Word: graining
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...there is no quick settlement, the I.L.A. threatens to extend the strike to other types of vessels besides container ships. Oil tankers, which haul the nation's biggest import, would not be affected (no longshore labor is required to unload them), but the bulk carriers that haul grain, a huge export item, out of New Orleans and other Gulf Coast ports would be stopped. So the nation's already worrisome trade deficit would worsen. That would be a high price to pay for ensuring the incomes of a few thousand dock workers who fill a dwindling need anyway...
Lappe and Collins start by observing that the world can already produce enough food to keep everyone from starving. Even during the "food crisis" of the '70s, they point out, more than two pounds of grain are grown daily for every person on earth, and two pounds contain more food energy than the 3000 calories per person that most Americans consume now. This estimate does not include the simultaneous production of other staples--beans, cassava, potatoes, range-fed meat, fruits and vegetables. "Thus," they write, "on a global scale the idea that there is not enough food to go around...
...catch is that the rest of the world has enjoyed two good harvests in a row. Normally, the U.S. exports some 35% of its grain. Now, however, grain and soybean shipments abroad (an anticipated 89 million metric tons in 1977) are expected to drop by 10% to 15% next year. Says Don Howe, president of the National Association of Wheat Growers: "Even if there was a total crop failure in America, we could still feed the entire country and maintain our commitments abroad for at least a year...
...Administration program is actually a compromise between an inflation-conscious Carter and his activist Agriculture Secretary, a longtime advocate of government grain stockpiling and similar measures. Bergland wanted wheat "set-asides" totaling 25% of acreage. Carter demurred after his economic advisers warned of possible inflationary effects if worldwide harvests took a bad turn in the future. Bergland also preferred higher support levels, but agricultural relief has a lower priority for Carter than balancing his budget by 1981; no massive amounts of money for crop support were about to become available...
...results, including a threefold increase in the domestic price of wheat-but that was largely the result of bad harvests in China and the Soviet Union. One form of Government intervention that even Butz favored was the "set-aside." It was used from 1968 to 1972 to cut U.S. grain planting by 18 million acres...