388 lusk: food economics 



Imports from oversea had been restricted. Meat, butter, cheese, 

 and fish formerly obtained from Holland and Denmark were no 

 longer available. The North Sea fisheries which had yielded 

 179,000 metric tons (1 metric ton = 2200 lbs.) of fish were 

 closed, trained farm hands were fewer, crops in East Prussia 

 and Alsace had been destroyed; the situation appeared serious. 

 It was estimated that the annual amount of food fuel necessary 

 to support sixty-eight million Germans— men, women, and 

 children— was 56,750,000,000,000 calories. This is the equiva- 

 lent of 3000 calories per adult per day. The quantity of protein 

 required in this fuel, if the human machines were to maintain 

 themselves in self-repair, was estimated to be 1,605,000 metric 

 tons per annum. It was calculated that a mixed population of 

 sixty-eight millions (men, women, and children) required the 

 same amount of food as would 51,823,000 adults. 



In order to increase the production of food and to diminish 

 the waste, the committee recommended increasing the crop of 

 beans, with its large protein content, reducing the unnecessarily 

 large meat supply, and increasing the intake of cheese and 

 skim milk (which latter should no longer be fed to pigs), im- 

 proving the yield of vegetables and fruits, and reducing the 

 quantity of butter and cream produced. A reduction in the 

 consumption of meat, butter, and cream was necessary, because 

 edible grains would be required for human food, and the main- 

 tenance of the usual number of cattle was no longer deemed 

 possible. 



The estimated savings as above enumerated would result in a 

 total production of 81.25 billion food calories containing 2,022,800 

 tons of protein. 



The conditions were summarized as shown in table I. 



From these data it was concluded that the German people, 

 through cooperation of millions of inhabitants, would be able 

 to prevent suffering for lack of food. There can be no question 

 that respect for the scientific knowledge of specialists, of men 

 like Rubner, Zuntz, Oppenheimer, and Lehmann, was of highest 

 value in the hour of national exigency. Countries in which 

 highly educated men are very slightly esteemed would have 



