Meat Moratorium

Bedlam in the stockyards, where a record high of 300,000 hogs a day are being slaughtered, may soon force a reluctant OPA to remove pork from list of rationed foods.

Meanwhile, the near-record killings of beef and lamb have turned a meat shortage into a temporary surplus. Last week cold-storage warehouses from coast to coast were jammed with more meat than in any December during the past five years, while farmers still hold enough hogs and cattle to keep packers working at full speed through January.

One Philadelphia meat packer stirred the 600 members of the Independent Meat Packers Association to hot applause in Manhattan last week, when he suggested that OPA place a moratorium on meat rationing for the two holiday weeks. His argument: if the beef and pork products were not moved quickly, they would spoil since there is no storage space. Further, such action might strike "a deathblow at the black market." Other food dealers suggested that WFA release part of its gigantic 433 million Ib. of frozen fruits, 1.7 million cases of eggs, 176 million lb. of butter. This would ease the storage problem for meat.

Unrationed pork would give consumers a holiday meat feast until the farmers have unloaded. But when the livestock is finally reduced in numbers to a point where it balances the amount of feed available, meat rationing will again be necessary. Food Distribution Administrator Roy E. Hendrickson estimated next year's supply of meat at twelve lb. less per capita than during 1943.

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