Prom Local Aa Tw<htr»i
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In Defense
Throughout the past week I
attended several meetings and
luncheons with professions other
than agriculture. A common
conversation topic on which
everyone seemed to have an
Aerial Ladder Equipped
FARM PAINTING
We Spray it on and Brush It In!
FOR FREE ESTIMATES
' CALL COLLECT 717-393-6530
OR WRITE
HENRY K. FISHER
_ 2322 Old Phila. Pike
Lancaster, Pa. 17602
Thoughts
in Passing
opinion was the exhorbitant cosl
df meats and other food products
Unfortunately,' much of the
discussion was not in defense ol
the farmer but rather in ac
cusation of the farmer as the
villian enjoying prosperity at the
Glenn S. Weber
expense of the consumer. ‘
One cannot deny that food
prices have been on the increase.
For example, a “market basket"
of food produced on U.S. farms—
enough to supply the average
urban household for a year—now
costs $1,375. That is $lO2 more
thai. the figures for a year
earlier. Of this $lO2 increase,
farmers are getting $B5 while the
remaining $l7 is going to the
middlemen who process,
distribute and sell the food.
However, in the 10-year period
from 1961 through 1971 the cost of
a “market basket” of food in
creased by only $252. Of this
increase $94 went to the fanner
while $l5B went to the mid
dlemen. So it appears that the
farmer is getting his share of the
latest food price increase.
The cost of fresh meat is a
leading cause for the recent in
crease in the cost of the “market
basket". Some cuts of beef and
pork are selling for 20 to 50 cents
more per pound at meat counters
than a year ago. According to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
overall food prices rose by 4.3 per
cent In 1972 and are estimated to
Lancaster Farming. Saturday, April 7,1973
be increasing by «.5 to 7 per cent
in the first few months of 1973.
What we must realize,
however, is that even with the big
run-up in food prices, the farmer
still gets only one-third of each
dollar American families spend
on food. This share came to 33.4
cents in 1972. Consequently only a
portion of the high retail price for
food is passed on to the farmer.
Yet, while food prices in
creased by 4.3 per cent last year,
the farmer’s costs rose more than
7per cent. The fanner who has to
buy soybean meal to feed his
livestock finds that its sky-high
costs demands higher prices for
his products—not to mention the
price of feeder cattle. The farm
operator with a small marginal
spread does not have the volume
of sales needed to offset these
high production costs which
somehow manage to increase
faster than the prices the farmer
receives for his products. The
fact was difficult for my non
agricultural friends to com
prehend.
KOiiitKU'S MILL
RDI, Honks
JE’MAR FARM
SUPPLY INC.
Lawn—Ph • 964-3444
H. JACOB HOOBER
Intercourse, Pa.
HAROLD H. GOOD
Terre Hill
GRUBB SUPPLY CO
Elizabethtown
K. SAUDER & SONS
RDI, East Earl
HERSIIEY BROS
Reinholds
In one isolated case, it took a
boycotting lady from the city of
Atlanta just six hours of routine
hard work on a hog farm in lowa
to realize that the farmer
deserves the right to make a
profit, as does any business.
So for the farmer, the rising tab
at the supermarket check-out
counter is not a rare bonanza of
super profits. For too many
years, fanners were last in line
when profits from food sales were
divided up. Now the rising costs
of production necessitates the
farmer getting a larger share of
the food industries’ profits.
May the consumer be com
forted by the fact that in the U S.,
she spends 17.6 per cent of her
consumer dollar for food as
compared to Europe where she
would spend 40 to 54 per cent of
her consumer dollar for food. '
Glenn S. Weber
Agriculture Teacher
Manheim Central High School
WIIITK OAK MILL
II D 4, Manheim
MOUNTVILLE
FEED SERVICE
R D 2. Columbia
FOWL’S feed service
H D 2, Peach Bottom
STEVENS FEED MILL,
INC’.
Stevens, Pa
PARADISE SUPPLY
Paradise
DUTCHMAN FEED
MILLS. INC.
R D 1, Stevens
lI.M. STAUFFER
& SONS. INC.
Witmer
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