Published once a week in Palmer, Alaska for the Mat
anuska Valley Farmers' Co-operation Association for
the purpose of giving news of the Association's work,
problems and accomplishments.
WHAT THE FARRIER GETS CF THE COflSUITIOlTS DOLLfif?
The United States Department of Agriculture has recently made a
chart of the results of the sales of farmers products to the consumers;
and much to the surprise of a lot of our city consumers, it shows that
the farmers are not getting nearly as much out of the dollar as most
people are led to believe by what they read and what they hear. Inves
tigation shows that the average farmer actually gets quite a bit less
for his years' labor than the average city worker. Yet it is well known
that he puts in a lot more hours and usually works his wife and kids as
well.
The results show that in May 1951 the farmer received less than one
half of the cost of the food to the consumer; the middle man, the pro
cessor and the retailer got more than the farmer producing the stuff.
Farm operating .costs are up quite a lot, yet he doesn't receive much
more for mo3t of his products than he did when his costs were consider
ably lower. This is not a new thing in the history of the farmer's
struggle--it has always been this way and, unless the system is changed,
it will continue indefinately.
In actual figures the situation is something like this;
YEAT: the farmer gets 675^-the middleman gets 335^
i'OULTRYj the farmer gets 66^-the middleman gets 3W
DAIRY PRODUCTS: the farmer gets 5^--the middleman gets l\.6^
FRUITS & VEGETABLES: the farmer gets 33^-the middleman gets 67^
GRAIN PRODUCTS: the farmer gets 27^-the middleman gets 73^
This shows that the meat producer is in the "best position of all,
and this appears to be because the stockmen are pretty well organized.
j ho poultryman seems to be in a good position, but actually this is not
~ since the average poultryman has to buy so much feed for his busi
ness. This takes a large percentage of the gross returns. In fact the
poultry business has suffered a big depression, because the returns have
been so low in comoarison to his costs. Dairy products have a middle
position in the scheme of things as shown. Actually the dairymen have
enjoyed a lot more prosperity than the figures would indicate; this is
true all over and in the Matanuska Valley as well; the price of fluid
milk to the farmer has more than doubled since the end of World War II*
Cne of the main reasons for t his is that as long as the' consumer has a
good income he consumes a great deal of fluid milk; but when times get
tough he buys substitutes. When the dairyman’s milk has to go into
cheese and powdered or condensed milk, the returns go down. The price
of eggs in comparison to milk has not increased but rather gone down
since the last war.
The vegetable and fruit producer is the worst off of all, for he
only gets33m out of the consumer's dollar (this is not true in Alaska.)
Ho not only gets but a very small percentage of the returns but also
has to meet severe losses from natural causes during the growing and
storage season. The market is seasonal and fickle. When he has a large
crop the price is usually low and when the price is high he doesn't have
much to sell. Taking it all around, the vegetable and fruit grower has
more risk and gets less for what he docs sell than any other group. The
grain grower has bee'n fairly prosperous f or t he last tv/o years for pri
ces have been good and his costs have not increased as much per unit as
the other producers.
Generally speaking, things have not been nearly so good for the
farmers during the last two years as they have for business men and wago
earners. In reviewing the situation as a whole, we find that the ^atan
uska Valley farmer i's much better off than farmers of t he c ountry as a
whole. He gets a larger share of the consumer's dollar and can nearly
always sell all of his products. Wo in the Co-op believe that our fav
orable position has been made possible by the organization of ,the far
mers in the Valley in the Co-op. It has enabled the Valley farmers to
build up a marketing organization which learned how to sell to our mar
kets so the different farmers wouldn't be in competition with one r
another.
continued on page 3