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blagues U5. h 0
ur Crazy FooeS And Farm Problem
Editor's Note: John Slrohm has
been farming, talking to farmer
or writing about farming since
Just about the day he was born
w years ago on a farm In ihe
horseweed bottoms of the VYa
" iash. As an agricultural expert
' and reporter he has eeen all of
-; the VS. (including Washington
where he has served as a presi
dential adviser), Russia, Red
China (the only accredited U.S.
' newspaper correspondent to gain
" admission), India, Southeast Asia
and Latin America. In these trav
els, he has been ttruck by the
fruel paradox of, America trying
to cut Its food production while
; most ot the world Is hungry. This
' t Is the first ot five articles In which
' Slrohm Wis how we got Into such
a dilemma and suggests some
i solutions.
By JOII STROIIM
Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
NEW YORK (NEA) - The
No. 1 fear in the world today Is
man's dread of not getting
chough food to fill family stom
achs. If you could poll all persons
on earth, you would find the threat
. of quick extinction in atomic war
lagging far behind the fear of slow
. starvation.
"How am I going to feed my;
family?" is a plaintive wail 1 ve
heard on four continents.
,Yet the U.S. has spent billions
o( dollars to hold down food pro
duction and threatens farmers
. wjth heavy fines If they grow too
much. Does this mane sense:
The brutal world facts are
. these: Two out of three persons
. on earth are not getting enough
food to work effeclently. I've
seen bloated stomachs of mal
nourished children In the Mid
dle East . . . diseased, disabled,
hopeless people In Latin America
; . the dull eyes of apathetic
Chinese who have been living on
wild roots.
; fanning the hunger fire Is a
death race between the feeders
and the breeders to determine If
tnan can produce as fast as he
can reproduce. Every hour S.ono
more now mouths are crying to be
fed.
'. it's a crazy world. While most
nations hear waili of hunger, while
the Iron Curtain countries des
perately try to cone with food
BhortaRcs, we wallow in surplus
es and spend M billion a year to
inrlbe farmers not to crow too
jrmoh.
.'- Food is a problem In three great
.'areas of the world and each Is
?of profound significance to us all
;ai consumers, citizens, and tax
payers. The areas are the have
;not nations, the Iron Curtain coun
tries, and the United Stales.
; . i. Have . not countries in Asia.
Latin America and Africa are
underdeveloped because they are
underfed. Hungry people are list
loss people. Without fuel, the hu-
If . I
S. II
1-
in.
U.S. WALLOWS IN SURPLUS While the rest of the world staggers in hunger,
America wallows in surplus. The U.S. hat amassed a bulging eight billion dollar hoard
of food and fiber with the fantastic rant bill of more than one million dollars a day.
man body hits on only a couple of
cylinders. What we criticize as
lazy "manana" attitude Is often
no more than malnutrition.
Few of these countries are hold
ina. their own in the life and
death struggle between produc
tion and reproduction.
Take Egypt, one of the cra
dles of civilization, where an ad
vanced agriculture was carried on
5.000 years ago. In IU75, Egypt
had 5.7 million acres of cultivated
land, and S million people barely
getting by. Today, she has 0 mil
lion acres and 25 million people-
five times as many to be fed
from about the same land. Egypt
hopes that the Aswan Dam will
Irrigate 30 per cent more land
over the next 10 years. But by
that time she also will have 301
per cent more people:
"Two thirds of all mankind are
on a treadmill the age-old slrug
gle against chronic malnutrition,"
Dr. B. B. Sen, Director General
of the Food and Agricultural Or
ganizations of the United Nations
told mo recently in his Home
headquarters.
Many of these people are des
perately hungry. Slany more suf
fer a debilitation that stunts the
desire to help themselves. When
man and his family must de
vote all their time to growing
food for survival, all thoughts
and desire for self-help are crowd
ed out of their lives.
For most of the 70 less de-
veloped countries containing l a
billions persons, says our De'
partment of Agriculture, "diets!
are nutritionally inadequate, mal
nutrition Is widespread and per
sistent, and there is no likelihood
the food problems soon will be
solved.
These people live on the rag
ged edge of starvation: a pound
of rice or corn a day is a typi
cal ration. They have only one
acre of land per person to pro
duce food, and they use a scant
1.5 pounds of fertilizer per per
son.
In the U.S., we have almit 2.5
acres and use about 270 pounds
of commercial fertilizer per person.
No wonder there have hern
marches in Mexico that had In he
quelled with troops, food riots In
...NO SIN OR
SPECTACLE ON EARTH
TO EQUAL ITI
SODOM
mm
Brazil and other nations around
the globe,
Is U.S. surplus the answer to
the world's lood problem
"No," says Secretary of Agri
culture Orville Freeman. "If all
our stored up abundance of food
were made available abroad to
people with inadequate diets, It
would not close the lood gap lor
even one year.
The most our food can pro
vide Is a temporary shot in the
arm for nations such as India
and Egypt while they get set
to help themselves.
The No. 1 hope of the world's
hungry is self-help. In Mexico:
I have just seen how a handful
of Americans, with a small budg
et from the Rockefeller Founda
tion, has sparked a chain reaction
that has doubled Mexico's fond
production in the last 10 years.
As a result, her people today get
2.7UO calories to eat compared
with a near starvation 1.700 cal
orics only 25 years ago.
And this despite the fact that
her population is the fastest ris
mg in Lalln America. Many have
not nations have the resources to
do likewise.
Significance: Underdeveloped
areas will remain underdeveloped
so long as they cannot get enough
to cat. Pouring money and food
into these countries Is like pour
ing It down a rathole unless It
helps them get on their feet. The
va. almost alone has the know!
edge to do the Job.
2. Food is the Achille s heel
of Iron Curtain countries who
force their farmers to work col
lectively. Food production dropped
in every country the Communists
took over and I've visited them
all.
Recent Russian reports reveal
food rioting that had to be
smashed with Soviet troops. In
195a, as I toured Soviet farms,
I saw hlirusncliev s boasts on
catching up with U.S. food pro
duclion. They were plastered on
sign in potato patches, cow barns,
pig pens and collective farm
headquarters. These wild promises
now have been replaced by bitter
complaints of failure. The situs
tion would be worse except for
the fact that a big share of Mils
la's fond comes (ram the tinv
private plots each fni-mcr has
Russia has nearly half of her
people on the land. A farmer can
feed himself and 3 or 4 others,
i In the U.S., under private en
terprise, only 8 per cent of the
population is on the land, and
one farmer produces enough to
feed himself and 20 otliers.i
Red China Is on the verge of
collapse today primarily due ot
the mishandling of 500 million
peasants. I was- in Red China
during the formation of the com
munes the only accredited
American newspaper corres
pondent to penetrate the Bamboo
Curtain. I saw the Communists
destroying all vestiges of private
enterprise such as private
farms, prlvale vegetable gardens,
even private pigs. More recently,
I talked with gaunt refugees who
had been eating weeds,
leaves and wild roots. From her
neighbor. I learned of a mother
who threw her three children into
a river to drown and then Jumped
in to drown with them rather
than see them die of slow starva
tion.
It s a grim fact that 40 mil
lion Chinese would have starved
last winter If China had not bought
grain from Australia and Canada.
Unless they can buy more sur
plus grain, an equally desperate
situation faces the Chinese this
winter.
(The U.S. taxpayers now pay
more than $1 million a day to
store surplus crops we don't
need.)
It Is not mere coincidence thai
the best fed Communist countries
are Yugoslavia and Poland
where Red authorities reluctant
ly gnve up trying to herd farm
ers into collectives. Red Chinese
officials have seen a little light.
They now promise peasants their
own private pigs and garden plots,
in the hopes a little private en
terprise will produce more food.
(In the U.S. government plan
ners want stricter controls' so
farmers will produce less. I
Significance: We are not doing
enough to exploit our food super
iority. The developing nations
should be told that the Communist
way leads to less food and ra
tioning. If they want to hitch their
wagon to the star of plenty.
that's the U.S. Our gift is not
food, but know-how and system.
3. The U.S. also has a food
problem too much. It has cost
the taxpayers 4fl,8 billion the
last 20 years as we tried to limit
food production.
We have the best fed nation on
earth. We eat 4.06 lbs. of food
daily In a wide variety of vege
tables, meats and dairy products,
according to the Food and Agri
cultural Organization. An Indian
cats 1.23 lbs., and 83 per cent
of that Is rice. We eat 10 times as
much animal protein as the Far
East, and our children are Bigger,
healthier, stronger.
, No (Bimers on earth ever pro
duced so much food ... to feed
so many . . . such a high quality
diet ... at such a reasonable
price.
But government controls threat
en the farmer's efficiency. And
does It make any earthly sense
in a world of want to threaten
farmers with jail if they grow loo
much food?
(Next: The AIlC's of the Craiy
Farm Problem.)
PAGE t Monday, February II, 19S3
HERALD AND N'KHS. Klamath Falls. Ore.
INCOME TAXES
So Your Rtllablt Income
TAX CONSULTANT
CHAS. HATHAWAY
Auditing Bookkttolnt
N. 10th TU 4-5471
120
AN AUTOMATIC GAS
WATER HEATER
COSTS LESS TO BUY-LESS TO USE
TRADE-IN
ALLOWANCE
FOR YOUR OLD WATER HEATER
ON A NEW "DAY & NIGHT"
GLASS LINED WATER HEATER
30-GALLON
$30
V: 1 I
I' r ' I , I OfipV jr.. MVrV-q . 10 year guarantee 55
. V- , f' J f '-rtrV, ' r' ZiLf ( WiM This Offer is Available Alio Thru Your Plumber
l0 ,r t iJtt' ' VfeT? W UTILITIES COMPANY
MALNUTRITION IN INDIA Bloatad stomachs mark
malnourished children in India. Farmers must produce
nough to feed 10 million new mouths every year.
POUND OF CORN Typical Latin American daily ra
tion is a pound of corn per person. Many are on near
starvation diet-of 1,700 calories p- day.
1011 Main Your Gas Company TU 4-5157.
Water Shortages Predicted
For Klamath Basin Streams
c
tu.
A TIT iAT l'H'tHT)"M
A ( .'1 f t Rt I 1 1 ' (U N I "
J'tPH r. iKVfkr I'rit At STATION
tOi-.-riby.'Oim.t.NTt KY MIX
Streamflow In the Klamath Ba
sin during the 1SXV3 irrigation sea
son will be much below average
and the only lands that will have
satisfactory water supplies are
those served from stored water
sources, according to a report re
leased today by W. T, Frost, snow
survey supervisor for the U S
Department of Agriculture, Soil
Conservation Service, cooperat
ing with Oregon Stale I'niverslly
and lime engineer. Most other
lands ill have severe water short
ages.
Water content of mountain snow.
pack is the lowest of record for
M-C-M presents A JOE PASItRNAK Production
DORIS STEPHEN JIMMY MARTHA
DAYBOYD-DURANTERAYE
I?
I
In
BILLY
ROSE'S
Willi tht
vmditfil
tnatic if
DODGERS
t HART
I J
J M-llirti
ir.
nitit HiKiMi
Dean JAGGER mctrocolor
( DOOliS OPEN 6:45
SEE JUMBO AT 7:10 & 9:50
Keh t at many key snow courses
Present snow Is only a per
rent of average and only one-fifth
of the Know park of last year at
this date.
Watershed soils have been fav
orably recharged with the mois
ture content now up to (U) per
cent of total rapacity compared
with .) per cent one year ap.o.
Storage In I'pper Klamnlh 1-nkc
is aoi feet on Feb. 1 com
pared with 209.IO0 a f. one year
ago. This stnraee is average and
even with limited expected In-
How will he ali(artory (or irriga
tion
Clear l-ake stmace Is II2.00O
a ( the first of the month or
double the water stored a year
ago There will be sufficient Irri
tation water from this source
although carryover for next year
will he limited
(ierber Mewrvoir now hold'
2S.200 aire (eel compared with
only l.lloo a f. one year aeo. In
Lake reservoirs i Preliminary data
from t! S. Bureau of Reclamation'
has been s'lhManlial during the
period since Oct I. The totals!
are JVono a f and M ono a f. re-!
spectivelv
tinue to gam .Min nie (nun recent
heavy rains and meitint: of miow
up to elevations ot 7.000 (cel.
Snow pack is neaily record low
and summer streamflow will he
much Mow average roMillini:
drastic "shorlntcs" for moM l.ttinN
without occes to stnml water sup
plies.
The next report on snow sur
veys and walrr supply conditions
will he issued on March R. I Wit
flow yet to come this year will he
much below average, but should
provide enough Inr satislactoiv
irrigation. Karly February inflow
from rams aod snow melt h.is been
above average iThe above pre
hminarv storase data fiunislied
hv Ihe Pacific Power ft l.uiit Co
xiediord
k limit Pit. OrtfM
rulttnX itaily (trfl ttl ) " Iwfttllf
lrvtn twtltrtt OrtfMMt
n Northtrot California
KlimilK ivklithin CtrnMr
Mam at tip it nana
TUMtt Hill
lhnf rrvrvnim (or lh Fphrtmrv-t ia act t
tM at aMitiaM fnltt fHKH.
Carr'
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WNtfif 9iav. tlr
UNtttO ?99 INTONATION.!.
AUDIT ftUR4U C I f ui. T ION
prtod r- K.Ortfl a f for1!'"...;,
Gorbrr Jind 45,ono for Clear ww.
normal wintrr rondition Iit Ihe
next two month.
Statewide, Orecon' ier mm-
ply outlook for the prints td
Mimrnrr month nf lf'O . ex
tremely por exrept-whert He-
(piflle re.MTvoir fm'ilitie ftn pnv unar i rf'm niivtfv
i i I. ! .1 ,.1 r II- HrtMt net H9W. )IUM
mh ri-'i m pn' ' - m.'xiiMui vwiiuaMi ami ha t aa
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I ... - : i :nn :..;;'f.,.
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27
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