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THE GREAT
GAMBLE
Next YearS
Food
vs.
Next Years Harvest
Russia gambled
on
her
gro
in harvest in 1972
and lost! Now the United States is taking the
sorne
gamble.
Can
it win?
by
Dennis N ei ll
I
F THE
U.S.S.R. had not pur–
chased 400 miUion bushels of
wheat from the United States,
hunger would be stalking Soviet
streets right now.
A combination of severa! kinds of
bad weather ruined the 1972 Rus–
sian wheat crop. At the same time,
U.S. and Canadian harvests were
running significantly above average.
Farmers were facing low prices and
a bad market. While all this was
happening, President Nixon made
historie visits to Peking and
Moscow.
This strange set of circumstances
brought about an incredible para–
dox. The United States of America
sold over one third of its grain re–
serves to its former Cold-War arch–
enemy - the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics!
Rescuing Communism
The United States agreed to sell
the Soviet Union all tbe wheat it
Jerry Gentry - Plain Truth Photo
needed and made agreements to sell
more over the next three years - up
to $750 mill ion worth. The implica–
tions of these unprecedented events
are major, both for good and for
bad.
The immediate benefits to the
U.S.S.R. are obvious. The Soviet
people have bread on their tables
this winter, and if there is another
crop failure, they will have bread
next winter.
The immediate beoefits to the
United States are obvious, too. The
graiñ sale added one billion dollars
to the favorable side of the balance–
of-payments ledger. It boosted farro
incomes, thus adding vitality to suf–
fering rural economies. It created
25,000 to 30,000 jobs for shippers,
· dockworkers and elevator operators.
And according to U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Earl Butz, it saved the
U.S. taxpayer $200 mill ion which
would have been paid out under
various governmental agriculture
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