Newspaper Page Text
Page 8
— Griffin Daily New e Wednesday, November?, 1973
Process fruits, vegetables dwindle down to precious few
By Eliza Paul
WASHINGTON, DC. -
(NEA) — Bargain-hungry
shoppers are gobbling the na
tion into a processed foods
shortage that could cause
such staples as canned ap
plesauce and frozen peas to
disappear from the super
market by next spring.
Other processed foods in
perilously short supply: can
ned beets, carrots, green
beans, tomatoes, peaches,
cherries and canned and
frozen corn.
The Administration’s price
controls program, responsi
ble for shortages in many
other sectors of the economy,
is only partly to blame for
this one, according to pro
cessors and retailers. Indeed,
the controls seem only to
have aggravated an already
tight situation caused by a
SHURFINE
SUGAR
Limit One
■■ $
47
Old Virginia
JELLIES
16 oz.
Hollyhock
FLOUR
Order ■ ■ ■ ■
Or More
5 by
Iceberg Yellow
LETTUCE CORN
25-49
Fresh Baking
HENS
59
general trend toward con
venience foods and a poor
crop year.
Tne real pinch began last
year when floods in the
eastern part of the nation
wiped out a substantial part
of the fruit and vegetable
crop and production dropped
sharply.
During last summer’s
Freeze 11, processed food
prices were neld down while
those for fresh fruits and
vegetables were allowed to
fluctuate wildly. The uncer
tainty of fresh produce prices
and a general desire to hoard
food drove many consumers
from the vegetable bins to the
canned and frozen food sec
tions of their grocery stores.
In addition, the meat shor
tage caused housewives to
pour increasing amounts of
prepared vegetables into
stews and casseroles in an
THESE PRICES EFFECTIVE ONLY IN GRIFFIN THRIFTOWN
effort to stretch food budgets.
The crops are generally
packed only once a year and
products that run out won’t
appear in the supermarket
again until the fall. The past
summer’s heavy buying left
canners and freezers with
record low carryover sup-
Tetley
TEA BAGS
$419
100
Count
plies, meaning there is
almost no reserve to draw on
in a production year one can
ner describes as a “general
disaster.”
The New York state and
West Virginia apple crops
were hit by a freeze at
blossoming time that also
took a toll of the cherry crops
in those areas. The Midwest
apple crop was also cut by
bad weather and growers
estimate the canning crop
may be only half of last
year’s.
Similar natural disasters
befell the pea, sweet corn and
tomato crops — all of which
were already in short supply.
Edward Brown, chairman
of the board of Michigan
Fruit Canners, states flatly,
“We won’t be able to meet de
mand this year. By late
spring or early summer there
RESERVED /
Xx SUPER
Charm in Toilet
TISSUE
4 Ron
Pack JF
Heinz
CATSUP
4 9‘
Shurfine
COFFEE
with $5.00 wHHM
Order HI
Or More
Bat M
* THIS COUPON GOOD FOR SOcffi
H TOWARD PURCHASE OF &
H 10-OZ JAR OF H
*. MAXWEII HOUSI INSTANT &
p COFFEE p
SM-AT THRIFTOWN GOOD THRU
W ONLY NOV. 10 , 1973 M
Texize
BLEACH Y 2 - 29 c
Full Cut
ROUND STEAK Lb.* I 19
English Cut
ROAST •*- 77*
Shoulder
ROAST u». 87*
Boneless Chuck
ROAST ib. 97*
Fresh
GROUND BEEF «»• 99*
Boneless
STEW BEEF Lb.*! 09
will be quite a pinch in apple
products.” Michigan Fruit,
which makes Rustic and
Dolley Madison brand pro
ducts, also anticipates shor
tages in its supplies of cher- -
ries, green beans and peas.
When shoppers see canned
food stocks dwindling, they
traditionally turn to frozen
foods and this is expected to
wipe out the supply of frozen
peas well before next year’s
packing season.
Frozen pea supplies drop
ped to near zero this year,
and processors, faced with
another poor crop, are
pessimistic. “There is a shor
tage and it’s critical,” says an
official of a major frozen
foods distributor.
According to a spokesman
for Safeway Stores, the na
tion’s largest retail food
chain, the switch to pro-
Texize Pink
LOTION
32 Ol
LAUNDRY DETERGENT
AJAX
59
Dial
SOAP
FRESHBAKE
BREAD
3 s l°°
Giant
Loaves
Yellow
ONIONS
39
U.S. CHOICE
CHUCK ROAST
67
cessed foods and the ensuing
shortage is the result of sim
ple convenience and not the
economics of price controls.
“If people really want fresh
fruits and vegetables, they’ll
pay the extra price,” he
maintains. “But the fact is
that fewer and fewer people
want to bother preparing
them.”
Food retailers, aware of
the current supply problem,
admit there isn t much they
can do but offer shoppers
alternatives to goods in short
supply. “We can only try to
guess what consumers will
substitute,” the Safeway
spokesman says. “If peaches
are short, for instance, we’ll
probably buy extra pears.”
(Eliza Paul is a
Washington-based freelance
writer.)
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
Compromise
possible
on peanuts
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The
Agriculture Department is will
ing to work on a compromise
for new federal peanut support
regulations, an administration
farm spokesman said Tuesday.
Kenneth E. Frick, head of the
department’s Agricultural
Poss’
CHILI WITH BEANS
2 co*
- Qg
Bagged Florida
ORANGES
■ 79‘
Stabilization and Conservation
Service, testified before a
House agriculture sub-comm
ittee headed by Rep. Walter B.
Jones, D-N.C.
“We are delighted to discuss
it and see if we can work out
something,” Frick told the sub
committee which called him to
discuss the recent controversial
department moves.
“I respectfully submit that we
want for peanut farmers no
more and no less than we want
for the other farmers of Ameri
ca,” he said.
The Department of Agricul
ture recently announced a
series of restrictive changes in
the 1974 price support
regulations for peanuts under
existing law, which touched off
strong protest from peanut-area
lawmakers in the South and
Southwest
At the same time, the depart
ment asked Congress to adopt
new legislation for 1975 reducing
peanut supports and eliminating
acreage controls for the crop.
House Speaker Carl Albert,
D-Okla., joined two congression
al farm leaders this week in
saying Congress would consider
new legislation only if 1974 pro
gram changes were withdrawn.
Rep. William Sampler, R-Va.,
asked Frick at the hearing if
the administration would “with
hold” the 1974 changes, includ
ing a ban on lease or sale of
planting allotments, while law
makers, growers and the ad
ministration work for “a long
range solution.”
Frick said the administration
had been compelled to try to
reduce government spending in
the 1974 regulations under the
old law, since earlier requests
to change the law had not pro
duced results.
“We see no reason why pea
nut farmers should be in a pri
vileged position compared to
other farmers with high profits
guaranteed by taxpayers’
dollars,” he said. “On the other
hand, we propose that they have
the same income protection as
wheat, feed grain, and upland
cotton farmers.”
Bribe
charge
stands
AUGUSTA, Ga. (UPI) A Su
perior Court judge ruled Tues
day there was insufficient evi
dence to throw out bribery
charges against two Augusta
men, accused of trying to bribe
Richmond County Sheriff Bill
Anderson.
Bob Best, who earlier pleaded
guilty to gambling charges in a
federal indictment, and Ted Nor
ris allegedly offered Anderson
SI,OOO a month to ignore local
gambling but Anderson did not
accept the bribe.
The defense moved to have
the charges thrown out on the
grounds that television inter
views by District Attorney Rich
ard Allen constituted pre - trial
publicity and would prevent the
men from getting a fair trial.
Superior Court Judge Edwin
Fulcher heard 90 minutes of
taped interviews between Allen
and a local television station in
Augusta at the hearing Tuesday
before ruling against the de
fense.
Best’sattomey, Roy V. Harris,
pointed out one specific state
ment where Allen called Best
“a hoodlum and thug.”
Harris said he would appeal
the ruling to the state court of
appeals.
Overweight
OTTAWA (UPI) - More than
half the Canadian population is
overweight, according to a
comprehensive national nutri
tion study released Tuesday.
The survey found that more
than one-half of Canadians
were overweight, but that those
who are overweight generally
eat no more than those who are
not, leading the survey to
conclude that a “sedentary life
style” was probably the main
cause of obesity.
The survey involved more
than 20,000 people in all parts
of Canada.