Page "Collective farming" Paragraph 7

He argues that " failure " is a term which indicates nothing about the magnitude of goals set and results achieved.

For instance, the meat target set in the 1982-1990 Soviet Food Program was an average annual output of 20. 25 million tons.

The Food Program target was not met, though production in 1990 hit 20 million tons.

Hence, the plan failed.

However, focusing exclusively on the failure of the meat target overlooks the important facts that in 1990 meat output was up some 30 % over that in 1981 ( 20 million vs. 15. 2 million tons ) and that 1990s per capita meat consumption ( 67 kg ) was up some 18 % over that of 1981.

Thus, he argues that important progress with respect to the goal of increasing meat production and consumption was obtained through the socialist agricultural system even if the plan officially " failed ".