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Show LIVESTOCK NOTES Los Angeles, January 20, 1936 Cattlemen and those interested inter-ested in the livestock and meat business are watching with inter-federal inter-federal grading and stamping of beef in southern California. The service has been instituted at the request of the meat packers, who hope that through the service, the public will be fully protected in buying meat under an official government guarantee of quality, and that it may be possible to merchandise the better quality beef at a more substantial premium prem-ium over the less desirable quality meats. The system of government grading and stamping now being used in Los Angeles is purely voluntary and the bureau of ag-ri-cultural economics stamp is placed only on the grades of meat that measure up to government specifications speci-fications of "good", "choice" or "prime". Thus the lower grades of meat, which make up a very large proportion of the supply at all meat centers, are not penalized by indicating an inferior grade. Wide publicity is to be given the fact that consumers may now call for government graded meats, so that the housewife may know that by insisting upon graded meats the retailer may have absolute ab-solute assurance that the product is of the quality and grade being paid for. It is to be hoped that the net result of the grading and stampping may encourage those who are breeding and feeding high quality livestock, without detracting from the value of the general run of range stock that is produced much more economically. Los Angeles was one of the first cities in the country to have meat graded and stamped for quality. However, this program was started by the packers themselves, them-selves, each packer using his own trademark as a stamp of quality. This guarantee by the packer has been jealously guarded in most instances in-stances and those packers who have been using their own brands probably will continue to do so. However, they may back up their own stamp of quality with the government stamp after being graded by the government grader. Through all lines of agricultural agricul-tural production, more and more attention is being given to proper grading and identification for quality as a protection to the consumer con-sumer and as a means of assuring the producer a better price where he is producing a quality producer |