6
—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. April 14, 1973 '
PFA
The meat boycott was called a
failure this week by John R.
Pitzer, president of the Penn
sylvania Farmers’ Association
(PFA), because the boycotters
were attacking the wrong thing.
PFA is a general farm
organization with more than
16,900 family members in Penn
sylvania, and has 49 county af
filiates. It is also affiliated with
the American Farm Bureau
Federation, the largest general
farm organization in the United
States.
“Wet sidewalks don’t cause
rain, but rain causes wet
sidewalks,” Pitzer said. "High
food prices don’t cause inflation,
but inflation causes high food
costs. Until we all understand
that the high price of meat is
caused by inflation and attempt
to solve this problem, we are just
kidding ourselves.
“A great hue and cry has been
raised about food prices in recent
months,” Pitzer said. “Food
prices have risen because of
excessive consumer demand in
relation to available supplies.
Farmers and rancheVs are en
deavoring both to increase
supplies and to curb excessive
demand caused by our govern
ment’s irresponsible spending
policies.
“The dedication of farmers and
ranchers to fiscal responsibility
contrasts with the efforts of AFL
CIO President George Meany and
Says
others, who seek to make a
political issue out of food prices
instead of buckling dowrf to the
hard task of balancing the federal
budget.”
PFA through its national
organization - Farm Bureau -
has proposed across-the-board
budget cuts which “point the way
to fiscal responsibility,” Pitzer
said. The organization has called
for a total cut of $13,400,000,000.
“The food boycott was a
failure. It was doomed to fail
even if it succeeded because the
real culprit is inflation.
“Deficit spending by the
federal government * and
programs and policies which
increase the supply of money and
credit faster than production of
goods and services are basic
causes of inflation.
“Inflation has raised farmers’
production costs to the highest
level in history,” the farm leader
said.
“The most pressing need for
the future economic stability of
America is a balanced federal
budget. We must be willing either
to reduce expenditures or to pay
additional taxes. We prefer
reducing expenditures.
“The Nixon Administration’s
proposals for a reduced federal
budget moved in the right
direction,” he said, “but they fall
nearly $l3 billion short of the
amount necessary to bring
federal receipts and expenditures
Boycott Failed
into balance.”
He noted that the Ad
ministration’s budget calls for a
reduction of $5OO million in U. S.
Department ,of Agriculture
spending for “agriculture and
rural development.” This
category includes all USDA
spending except outlays for
domestic feeding programs,
Food for Peace and the Forest
Service.
The largest reduction -
recommended by both PFA and
the Administration is for
spending on government com
modity programs financed by the
Commodity Credit Corporation
(CCC). These include farm price
supports and direct payments.
CCC spending would be
reduced by nearly $6OO million -
reflecting only part of the $1
billion cut in direct payments to
fanners participating in com
modity programs for 1973 crops.
PFA has endorsed this reduction
and has urged that, in extending
the Agricultural Act of 1970, the
Congress phase out “income
support payments,” relying
instead on performance
payments based on agriculture’s
need for adjustment and the
individual fanner’s contribution
to that adjustment through
participation in a set-aside
program.
The Administration’s reduc
tions in CCC spending - and other
USDA spending cuts in fiscal 1974
(Continued On Page 7)
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