Murray H. Hawkins

Implications of Changes in the Methods of Wholesaling Meat Products

Both the meat procurement methods used by retail food stores and the associated pricing arrangements have undergone fundamental changes in recent years. These changes mark significant adjustments in market conduct in the wholesale meat trade. Although much of the change that is occurring is in response to structural and technological changes in the industry, the rate of change seems accelerated by the growth of meat programs. Programs represent a primitive but rapidly evolving systems-approach to meat procurement, distribution, and merchandising. Detailed product specifications, increased purchase by description direct from meat packers, formula pricing, and central warehousing figure prominently among the changes accompanying program development. The pressures which result from these changes impinge upon conventional attitudes and procedures in meat packing and in livestock production and marketing.

Involvement in Undergraduate Education

S TUDENT disinterest and teacher apathy are threatening to turn academic activity at the undergraduate level into a frustrating and meaningless experience. The professional nature of agricultural economics has tended to blunt this development, but agriculturists cannot become complacent nor deny the possibility of its imminent arrival. The striving for excellence and the increasing prestige in graduate education and research (in conjunction with the role of the agricultural economist as a consultant) have hastened the downgrading of undergraduate teaching as a vocation, and larger academic classes tend to reinforce the situation.