ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 337 



torn, law, and tradition, which, once established, are handed down from 

 generation to generation and are exceedingly stubborn facts in food eco- 

 nomics. In the United States, the colonists of various national origins 

 brought their native habits, which were soon altered by new conditions of 

 economic geography varying with different sections of the country. To the 

 earliest colonies along the coast, fish, being easily caught, were important as 

 part of the diet and as export goods for revenue. As the colonists moved into 

 the interior, long distances, poor roads, and warm climate put them out of 

 reach of fresh ocean fish, while abundance of rich land and good climate 

 yielded the greatest plenty of high-quality food of agricultural origin. 

 Accordingly, a continental pattern of food habits was established on the 

 products of the farm from which fish was practically excluded everywhere 

 except on the coastal fringe and around the Great Lakes. The new wave of 

 immigrants from 1870 to 1914 brought national groups with new influences 

 and reimposed some of the old-country habits — the Irish to Boston and New 

 York, the Germans to Wisconsin and Missouri, Scandinavians to Minnesota, 

 and Chinese to California, to mention only a few. 



It is impossible to treat here, except in the briefest outline, the factors 

 which have made and are still making our national dietary pattern. It is a 

 spotty regional and local patchwork resulting from imposition of a new 

 over an old pattern, later modified by improvements in agriculture, the 

 coming of railroads, refrigerator cars and warehouses, still later by refrig- 

 erated auto trucks, and now by esthetic and scientific sophistication of 

 consumers, mechanization of industry and daily life, rapidly increasing 

 percentage of old people in the population, and many other influences which 

 fix the gross composition of our diet, and, in particular, how much fish is 

 included. ^^ 



Gross Cofnposition of the National Dietary. The amount of fish in the 

 diet of different countries varies greatly, as shown by production of iii 

 pounds per capita in Japan, 48 in Great Britain, to 20 in France, 8 in 

 Mexico and 3 in Brazil. (FAO, 1945; other authors estimate these quantities 

 at considerably lower, but proportionate, figures; some allowance must be 

 made for imports and exports which vary from country to country.) The 

 per capita consumption of meat and fish in the United States for the years 

 1930-47 are compared in Table 6. 



The teachings of the history and economic geography of food are not 

 only that the total quantity of food per capita is approximately a constant, 

 but that the composition can and does change but slowly, and in response 

 only to potent and persistent influence; that the amount of fish entering into 

 the national or a regional dietary cannot be increased by wishing or hoping 



22. For extensive information, treated here in briefest outline, see Yearbook of Agriculture, 

 1939; also Furnas and Furnas (1937). 



