SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



stated the demonstrable fact that margarine sells for 

 half the price of butter because its raw materials cost 

 about half as much butterfat. Times do change, and 

 possibly this only proves the differences between a 

 statement of fact in Iowa and an expression of opinion 

 in Texas. But the contrast struck me as Dean Shepard- 

 son waited for the applause to stop. Then he clinched 

 his astonishing confession with an even more remark- 

 able prophecy. 



"Dairymen have depended on law to tax the competi- 

 tive substitutes for butter out of the market. In the 

 future we must depend upon taste, which is the con- 

 sumer's test of a quality food product for which he is 

 ready to pay a premium price." 



Margarine is going to make one of the most exciting 

 readjustments of the postwar period. Mars is himself a 

 great fat-eater and when he operates on a global scale 

 he seriously disturbs the world's fatty oil balance. 

 Neither North America nor Europe have in the past 

 produced sufficient fats and oils for their own needs. 

 Both continents normally import billions of pounds of 

 oils: coconut from the South Seas, palm from Africa, 

 tung from China, and many others. So every modern 

 war has precipitated a fat-and-oil crisis which is espe- 

 cially critical because we must have these materials in 

 our kitchens, our explosive factories, our soap kettles, 

 and our paint cans. 



In striking a new fats balance after every war there 

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