Transcripts

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SPEAKER 1: How are you doing?

GREG BARRON: Hi, Mr. [? Rizzio. ?] Monday, you told me that the boycott hadn't affected your meat sales. Have you noticed any change since then?

SPEAKER 1: Not too much at all yet, sir. We're still putting out product, and we're still selling it.

GREG BARRON: You haven't had any reduction in sales here?

SPEAKER 1: A slight reduction, but I don't think it's-- it's a normal fluctuation.

GREG BARRON: [INAUDIBLE] Markets are one of the biggest chains in the upper Midwest. Monday, Len [? Rizzio, ?] meat manager of one of the chain's largest Saint Paul stores, said meat sales were higher than usual. Today, he admits sales may be down a little. Overall, though, the effects of the meat boycott in Minnesota remain uncertain, as some stores report sales drops from 20% to 30%, while others report no drop at all.

A local meat cutters union spokesman claims the boycott is being observed mostly in affluent neighborhoods. He said families in those neighborhoods think it's stylish to go along with the boycott. Mrs. Dorothy Van Horn, chairman of the Minnesota chapter of the California-based Fight Inflation Together group says, although the effects are unclear, the boycott has, at the very least, been successful in focusing attention on the problem.

Mrs. Van Horn, your organization has been spearheading the Minnesota boycott of meat. How's it going?

DOROTHY VAN HORN: It's going very well we think. We have been very busy throughout, of course, all the suburbs and different areas of Minnesota. So maybe something will come out of this whole thing.

GREG BARRON: Well, how much have you been able to affect the local market?

DOROTHY VAN HORN: The different areas give you different reports, so it's hard to say. The packing company in Saint Paul in tonight's paper said that it was off 60%. The different stores will range anywhere from 20 to 50, and some will say 3% to 5%. The packing company in Saint Paul, [? Bartusch ?] said that their sales, meat orders were off 60%. And of course, they service the Twin City area.

GREG BARRON: At the same time now, although you may have met with some success here, the farmers in many cases are withholding livestock still. So the prices are remaining relatively stable, aren't they?

DOROTHY VAN HORN: They are at this point. It's unknown really what is going to happen to all of it. I think the one thing that's going to have an impact is the fact that thousands, not just a few hundred, but thousands of people will boycott for one week long to show their frustration. And out of that, I would imagine would come a very good meeting of the minds.

GREG BARRON: Mrs. Van Horn said, after the boycott, Fight Inflation Together may call for homemakers to support two meatless days each week. Whatever the case, she said neither the boycott nor any possible future action is intended to hurt the farmer.

DOROTHY VAN HORN: We're going to, of course, follow the national organization in California. There is talk of possible Tuesday and Thursday cut down of meat purchases. Time will tell. Right now we don't really know.

GREG BARRON: Farmers and economists both are suggesting now that a boycott of meat can't have any real long-term effect, in that if the price of meat is driven down through a boycott, the farmers will produce less cattle. And the supply will dry up, causing, ultimately, higher prices. How do you respond to that?

DOROTHY VAN HORN: I hope the farmers don't, because the boycott is not intended to hit the farmer. 95% of the people I've talked to and everybody else has-- is in sympathy with the farmer. We basically, are either neighbors to people that are in the farming community, or our backgrounds prior to this point have been with farmers. And I don't think that's where the price rise is.

I think the inflationary price is after it leaves the farm. What happens to it when it goes from the farm 100 miles away to our packing house in Saint Paul, and yet there's such a drastic difference in price? Somewhere in that chain of command, there's got to be some lowering of prices, not at the farmer level.

GREG BARRON: Whatever the ultimate outcome of the boycott, meat prices in Minnesota remain high. And one completely unanticipated result has been an apparent rise in meat shoplifting in Minneapolis. One municipal judge said today, the trend is definitely noticeable in cases coming before his court. This is Greg Barron, in Saint Paul.