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FDA OPA OES FDA OPA OES 



OPA OES FDA OPA OES FDA 



CONFLICTING 



REGUUTIONS 



STUMP 



LOCKER 



OPERATORS 



By F. A. GOUGLER 



lAA Director of Produce Marketing 



and Secretary-Treasurer of the 

 Illinois Cooperative Locker Service 



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EARLY in World War II, the OflFice of 

 Price Administration was created. 

 Later other agencies were established 

 such as Office of Economic Stablization, 

 Food Distribution Administration, and 

 sundry departments or divisions such as 

 enforcement division, rationing section, 

 grading and labelling department. All 

 of these have had a hand in attempting 

 to regulate rationed foods and to sta- 

 bilize prices. 



With such an array of agencies trying 

 to accomplish a certain objective and op- 

 erating at national, state and county lev- 

 els, it is not surprising that confusion 

 prevails. 



When this machinery was first thrown 

 into gear, it was proposed that locker 

 plants have invoiced all rationed foods in 

 each individual locker and whenever a 

 patron took rationed food from his lock- 

 er he was expected to relinquish stamps 

 for same. Likewise, all beef, veal and 

 mutton that was brought to a locker plant 

 for processing had to be graded by a 

 federal grader or someone designated by 

 him before it could be "broken", that is, 

 reduced from wholesale cuts to retail cuts 

 or into packages as requested by patrons. 

 Thanks to the efforts of the National 

 Frozen Food Locker Association and the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation these 

 proposals were eliminated. 



All went well in this regard with lock- 

 er operators, managers and patrons until 

 there developed a meat shortage. As soon 

 as the meat shortage became real in cer- 

 tain deficit meat producing areas, these 

 various agencies mentioned above began 

 pouncing on locker plants as the cause 

 of the shortage. As a matter of fact, if 

 all locker meat were handled illegally, it 

 would not exceed 3Vi% of the total meat 

 supply and the amount stored in lockers 

 by city patrons does not exceed one-half 

 of one percent of the total meat supply- 

 In pointing out these facts, the locker 

 industry is not claiming that its industry 

 is wholly free of OPA violations, but the 

 industry does resent being charged as a 

 major violator. Furthermore, the locker 

 industry is willing to cooperate with OPA 

 officials in freeing its industry of illegal 

 practices. 



Consider Some Factors 



There is a real meat shortage com- 

 pared to a year ago. Military require- 

 ments and other government purchases 

 are made only from federally in- 

 spected plants and since such plants are 

 located largely in densely populated areas, 

 these areas are drained of meats leaving 

 civilians short. Another contributing fac- 

 tor resulting in a maldistribution of meat 

 is the fact that meat moving from sur- 

 plus producing states to deficit areas must 

 be shipped across state lines and gen- 

 erally only federally inspected meat can 

 be shipped across state lines. 



An attempt is being made to correct 

 this maldistribution of meat through a 

 more rigid control of slaughters. This 

 requires an understanding of slaughter 

 classifications and the restrictions applied 

 to each under Control Order Number 1, 

 issued April 25, 1945. There are three 

 classes of slaughterers as follows: 



A Class I slaughterer is a slaughterer 

 who operates under federal inspection. 



A Class III slaughterer is a resident op- 

 erator of a farm who slaughters cattle, 

 calves, lambs or swine or had been 

 slaughtered for him and from which he 

 sold or transferred during 1944 or during 

 a 12-month period from January 1, 1944 

 to March 31, 1945 inclusive, the total 

 amount not exceeding 6,000 pounds. 

 Class III slaughterers have no limit placed 

 upon the amount of meat that they may 

 slaughter for home consumption. This 

 group is limited, however, in the amount 

 of meat which can be delivered into 

 commercial channels. The limit may be 

 up to 100% of the dressed weight of 

 meat that was delivered during the four 

 corresponding quarters of the calendar 

 year 1944. 



Class I slaughterers (federal in- 

 spected) are subject to no quota restric- 

 tions. 



Class II slaughterers on the other hand 

 must have quotas established for 1945 in 

 the same manner as Class III slaughterers, 

 but if either of these two groups avail 

 themselves of federal inspection service, 

 then quota restrictions are removed. It 

 is the desire of the control agencies that 

 many Class II and Class III slaughterers 

 qualify as Class I so more federal in- 

 spected meat is made available for inter- 

 state movement, thus aid meat short areas. 

 Locker Patrons 



1. City Patron: 



If you are a city patron and have no 

 farm interests, then all rationed foods 

 that have been purchased to be placed 

 into your locker, must have ration 

 points exchanged for these foods on a 

 graded basis. No such locker renter shall 

 purchase any beef, veal or mutton from a 

 producer unless it has first been graded 

 and the price does not exceed the ceiling 

 price for the various grades and the cor- 

 rect amount of points have been ex- 

 changed. 



2. Producer Pa'ron: 



What are the conditions under which a 

 producer may qualify for putting meat 

 into his locker point free and ungraded .'' 

 a. Residence Farm Operator: 



Must have raised the animal on the 

 premises which the producer oper- 

 ates: (1) From birth to the moment 

 of slaughter; or (2) For at least 60 

 days immediately preceding slaught- 

 er or (3) For a period immediately 

 preceding slaughter during which 



L A. A. RECORD 



