures noting that In 910 there were C7.453 entnhl!Hhment.s engaged la the manufacture of food products. These figures Include manufactured Roods only and do not take Into account ac-count the great volume of commerce In raw foods such as milk, freah flHh, wheat, corn, oats, fruits and vegetables. vege-tables. To these large amounts must afro be added the food products Im- ported, which In 1921 amounted U I $C72,D7.-.,0OO. |