FOOD SUPPLY

the animal still cannot fiourish. The animal is adjusted to live either on plant ti ues or the ti ues of other animals, and these contain countle substances other than proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.” The lack or insufficiency of these important materials in the food can cause such diseases as rickets, scurvy, pellagra, beri-beri, and other so-called ‘defiviency diseases.’ These vitamins have been differentiated into the ‘fat soluble A’ and the ‘ water-soluble B.’ The latter is regarded as identical with Yunk’s ‘vitamins.’ It cures the disease beri-beri. Under the normal conditions of life human beings are constantly ingesting in fresh ye getable and animal food an adequate supply of these e ential vitamins. But when such fresh foods are lacking and reliance is placed solely on tinned food or on cereals completely deprived of their pericarps, ‘deficiency diseases’ are apt to occur. The epoch-making discovery of vitamins has given a fresh impetus to the scientific study of food, and at the present time intensive investigations British | U.S A. Ru ian. French, German Peace Ration.. — 4179 4060 3426 3161 PieldService Ration 4449 4199 4891 5064 2801 imergency Ration | 2595 4110 — 2130 2786 The following figures are given in an efiicial British document: Calories required per diem. For sedentary life 2450 » slight muscular work 2700 » light to moderate work 3050 >» xoderate work.. 3400 >» very hard work vc. 0000 Vitamins. One of the most important advances in the scientific understanding of the problems of nutrition has been the recognition of the fact that a proper diet to maintain the growth and healthy metabolism of the body must contain something more than proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and salts. “There are some substances existing in natural foods, in very minute quantities, which are absolutely e ential to the harmonious fulfilment of the life proce es ” (Lusx). Bunk gaye the name ‘vitamins’ to these substances. Writing in 1906, Profe or Gowland Hopkins, of the University of Cambridge, who is one of the pioneers in this far-reaching advance in our knowledge, explained the significance ef what he called the ‘acce ory factors’ of diet. ‘‘No animal can live on a mixture of pure protein, fat, and carbohydrate, and even when the nece ary inorganic material is carefully supplied are being made into the complex and many-sided probiems relating to this subject.—Cf. Graham Lusk, The Elements of the Science of Nutrition (3rd edition, 1917). See VITAMINS. FOCD-SUPPLY. Of the four chief manufacturing and commercial countries, Britain, Germany, France, and the United States, only the last is practically self-supportive in respect of food-supply, but even in this case there is a considerable importation of sugar, coffee, and tea. The other three countries are all more or le dependent upon importation for some e ential elements in their food-supply, and this dependence upon other lands is most marked in the case of Britain. Before the Wuropean War the United Kingdom imported annually food and drink to the value of no le than £230,000,000 (roughly speaking), which was fully two-fifths of the total value of her whole annual import trade. Her annual import of grain and flour alone was valued at over £70,000,000, more than half of this representing wheat, wheat-meal, and flour. In the five years 1910-4 the United Kingdom imported 80 per cent of its wheat and wheat-fiour, as well as large quantities of oats, barley, and maize; altogether of the total cereal requirements of the country over 60 507 FOOD SUPPLY per cent were imported during that period. This dependence has been widely regarded in recent years as a serious weakne in Britain’s economic and strategical position, and various proposals have been made for diminishing or removing it. Some are of opinion that Britain can obtain the whole of her food-supply from within the empire, and advocate the adoption of fiscal arrangements intended to bring about this state of imperial self sufficiency. Others maintain that the empire cannot, at last for a very long time, supply the needs of the mother country in regard to food out of its surplus production, and hold that all the definite plans of imperial preference and reciprocity that have actually been proposed would entail serious economic evils out of all proportion to any benefits which might follow from their adoption. Others, now comparatively few, seek to return to the old agricultural protectionism in order to increase the agricultural output of the United Kingdom, and still others hope for a revival of British agriculture from a radical reform of the and system, such as would give greater freedom and security to the farmer, a more honourable and independent position to the labourer, and a more effective co-ordinating control to public authorities. HReyal Commi ion. In view of the special importance of the food-supplies of the country in time of war, a Royal Comuni ion was appointed. in 1903 ‘“‘to inquire into the conditions affecting the importation of food and raw material into the United Kingdom in time of war, and into the amount of the reserves of such supplies existing in the country at any given period, and to advise whether it is desirable to adopt any measures, in addition to the maintenance of a strong fleet, by which such supplies can be better secured, and violent fluctuations avoided.” The Commi ioners, who reported in 1905, a umed that the stock of wheat in the United Kingdom, which was usually about 17 weeks’ supply in September, would never fall below 7 weeks’ supply except in August, when it might be 64 weeks. They held that ‘not, only is there no risk of a total ce ation of our supplies, but no reasonable probability of serious interference with them, and during a maritime war there will be no material diminution in their volume.’ They considered various schemes for preventing the dangers that might acerue from a, ‘ panic’ rise of prices during war time, and held that a large stock of grain existing within the United Kingdom would be the most powerful means of attaining this end_ but they felt bound to reject nearly all the proposed schemes for increasing the stock of grain. They strongly approved the introduction of a system of national indemnity against lo from capture by the enemy, on the ground that it would operate as an additional security to the maintenance of our oversea trade and as an important steadying influence upon prices. European War. The conclusions of the Royal Commi ion were confirmed by experience in the European War (1914-8), as food-stuffs flowed freely into this country from its numerous sources of supply overseas. It was not until 1916 that the need for economy of purchases abroad, and the shortage of shipping due to other demands and to submarines, caused the Government to encourage tillage by guaranteeing the prices of wheat, oats, and potatoes. In 1917 the position became more serious as the result of unrestricted submarine warfare, and the Corn Production Act was pa ed. This secured to the farmer minimum prices for wheat and oats over a period of five year gave the agricultural labourer a minimum wage fixed by agricultural wage; boards; and gave the Board of Agricult ure powers of entry on land and of requiring better cultivation. About the same time a special Food Production Department of the Board of Agriculture was set up, whose functions were to secure an adequate supply of labour for agriculture; to mobilize and increase the supply of horses and agricultural machinery; and to arrange the supply and distribution of seed and fertilizers. The department worked largely through county and local agricultural committees, and some idea of its work is given by the fact that the number of women working on the land was increased from ninet y to three hundred you sand, and that over four you sand tractors were made available for ploughing, ., while the tillage area was inereased by three million acres between 1916 and 1918. As a result, it was po ible very largely to reduce the quantity of cereals imported. After the close of the war, however, the amount of land under crops speedily fell again, and the question arose whether, and if so what, steps should be taken permanently to inerease the proportion of food-stufis consumed in the United Kingdom which is produced at home.; Agriculture Act. In 1920 the Agriculture Act was pa ed, the first part of which continued the system of guaranteed prices, minimum wages, and enforcement of good cuit i vat i on 508 FOOL which had been instituted as a wartime measure by the Corn Production Act, 1917. In1921, however, the collapse of cereal prices threatened to involve the Government in very heavy expenditure to maintain guaranteed prices to British farmers, and accordingly the first part of the Agriculture Act was repealed, which involved a return to pre-war conditions as regards food production in the United Kingdom.