Scaling Down on Meat

Scaling Down in Meat

For diners in the Soviet Union, 1976 is turning into the Year of the Fish. In past weeks signs have sprouted outside restorany and stolovye (cafeteria-style eateries) across the country, warning customers that meat will not be served one day out of seven. Moscow insists that the campaign will "improve the food pattern" of Soviet citizens. In fact, the Kremlin has been forced to scale down meat consumption because of a growing shortage--the direct result of last year's disastrous grain harvest.

In the face of necessity, the Russians are proceeding as cheerily as they can;Tass reports have approvingly noted that "fish Thursdays have caught on well with Muscovites," who now tell themselves that eating more fish is good both for the brain and the cholesterol count. The 75 million-ton grain shortfall of 1975 led to a severe pinch in feed grain for animals; as a result, a sizable percentage of the Soviets' livestock was unseasonably slaughtered early this year. For a brief time, urban shoppers were presented with the agreeable spectacle of entire carcasses for sale in markets where supplies were never too abundant. The current scarcity, augmented by a foot-and-mouth epidemic centered in the Ukraine, could last as long as two years--if other agricultural disasters do not make things worse.

Of course, the Kremlin admits to no such thing. Soviet officials refuse to describe the nonoptional table d'hote as an austerity program at all. Since the meat from restaurants--in Moscow, 300 tons a day, or 17% of the city's consumption--goes on sale in the marketplace instead, an official claims that "one can speak of 'saving' only allegorically." Figurative or not, the change probably shocks few Russians, who are already accustomed to periodic shortages in everything from onions to matches to soap.

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