DOUBLE FOOD TASK
U.S. FARMERS TO FEED NA-
TION, SUPPLY BRITAIN
Can Be Done Without Restricted
Diets At Home, But Goals For
British Is Safe Minimum
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (AP)–Congress received a prediction from Secretary Wichard today that the requirements of the United States and foes of the axis for agricultural products will raise domestic farm supplies to a new all-time high next year. He told a house appropriations committee during hearings on the $5,985,000,000 lend-lease bill that the two-goal task could be accomplished without rationing in the Untied States although it is "apparent that the British will have restricted diets."
He said that one-third of the proposed $1,000,000,000 agricultural-aid program would be devoted to pork products–involved 1,500,000,000 pounds of pork and lard–and another third to dairy products and eggs.
"Our estimates are," he said, "that we are going to be required to furnish an amount of food necessary to take care of one-fourth of the population, at least 10,000,000 people out of the forty-five or forty-seven million people in Britain. It is not to be thought, however, that this will keep the British in luxury or even restore their food consumption to the level prevailing before the war. On the contrary the level is being aimed at only a safe minimum."
He estimated that 70 cents of each dollar spent on the farm part of the lend-lease program would reach the farmers' pockets, with major purchases to be made of dairy products, butter, eggs, fruits, cotton, tobacco, naval stores, rice soybeans and citrus products.
