Nutrition and Food Supplies
1936-09 1936 1930s 33 pages : illustration few years have ignored the interests of the consumers, and have created vested interests which will clamour for the continuance of Government props instead of trying to improve the efficiency of the industry. Further, none of the schemes has made any real...
| Main Author: | |
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : The Labour Party
September 1936
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/BF81FB5A-514E-4084-8429-E5927B23589C http://hdl.handle.net/10796/11C7E19C-FDAD-42BA-9F80-D246560CFC6E |
| Summary: | 1936-09
1936
1930s
33 pages : illustration
few years have ignored the interests of the consumers, and have created vested interests which will clamour for the continuance of Government props instead of trying to improve the efficiency of the industry. Further, none of the schemes has made any real attempt to deal with the problem of marketing — except perhaps in so far as the Milk Marketing Board has rescued producers from the chaos previously caused by “surplus” milk. In general, however, present schemes are careful not to interfere with existing methods of distribution; they assume the necessity of maintaining the present costly and complicated distributive structure which stands between producer and consumer, exacting at this point and that a profit for handling commodities (in some cases for merely making book entries), which is ultimately paid by the consumer. The Milk Marketing Board organises producers in self-protection, but accepts the existing distributive machinery. The Government provides a subsidy to beet producers but makes no effort to deal with the needlessly expensive marketing system in this industry — to cut down the huge transport costs, or to cut out the numerous local livestock markets which provide a field for widespread speculation. And the Potato Marketing Board embarked on its one small experiment in Bishop Auckland with apologies for daring to injure one part of the population (wholesalers and retailers) to benefit another (the unemployed); and it arranged to compensate the retailers for their losses during the period of the experiment, the compensation it is estimated finally representing an increase in gross profits to the retailers of 23 per cent.! It should be noted that in the area covered, with a population of only 19,000 (it may safely be estimated that such a population has no more than 5,000 households) there were 37 potato retailers. Briefly it may be said that the object of the various schemes which are being tried — whether by levy, tariff, quota or subsidy, is to maintain producers’ prices, and not efficient marketing, nor to serve the housewife. 24
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |