Food cartels
Sir: There is much talk at present of 'world food shortages', but little of food cartels. The most obvious food cartel operating at the moment is the Common Agricultural policy of the EEC. When huge miscalculations are made by the Brussels bureaucrats,
as they
has to frequently are, farmers' production , be geared to counteract the mistakes.
The immediate miscalculation in the EEC I5 the over-production of milk. Yet our fartilers believe that the more milk they can Produce at home, the more they will benefit the British economy. The reverse is true. When the price of butter rises by 9p per Pound, as Mr Bishop has announced, annual sales of butter will shrink, possibly by as much as 200,000 tons.
In
1973 New Zealand sent us butter at Per ton. This year the EEC price of putter rises to £1200. New Zealand has been allowed to raise her price, on the under standing that she reduces her quotas, to L.620
On top of that, the EEC levy to
daY amounts to £315 per ton. An important Oral question arises. At the referendum Wilson and his government gave an ro solute undertaking that if the country wted 'Yes', New Zealand dairy products r ould remain in our shops. Yet every press ,ePort we see suggests that the EEC is in no nurtry to honour this undertaking. d°d shortages, or mismanagement on a
colossal scale? When governments and food industries (including farmers) combine against the consumer, trouble is bound to arise. The present Labour Government is supported by the Tories in maintaining this system, thus withholding from the electorate any form of democratic choice.
Caroline Neill Blackdown House, Briantspuddle, Dorset
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