| The long years of food shortage in
this' country have suddenly given way to an apparent abundance. Stores and shops
are choked with food. Rationing is virtually suspended, and overseas suppliers
have been asked to hold back deliveries. Yet. instead of joy, there is
widespread uneasiness and confusion. Why do food prices keep on rising, when
there seems to be so much more food about? Is the abundance only temporary, or
has it come to stay? Does it means that we need to think less now about
producing more food at home? No one knows what to expect. The recent growth of
export surpluses on the world food market has certainly been unexpectedly great,
partly because a strange sequence of two successful grain harvests in North
America is now being followed by a third. Most of Britain's overseas suppliers
of meat, too. are offering more this year and, home production has also
risen. But the effect of all this on the food situation in this country has been made worse by a simultaneous rise in food prices, due chiefly to the gradual cutting down of government support for food. The shops are overstocked with food not only because there is more food available, but also because people, frightened by high prices, are buying less of it. Moreover, the rise in domestic prices has come at a time when world prices have begun to fall. with the result that imported food. with the exception of grain, is often cheaper than the home produced variety. And now grain prices, too. are falling. Consumers are beginning to ask why they should not be enabled to benefit from this trend. The significance of these developments is not lost on farmers. The older generations have seen it all happen before. Despite the present price and market guarantees, farmers fear they are about to be squeezed between cheap food. imports and a shrinking home market. Present production is running at 51 per cent above prewar levels, and the government has called for an expansion to 60 per cent: but repeated Ministerial advice is carrying little weight and the expansion program is not working very well. |