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have not followed laws and edicts blindly unless they ap- 

 proved of them. 



The nation has had three problems thrust upon it: win- 

 ning the war, fighting inflation, and inaugurating new social 

 reforms. Any one of these is a major undertaking. Washing- 

 ton is interested in all three; the 136 millions are interested 

 primarily in the first one winning the war. Some think that 

 the anti-inflation and the reform programs slow down the 

 war effort. 



Artificially low ceiling prices for food, short supplies, high 

 incomes, and general apathy regarding administrative edicts 

 create a perfect setting for black markets. The public in gen- 

 eral is more in a mood to patronize the black markets than 

 to persecute them. 



Continued emphasis on nutrition has encouraged an over- 

 expansion of the livestock industry, which is a luxury in most 

 nations even in time of peace. The livestock population, in- 

 creased beyond the feed supply, will be liquidated the hard 

 way when the feed bins are scraped clean. 



Optimism about our food potential has led us to make 

 commitments for Lend-Lease food exports that exceed the 

 possibility of fulfillment. 



And, finally, our conviction that the production of food 

 was not a problem led us, until recently, to policies that in- 

 hibited rather than encouraged food production. 



After having been convinced for a decade that the United 

 States had huge surpluses of food, the public apparently is 

 now headed for the other extreme and fears hunger. This is 

 equally in error; we need not starve or even diminish the 

 quantity of our food intake. All we will need to do is to 

 change the type of food we eat. If we were willing to eat the 

 type of food eaten by most of the world, we could feed ap- 

 proximately twice our present population. 



The food situation will find its solution through the opera- 



