Farmers should grow more of the food they consume and buy less of the food produced outside their immediate locality is the consensus of opinion of 25,000 farmers in all parts of the country recently questioned on the subject by the Department of Agriculture. The survey showed that of the food consumed by farmers and their families, 70 percent is produced locally, and nearly 30 percent is brought in by railroad. In the judgment of the farmers 79 percent of the food they consume could be economically produced locally.
In a general way the survey indicated that the more isolated farmers produce more of their foodstuffs than the less isolated, and that the more prosperous sections seem to buy more than the less prosperous. The thought back of the survey was that inasmuch as high freight rates have a tendency to reduce the prices of products which farmers sell and to increase the prices of things they buy, they might economically produce more of their home requirements and thus become less dependent upon the railroads and the outside world.
In comparison with the rest of the country, it will probably be of interest to those who have been unjustly criticizing the South for not producing more foodstuffs to know that the East South Central States including Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi led in the volume of production for home consumption with 75.2 percent. The smallest volume of home production is in the New England States with 58.1 percent.
From Manufacturers Record, as reprinted in the University of North Carolina News Letter, April 11, 1923
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