1160 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA - 28 
and supply for food. In the Soviet Union, for most food pro- 
ducts there is excess demand at the fixed prices in the state 
store. Generally the prices in the free market are substantially 
higher than those in the state stores, for several important pro- 
ducts 50 to 100% more. The increase in the retail price of 
meat by 30% and of butter by 259% on June 1, 1962 without 
eliminating all of the excess demand (reports of queues and bare 
shelves persist) indicates that some of the food markets are 
substantially out of equilibrium. While it is true that state food 
store prices are generally substantially below prices in the free 
market, the state food store prices are not low by comparison 
with Western Europe and the United States nor are they low 
compared to the income of the population. Approximately 
50% of consumer income is expended for food, of which about 
90% is purchased in state stores at controlled prices. 
In Western Europe and the United States the « agricultural 
problem », as viewed by most governments, is to maintain a 
satisfactory level of farm incomes. Generally speaking, the 
growth of demand is less than the potential increase in pro- 
duction. Rapid adoption of new methods of production by 
farmers means that the demand for farm labor at current re- 
turns to labor is declining absolutely. When one adds to this 
the fact that alternative earnings in the rest of the economy 
are increasing, substantial reductions in labor inputs are re- 
quired in most of the countries. While some of the countries 
have had programs designed to facilitate the transfer of labor 
out of agriculture, most have tried to solve the problem of 
declining demand for farm labor by various forms of subsidies 
and price maintenance or increasing measures. 
The agricultural programs of the higher income countries 
have certain direct implications to the agricultural development 
plans or policies of the low income countries. Most of the low 
income countries depend upon a limited number of agricultural 
products for the bulk of their export earnings. If the major 
industrial countries follow policies that result in expanding 
16] Johnson - pag. 20