783 



vidual's degree of activity. It set up a theoretical individual, called 

 "Reference Man,'' who is 25 years of age and healthy, weighs 65 kilo- 

 grams, and lives in the temperate zone where the annual mean tern- 

 perature is 10 degrees centigrade. Using these standards, a person in 

 a sedentary occupation would need 2,800 calories a day, one whose 

 work made him moderately active would need 3,200, and one doing 

 heavy work would need 4,400. Of course, these are approximate ref- 

 erence points. Within each occupational group there are wide varia- 

 tions in the energy expended to do some particular task. Furthermore, 

 conditions within occupations vary from one country to the next. For 

 all groups, however, inadequate food consumption reduces working 

 efficiency. 



FOOD AND METABOLISM 



The quantity of basic energy foods an individual can use effectively 

 is determined in part by the amount of protein available to him. Pro- 

 tein provides the "building blocks" of the body — the muscle and sinew 

 that must be replaced when work wears them out. The body com- 

 pensates for a lower protein intake by reducing the breakdown of its 

 own protein, and an equilibrium is established between protein intake 

 and protein destruction at a lower level than would be tne case with a 

 more balanced diet. The effect of protein deficiency is an inability to 

 expend energy at a high rate or to perform strenuous work for a pro- 

 tracted period of time without a loss of weight and perhaps even 

 damage to health. People in the LDCs who subsist on an unbalanced 

 diet tend to avoid prolonged physical work which might cause a break- 

 down in their precarious metabolic equilibrium. However, since they 

 do less work, they require less of the fuel-foods as well. But the effect 

 is to cut down their physical productivitj. 



While chronic undernourishment (insufficient energy-food) and 

 malnutrition (unbalanced diet, mainly protein shortage) do not con- 

 stitute famine, there have been instances in recent years in which food 

 shortages either threatened or actually reached famine proportions. 

 In the mid-1960s, the failure of the Indian monsoon to bring adequate 

 rainfall occasioned a sharp decline in Indian cereal production and 

 India reached the brink of famine.^^ U.S. food stocks eased the crisis, 

 although even these supplies were not as plentiful as they had been in 

 the past. The civil war in Nigeria brought starvation to the Biafran 

 faction. Toward the close of World War II, the exigencies of war 

 brought actual famine to the people of parts of The Netherlands. Real 

 famine, however, is the exception rather than the rule. Generally speak- 

 ing, hunger is endemic in the LDC, but starvation is not. They need 

 more food, and more especially a better balance in their diets. 



Although all elements of diet are important, the first step in over- 

 coming food shortage is to deal with tne problem of nourishment — 

 literally, to ease the pain of hunger. The most important sources of 

 high-calorie foods are wheat, rice, and other grains. It is here that 

 some of the most spectacular steps are already being taken, through 

 the introduction of new, high-yield genetic strains. 



^ U.S. Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, "The Green Revolution, Symposium 

 on Science and Foreign Policy." Proceedings before the Subcommittee on National Security 

 Policy and Scientific Developments of the 91st Congress, 1st session, December 5, 1969 

 (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970), pages 213-214. 



