Food supply

“ So important was a proper knowledge of scientific food use and application of this knowledge, in connection with the efforts of the various countries to feed themselves most economically and to best effect in the light of their possibilities in the way of food supply, that every country concerned called on its scientific men to advise and help control the obtaining and distribution of its national food supply. ”

“ It is obvious to every farmer and gardener that he cannot indefinitely increase his crop, that two men cannot always produce twice as much as one man, and that in general the product does not always vary in proportion to the labor and materials applied. Moreover, the food supply is a fundamental factor in industry and in the welfare of states. The limit to the supply of food on a given area, cultivated by a given method, early appeared and became a serious practical problem. ”

“ By February 1937 four detailed schemes for the storage of a balanced group of foodstuffs were ready, ranging from Plan I, an emergency scheme for feeding London for month, to Plan IV which would provide together with normal trade stocks, for months’ supply of wheat, four months’ supply of oilseeds, three months’ supply of sugar, a large supply of whale oil (for cooking fat and margarine) and quantities of canned meat, canned milk and cheese, together with no less than six months’ supply of feeding grains for animals. ”

“ In a thickly populated country, such as England, dependent under present conditions on foreign countries for a large proportion of her food supply, it is foolish, considering only the political aspects, to employ the land for raising unnecessary flesh-food, and so be compelled to apply to foreign markets for the first necessaries of life, when there is, without doubt, sufficient agricultural land in England to support the entire population on a vegetable regimen. ”

“ Along with correction of food supply and demand imbalances and erratic price fluctuations and raising the income of our rural population, the GMTFM will, among others, promote ancillary and service industries; strengthen the food processing industries by assuring them a steady supply of quality and graded food commodities; develop superior varieties of foodcrops; and intro­duce new techniques of fresh food preservation, handling and transport, pack­aging and trading; create a favorable climate for the export of certain commodi­ties ”

“ At this period of our national history, when food is scarce, and the supply of meat insufficient to meet the demand which our national habits of feeding perpetuate, it is an object of the first importance to consider whether other aliments can be obtained at a cheaper rate, and at the same time equal in quality to those of the existing dietary. ”

“ 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 evidence, therefore, is conclusive, "that an ample and varied supply of attractive and nutritious food can be furnished in the eastern portions of the United States—and probably in Great Britain also—at a cost not exceeding twenty cents per day, and for a less sum in the western sections of the country, provided that it is judiciously purchased and economically served" ”

“ Indeed, the necessity of a constant and steady supply of food sufficient to meet the wants of the people, and to prevent the tumults which too frequently arose whenever there was a prospect of a scarcity of corn, sufficiently accounts for the encouragement afforded to this particular trade. ”

“ He paused an instant, and then his voice took 296 on a deeper, more earnest note. “But more important than anything else just now is the need for each one of you to do everything in his power to help conserve and increase the food supply. All over the world this supply is low. The whole of Europe looks to us for a goodly proportion of its daily bread, and we’ve got to meet that expectation. ”

“ 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 markets for meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables are also regularly inspected, and the large amount of these articles seized by sanitary officers from time to time and removed to the offal docks as unfit for human food have improved the supply, checked the sale of whatever is unwholesome, and secured more care and caution on the part of dealers and consumers. ”

“ Our supply of food is only so much—and now five or six other countries are depending on us to feed them that they may live and fight. The authorities merely request that you eat— ONE POUND LESS OF WHEAT FLOUR A WEEK— which means one hundred and thirty-three million bushels of wheat more annually for emergency or two thousand million loaves of bread ”

“ This persistent lag in farm output has been extensively and publicly discussed by the leadership, which is intent on raising the general level of performance in agriculture and ensuring an adequate domestic supply of food products. ”

“ Taking the consumption of wheat or bread to be on the scale of a common dietary, i. e., 56 oz. daily for a family of a man, woman, and three children, then the annual addition of supply of wheat required will be about 105,000 quarters, requiring 28,058 acres of land, yielding 30 bushels of wheat to an acre; the total amount of good land requisite for raising the chief articles of food will therefore be in all about 109,000 acres of good pasture land annually. ”

“ Such are the two results of the system: not only is the food which is supplied to Paris scant and poor, but the regular consumers of it, those who take their turn to get it, obtain but a small portion, and that the worst.4276 A certain inspector, on going to the corn market for a sample of flour, writes "that it cannot be called flour;4277 it is ground bran," and not a nutritive substance; the bakers are forced to take it, the markets containing for the most part no other supply than this flour."—Again, three weeks later, "Food is still very scarce and poor in quality. ”

“ But it is clear that the price of labour has no necessary connexion with the price of food, since it depends entirely on the supply of labourers compared with the demand. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious. The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city dweller for the other necessities of life. This division of labor is the basis of modern civilization. At the present time it is threatened with breakdown. The town and city industries are not producing adequate goods to exchange with the food-producing farmer. Raw materials and fuel are in short supply. Machinery, as I have said, is lacking or worn out. The farmer or the peasant cannot find the goods for sale which he desires to purchase. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There can be no doubt that, wherever possible, the best method for the housewife to preserve food is to do her own drying, canning, preserving and pickling of fruits and vegetables, which she knows are fresh, putting up her own preserves, jams, jellies, pickles, syrups, grape juice, etc.
Since economy in food lies in the least amount of money for the greatest amount of nutriment, the preparation of simple foods in the home, with a care that no more is furnished for consumption than the system requires, is the truest economy in health and in doctor’s bills. ”

“ Economy of Production.—Animal foods can never compete in cheapness of the nutrients with cereals and vegetables, as it takes six to eight pounds or more of a cereal, together with forage crops, to make a pound of meat. Hence the returns in food value are very much larger from the direct use of the cereals as human food, than from the feeding of cereals to cattle and the use of the meat. As the population of a country increases, and foods necessarily become more expensive, cereals are destined to replace animal foods to a great extent, solely as a matter of economy. ”

“ If you cannot grow vegetables, use them in abundance anyway. They are too perishable to ship abroad and too bulky, containing so much water that it would be an uneconomical use of shipping to export them. But the more America eats of almost any kind of vegetable or fruit, the less of the more durable, concentrated foods will she require. The products are so varied in kind and composition that they can be used to serve almost any purpose—beans and peas to save meat; potatoes and others to save wheat; sweet fruits to save sugar; jams, even, when spread on bread, to save fat. ”

“ An explanation of the increased consumption of corn may be found in its larger use for fattening pork and beef for export as well as for domestic consumption. It has also entered quite largely, through improved manufacture of meals, starches and syrups, into table use. The consumption of oats is known to have greatly increased in its use for breakfast food. The per capita consumption of wheat, while slightly increased in some quarters through the cheapening of flour, has been diminished by the larger use of corn and oats, and a far greater variety of table food. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Such deviations from the practice of merely selling grain and meat off the farm have much extended in recent years, and will probably continue to do so under the altered conditions of British agriculture, determined by very large imports of grain, increasing imports of meat and of other products of stock-feeding, and very large imports of cattle-food and other agricultural produce. ”

“ We should demand the good, but most of us cannot afford the “fancy.”
Ready-cooked foods.—More and more cooked food, canned or otherwise, is taking its place in the market. When canned goods were first manufactured on a large scale they comprised fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish, but we are now accustomed to a miscellaneous variety, including soups, baked beans, puddings, and pudding sauces, spaghetti, hashed meat, and shellfish. Bakery products have a larger sale than ever, and are found in small towns, and even in country districts carried there by bakers’ wagons. ”

“ 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 exigencies of a world food shortage and a shortage of shipping for food transport have made it necessary for food ministries and relief organizations to give careful consideration to the most economical selection of foods for import and distribution, both from the point of view of economy of space and weight and lack of deterioration during shipping and storage, and from that of concentrated nutritional values and proper balancing of the ration.
Food provides energy for bodily work and maintenance. It is the fuel for the human machine. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Few articles of food have reached the maximum price laid down for them by the authorities. Fresh vegetables and fruit are very cheap. The only important articles which the shops have difficulty in supplying are sugar, condensed milk, and dried cereals. ”