Whiff of Change

September 28. 1968 munerative' procurement price for rice.
In the general haste for the economic logic of lower procurement ibices to hold the general price line (since in any case input bottlenecks, not prices, are supposedly the production dampened), less inter-State disparity of prices, and uniform procurement practices, it would be a pity to miss the nub of the problem of food policy today in an agricultural economy based on innumerable diversely organised private farms. Uniformity is irrelevant for purposes of food procurement in such a situation. Granted that total food surplus from these farms is inadequate for urban consumption and difficult to get hold of just when it is badly needed, that we cannot presume consecutive good harvests, that PL 480 imports depend not on our needs but the inconvenience of carrying surpluses in the United States, that we are planning to do without them after 1971, and that the technological revolution in food production is unlikely to make us self-sufficient this side of the next four years, a procurement and public distribution system is essential to provide price stability.