ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 



303 



TABLE 4 



Average Prices in Cents per Pound of Fish (Total U. S. Production) at 



Ports of Landing and of Domestic Animals at Local Markets in 



the United States, 1938-39-40 



Sources: 

 * Calculated from statistical reports U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and Fish & Wildlife Service, 

 t Statistical Abstract of the United States, No. 66, 1944-45, Tables 727 and 740. 

 t Oysters, clams, and scallops included in this column are net meats exclusive of shells. 



and Alaska herring, menhaden, and California pilchard) are not available, 

 but the estimate was made of 500,000 pounds of pilchard per man-year, or 

 10 times the yield of the corn-pig combination (in the period 1940-4'!). 

 A more exact comparison can be made with the somewhat more costly 

 (but still very efficient) New England trawler fishery for cod, haddock, 

 flounder, etc., in which a trawler with 20 men in crew produces 4 million 

 pounds whole fish or 200,000 pounds per man-year — four times the yield 

 of pigs. At 42 per cent yield of edible portions from the whole fish, the produce 

 would be 84,000 pounds per man-year, or 2.57 times the production of edible 

 pork and fat in pigs, which ratio is about the same as that of the base prices. 

 This comparison is superficial, since it takes no account of capital invest- 

 ment or supplies and services purchased by either farmers or fishermen. 

 Certainly agricultural livestock production has nothing to approach the low 

 cost of the 5^ billion pounds of herring, pilchard, and menhaden valued at 

 ^2 cent per pound in the three years, 1938-39-40 combined. 



Even though the comparisons now possible are superficial, and more 

 study is needed, the differences are so great that there can be no doubt that 

 the bulk fisheries yield food values in protein and fat at far lower cost at the 

 point of production than that of land animals. 



In the search for cheap sources of food protein and fat, the cultivation of 

 yeast has been proposed and to some extent practiced. A recent report * on 

 conversion by yeast of sugars prepared from by-product or waste wood 

 cellulose to protein indicated a yield of about 25 per cent, as compared 

 with about 5 per cent if the same sugar is fed to pigs. In order to do even 

 this, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium had to be added and "assuming 



4. Chemical and Engineering News, Staff Report, "Yeast Hailed as Aid in World Food Supply 

 Problem," Vol. 26, p. 3487, Nov. 22, 1948. 



