Food production

“ Agriculture: accounts for 3% of GNP; highly subsidized and protected sector, with crop yields among highest in world; principal crops—rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; animal products include pork, poultry, dairy and eggs; about 50% self-sufficient in food production ”

“ The greater part of human labour is occupied in the direct production of the materials for human food. The farming classes and their labourers devote themselves to the planting, rearing, and reaping of oats and other cereals; and the grazing farmer to the production of cattle and sheep, for the maintenance of the population at large. All these articles—corn, beef, mutton, and such-like—are handed over to the female half of the human species to be converted into food, for the sustenance of themselves, their husbands, and their families. How do they use their power? ”

“ So long as food products were chiefly preserved from the seasons of production, or maximum production, to the season of nonproduction by the use of somewhat primitive means, and largely by producers themselves, or by methods familiar to the household, the food so held was accepted by the people as a matter of course and recognized necessity. ”

“ We may for this reason alone look forward to the increasing importance of vegetable growing and fruit raising; but there is a more obvious and perhaps more direct reason. There is in the production of vegetables, at least, a method of satisfying the dietetic needs of an increasing population. The employment of a part of the area now in cereals and forage crops 163 for the production of potatoes, cabbages, legumes, roots and tomatoes is one of the most ready means of increasing the food supply. ”

“ The bread stuffs, as they are popularly termed, particularly wheat and wheat flour, maize, and rice, form very important articles of commerce, and enter largely into cultivation in various countries for home consumption and export. Russia, India, and the United States, carry on a very considerable trade in grain with other countries. Our local production being insufficient for food and manufactures, we import yearly immense quantities of grain and flour. ”

“ Indeed, the cultivation of the soil for the production of food may be considered as one of the first steps in his civilization. Among the foods he cultivated were grains, and from the earliest times to the present day they have been the main crop and have formed the chief food of people wherever it is possible to produce them. ”

“ Grains constitute the most important article of human food, not so much on account of their superior nutritive, curative or remedial value, but chiefly because of their prolific growth and abundant production in all civilized countries throughout the world. ”

“ Food kept for consumption in the winter time in cold climates, or in arid districts far away from its production, would in part require cooking, but that made of grains could be prepared at laboratories in a dry, unchangeable, sterile form, while some of the animal and fatty foods could be partly predigested and preserved for invalids. ”

“ Agriculture: animal husbandry predominates with milk and dairy products accounting for 37% of farm income; main crops—grains, sugar beets, potatoes; 100% self-sufficient in grains and potatoes, 85% self-sufficient in sugar beets; food shortages—oils and fats, tropical products ”

“ The food product ready, it is put to one of two uses—fed to the live stock from which we obtain our milk, butter, cheese, meat and meat products, or it is sent to factories where by means of much more labor and care it is further prepared for our table. By canning, as in case of fruits and vegetables, by milling of grains, or, if the product is a meat animal, by the many complicated processes of packing, the food is prepared for transportation. ”

“ The United States Department of Agriculture has estimated that only 6.6 per cent. of our corn crop is used for human food, and of this, 3.4 per cent. is consumed by the farmers and their families.
The substitution of foods is no new thing. ”

“ People must plow the ground for them, plant the seed, reap the grain when it is ripe, cut the flax, and pick the cotton.
Raising corn, or wheat, or other plants for food or clothing is called agriculture or farming.
We do not like to eat dry bread. So some people keep cows and make butter and cheese for the rest. Those who do so are occupied in dairying.
Then, too, we all eat meat. So some people must keep the animals whose flesh we eat. Those animals are called stock, and the business of those who keep them is called stock-raising. ”

“ Agriculture: Western Europe's foremost producer; main products—beef, cereals, sugar beets, potatoes, wine grapes; self-sufficient for most temperate zone foodstuffs; food shortages—fats and oils, tropical produce ”

“ One of the leading questions that directly affects the American cuisine is the contest now progressing as to the transportation of animal food to the great Eastern markets. Heretofore live cattle were transported to, and slaughtered at, the places of consumption. ”

“ But we sometimes forget that our great staple crops, wheat and other cereals, potatoes, fruits of all kinds, our cotton crop, and all plants we make use of grow directly in proportion to the amount of raw food materials they take in through the roots. When we also remember that many industries within the cities, as mills, bakeries, and the like, as well as the earnings of our railways and steamship lines, are largely dependent on the abundance of the crops, we may recognize the importance of what we have read in this chapter. ”

“ Agriculture: 70% of agricultural area used for permanent hay and pasture; main products—livestock and dairy products, turnips, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, wheat; 85% self-sufficient; food shortages—grains, fruits, vegetables ”

“ Economy.—On the ground that the assimilable nutriment from a given weight of selected fruit and grain and nut and vegetable foods will cost less than the same nutriment obtained from flesh foods.
3. Social Economy.—On the ground that an acre of cultivable land under fruit and vegetable cultivation will produce from two to twenty times as much food as if the same land were utilized for feeding cattle. ”

“ I keep in mind always that we are feeding much grain to domestic animals, an extremely wasteful practice so far as economy of human food is concerned; because, as an average, animals return in meat and milk not more than onefifth as much food value as they destroy in the corresponding grain consumed; and, as we gradually reduce the amounts of grain that are fed to cattle, sheep, and swine, we shall also gradually increase our human food supply. ”

“ Ultimately their descendants could become uniformly healthy on rye bread and dairy products just like the highland Swiss were.
However, modern industrial farming and processing of foodstuffs significantly contributes to mass, widespread enervation in two ways. Humans will probably adjust to the first; the second will, I'm sure, prove insurmountable. First, industrially processed foods are a recent invention and our bodies have not yet adapted to digesting them. In a few more generations humans might be able to accomplish that and public health could improve on factory food. ”

“ The preparation of food is of two kinds—public and private. The public consists in the ordinary modes of converting minerals and gases into vegetables, and vegetables into animals with milk, cream, cheese, flesh meat, and marrow-bones. ”

“ Machinery and scientific farming solve the problem. When 13 per cent of the people can feed the entire population and export almost as much more to foreign lands, there is no need to worry over the food supply. ”

“ What has been done in recent years, especially in England and America, in the development of a higher grade stock, so different from the old scrub stock of the Colonial period; in the introduction of new grains, new fertilizers, improved soils, and the adaptability of the crop to the soil in accordance with the nature of both; the development of new fruits and flowers by scientific culture—all have brought to the door of man an increased food-supply of great variety and of improved quality. ”

“ A glance at the table (page 283) will show us that both fuel value and tissue-building value is present in some foods from vegetable sources, as well as in those from animal sources, and that the vegetable foods are much cheaper. The American people are far less economical in their purchase of food than most other nations. ”

“ We shall see that before the middle of the first millennium the principal articles of food are artificial productions identically like the natural foods formerly used such as milk, flour, meat, butter, fruits, vegetables etc. In addition to these many other foods were invented similar and equivalent to these natural productions. ”

“ Hence the rich stores of milk and meat, which, added to the grains and vegetables raised on this prolific soil, furnish its inhabitants with cheap and abundant supplies of food. It might well be said that in this country water makes grass, grass makes cattle, cattle make cheese, butter, and meat ”

“ Industries: food processing (especially meat packing) , motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel
Agriculture: accounts for 15% of GNP (including fishing) ; produces abundant food for both domestic consumption and exports; among world's top five exporters of grain and beef ”

“ The shortest period within which additions can be made to the supply of food and raw material of the vegetable kind is in general a year, and, if the commodity be of animal origin, the minimum is considerably larger. ”

“ When fruits and vegetables are plentiful, the supply is often greater than the demand for immediate consumption. Then, unless the surplus food is preserved in some way for later use, there will be a serious loss of food material. The third is to produce quality. If the home-canned product can be made superior to that commercially preserved, then, even at an equal or a slightly higher cost, it will pay to preserve food in the home.
5. Of the methods of preserving perishable foods, only two, namely, canning and drying, are considered in this Section. ”

“ The American frozen food industry, in close cooperation with producers, has continued research and development for the purpose of seeking better ways to bring the nutrition, quality, and taste of American agricultural products to consumers. ”

“ In order to understand the value of this opinion, it will be proper to consider the several purposes which the food is destined to serve in the animal economy—what the animal must derive from its food to maintain its existing condition, or to admit of a healthy increase of bulk. ”

“ The Dairy and Flour industries have likewise shown great improvement, whilst considerable promise is held out by the establishment and development of other industries, such as the cultivation and export of fruits, the breeding and fattening of hogs, poultry farming, bee-culture and the manufacture of vegetable and animal oil products. ”

“ It must be remembered that these percentages are given for the whole grain, and that the amounts of the nutrients in the manufactured product depend upon the process employed.
Manufacture of cereal food materials. [12] —The primitive method of making the material in the grain available for use was by grinding the grain between two stones, or by pounding one stone upon another, and this method is used by the Mexicans and certain of the American Indians to this day, human muscle being the power employed. ”

“ As we eat lettuce, and millions of cattle graze every day, leaves as food producers win handily on that score. But to understand how food is produced in such a tiny factory demands that we walk about in it for a bit, study the inside of it and especially its many small chambers within which is not only the machinery, but some of the finished product stored up for later use. ”

“ The Government of the United States has done more than that of any other country to give useful advice to the growers of food products—and to cooks, too! Throughout this volume I have missed no chance to call attention to its many helpful publications, besides summing up the matter under the head of "Governmental Gastronomy." It is a topic of tremendous importance to farmers, vegetable gardeners, dairymen, and all who are concerned with the growing or distributing of food stuffs. Farming is defined as "cultivating the ground in order to raise food" ”

“ Exclusive of fruits and vegetables valued at $715,920, fish at $274,403, and oysters at $12,900, manufactured by establishments classified as food preparations, pickles, preserves and sauces, slaughtering and meat packing, wholesale, etc.
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Importance of the Industry. —The importance of the canning industry is not to be measured solely by its commercial extent. The principle of the conservation of food products by sterilization or pasteurization is of immense significance in the nutrition of man. ”

“ It will be also taken for granted that she has one or more general cook books containing a wide variety of recipes for the making of bread in its various forms, cakes, pies, omelettes, salads, desserts, etc., and the discussion will be confined to meats, wherein, owing to advancing prices, new economical methods of preparation are coming into practice, based upon a scientific knowledge of food values.
Vegetarianism and fruitarianism are being adopted by many households, less as a matter of principle than as a recourse from what are considered the present prohibitive prices of meats. ”

“ The food of the metropolis became rapidly improved, especially in the supply of wholesome meat and vegetables. And then the price of coals—an article which, in this country, is as indispensable as daily food to all classes—was greatly reduced. ”

“ The mass of people live on the land and are engaged in producing food. In this country the great increase in population is in the cities; while the food-producing class is increasing comparatively slowly. The reports on agricultural products exported from the United States illuminate the food problem in an instructive way. If we compare the exports in 1912 with those for 1900, we find that the amount of cheese shipped abroad declined 85 per cent, in that period, beef products declined 65 per cent., pork products declined 30 per cent., corn declined 80 per cent., wheat declined 57 per cent. ”