The Financial Times of December 3rd reported:
"Recommendations for large-scale withdrawal of farm land and more stringent controls on tobacco and milk marketing have been offered in a series of: proposals: submitted to the U.S. Agriculture Department by the National Agriculture Advisory Commission. The commission is one of the first to have reported among a series of study groups which President Johnson set up earlier this year to consider a range of economic and other issues. In the recommendations, only minor changes are called for in existing support programmes for wheat, feed grains and cotton.
"To curb the growth in U.S. farm'surpluses, the Commission calls for 40 million acres of marginal land to be withdraw from agricultural production over a five-year period. The cost of the programme, through reimbursements to farmers who cease to grow crops, would amount to $4.2 billion, with annual payments decreasing from $550 million initially to $300 million at the completion. The proposals come close to repeating the operations of the existing Soil Bank which is now about to expire, But whereas the bank merely took land out of production so as to improve soil for future cultivation, the commision's plan would provide for land to be withdrawn permanently from cropping." Comments This is a typical piece of capitalist logic - whilst 2 of the world is hungry, and at least + under-nourished, huge sutis like this are to be paid to keep down production. All in the interests of private enterprise, i.e., the profit system.