The annual convention of the American National Cattlemen’s Association, meeting in San Francisco last week, came out flatly against both price controls and subsidies for meat. Reason: they diminish production and kill initiative. Said Executive Secretary Fernand E. Mollin: “[They] would do what they did in the last war, drive meat out of the market and leave nothing but pigs’ knuckles.”
Cattlemen thought that, both for themselves and for consumers, the meat outlook was good. With favorable feed prices, cattlemen increased their herds by 2,000,000 last year and expect to match the increase this year. Thus, a rise in the present cattle population of 82 million would put it close to 1945’s alltime high of 85.5 million. The spring pig crop of 63.5 million, a gain of 3,500,000 over 1950, is expected to be the second best on record, though well below 1943’s peak of 74 million. At a meeting last week with the Government stabilizers, U.S. meat packers insisted that, given a free market, farmers could produce enough meat to keep the supply high and prices in check.
That would take some doing; U.S. meat consumption, at 145 Ibs. a year per person, was close to its 1947 peak. Last week hogs hit their highest price ($21.75 a hundredweight) in five months. Lambs set a new alltime record of $34. Prime steers rose to $40. The Department of Agriculture* predicted that meat prices would go a lot higher in the next two months. The prediction was certain to boost buying for home-freeze lockers, thus help make it come true.
Stabilizer Alan Valentine talked bravely about making a big try to control meat prices, but nobody thought such controls could possibly work unless accompanied by rationingand Valentine was not printing any ration books.
There was another obstacle. Under the law, the prices of beef, lamb and veal, already well above parity, could be controlled now; but feed, selling below parity, cannot be controlled. If meat controls were slapped on, feed prices would still be free to rise. Actual meat production would be cut. The hard fact was that meat would stay high just as long as the U.S. housewife kept buying it at the present rate. The only real way to bring meat down was to eat less of it.
* The Department itself helped start what some retailers called a “hidden boost” in meat prices by announcing a change in the methods of grading beef. The top-grade “prime” was broadened to include the second-best “choice.” The third best, formerly called “good,” was upgraded to ”choice.”
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