—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 3, 1976 54 ‘Poultry - [Continued from Page 53] must be done before valid conclusions about what fats should or shouldn’t be in our diets. Meanwhile, egg consumption continues to decline, even while improved flock management, breeding and feeding efficiency have made it possible to produce more eggs from fewer chickens. Eggs per layer in the last 25 years have jumped from 174 eggs per bird to 233 eggs per bird. Surely, in a world increasingly worried about rapid population growth and future food supplies, we shouldn’t dismiss eggs as an excellent source of human nutrition. Accordingly, USDA has recently appointed 18 members and alternates to serve on a new Egg Board which will ad minister an improved Egg Research and Promotion Order. Ibis board is designed to help develop markets for eggs by working in promotion, research, and consumer education on the use of eggs and egg products. I think that this is definitely a step in the right direction. The poultry industry has not yet reached its pinnide. Our nation and the rest of the world is going to continue to eat more animal protein as people gain affluence as they inevitably will. It’s appment from our own history that the poultry industry has an important role to play in this change in diets; as people switch from direct consumption of cereals to the eating of more livestock and poultry products in general. The gains of the poultry industry haven’t come at the ex pense of other livestock products; they have come as a part of a general trend toward eating more meat. Even while poultry made its dramatic gains during the last quarter centuiy in the U.S., the annual per capita consumption v of beef wd veal went up from 71.4 pounds in 1950 to a record 124.3 pounds in 1975. At the same time, pork consumption per person has remained steady. Total animal protein consumption will continue to rise in this country, in spite of the clamor of some people who claim we should all eat “one less drumstick per week” in order to make more grain availabe to the world as a whole. This latter plan is just plain rhetoric, based on fuzzy thinking and incomplete logic. Unfortunately, there are some who unthinkingly parrot such rhetoric without realizing die fallacies of it. They actually believe, through a process of wishful thinking, that such a simple slogan can indeed supplant the complex interactions of world economics to help the world’s poor. This naivete must be counteracted with clear thinking. People deluded by such rhetoric must be communicated with; they must be exposed to the rule of reason, not rhetoric. The challenge for your industry will be to continue the excellent job of innovative research and marketing you have done up to now. You have a great story to tell. Don’t relax for a moment. Science and economics are on your side. Use them and use them well. Poultry and Livestock Systems S3S® Advanced Air-Systems Featuring The Automatic Air Inlet sSes e Controlled Feeder System for Breeder Pullets and Hens Agri • SALES • INSTALLATION • SERVICE AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTOR ON ALL CHORE-TIME EQUIPMENT RD2 Ephrata, PA 17522 (Farmersville) Feed Storage & Flex Auger Delivery System for Confinement Feeding O.