common cause of blindness, while healthy eating appears to lower the risk of another -- cataracts, a researcher said this week.

The research, released on Tuesday, is still preliminary. But the findings suggest that blindness should perhaps be added to the long list of ailments, such as heart disease and cancer, that can be caused by a high-fat diet.

The unhealthy diet was found to increase by 80 percent the risk of a condition known as macular degeneration, in which eyesight in the centre of the visual field declines dramatically because of deterioration in the eye.

The condition affects about 25 percent of Americans over age 65 and is the most common cause of blindness in the elderly, said the author of the studies, Julie A. Mares-Perlman, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison. An estimated 10 million Americans suffer some visual loss from macular degeneration.

It is not yet possible to say how many of those victims might avoid the condition by improving their diets, she said, and it is too soon to make dietary recommendations based on these studies.

"This is the first study. It needs to be confirmed,'' Dr. Mares-Perlman said at a seminar sponsored by Research to Prevent Blindness, a New York City voluntary organisation that supports eye research.

Further research could show, for example, that people whose diets are high in saturated fats have other habits that contribute to eye disease.

Nevertheless, the recommendations that could emerge from her studies would be similar to the current advice for reducing the risk of cancer and heart disease.

In a separate study, she and her colleagues found that people taking vitamin supplements had a 40 percent lower risk of cataracts than others. She also found that those who ate more fibre in breads and cereals had less severe cataracts.

*** In US agricultural news, meanwhile, this may be the Halloween of the Not-So-Great Pumpkin in North America, where heat, drought and early frost have put a damper on the supply and size of potential jack-o'-lanterns, especially in the US Midwest.

In some areas of the US, for example, supplies could run out well before October 31, and pumpkins will cost more because of the short supply and the higher cost of growing them.

"A lot of pumpkins are ruined back there,'' said George Perry, a California farmer whose family operation shipped more than 15,000 tonnes last year, and has committed almost all of this year's crop to supermarket chains inside the state.

Irrigation protected Perry's crop and that of five farms that supply his company. Not everyone was spared in California, though. The seasonal pumpkin stands seem to be having the most problems.

"We're getting a lot of calls even here in California for pumpkins from people who never did buy from us,'' said Perry. "It's the pumpkin lots.

Evidently, where they were getting them, they can't get them this year.

They're short.'' The heavy demand means Perry is able to charge eight or nine cents a pound rather than the six cents he received last year.

Elsewhere in the country, meanwhile, Illinois and other Midwestern states were hit especially hard. Darin Eastburn, plant pathologist at the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service in Urbana, reported that the crop will only be 20 percent of normal in areas of the state. He found one eight-acre field with only two salvageable pumpkins.

In other big pumpkin states such as Pennsylvania and New York, the large growers who invested in irrigation made it through the summer, averting an out-and-out shortage. Still, pumpkins there are generally smaller and more expensive, because of the lower yields and higher production costs.

Despite all of the gloom and doom in the pumpkin market, however, there is one bit of comfort. The canning pumpkins that are used for Thanksgiving pies are a different species and weren't as hard-hit.

*** On your way to Japan and think you'll be craving a little US-style fast food? As of next week, taking a bite out of a Big Mac in Tokyo and other Japanese cities will no long longer take a massive bite out of your wallet.

On Monday, McDonald's announced that it would slash the price of its popular hamburger by $1 to $2.80 from October 16.

A company spokesman said the price cut reflected a general trend toward cost-cutting in Japan, and means that Japan will no longer have one of the world's most expensive Big Macs.

That honour belongs to France, where a Big Mac goes for $3.73. Germany is next, at $3.40.