502 SYMPOSIUM ON FOOD PROBLEMS 



forces that sway government arise from a citizenship of whom the 

 great mass are economic ilHterates. This is unfortunate, for gov- 

 ernment is becoming more and more the apphcation of economics, 

 especially in war time, and we as yet have very inefficient reasons of 

 determining whether those placed in supreme authority have eco- 

 nomic knowledge. 



Our chief task with regard to food is to save ourselves from our 

 beasts; namely, to shift agriculture from the production of food for 

 animals over to the production of food for men. Agriculture, like 

 the other industries, responding to the law of supply and demand, 

 had slowly adjusted itself to a condition of world trade which, as we 

 well know, has been suddenly destroyed in such a way as to throw 

 upon us greatly increased demands for both bread and meat, but 

 especiallv for bread. This means that we must either increase our 

 total production or shift our production from one class of goods to 

 another. It is very doubtful if we can hope for a total increase 

 in agricultural products, in consideration of the fact that hundreds 

 of thousands of people have recently left farm labor for the more 

 attractive prices of munition plants and other city opportunities, and 

 other hundreds of thousands are going off to the army. 



Therefore, we must reduce something. What shall be reduced? 

 Since the main products of American farms may be classified ulti- 

 mately as fruits and vegetables, bread stuffs, dairy products, meats, 

 and fibers, we must look over the list carefully and see where we can 

 shorten up. Examination of the facts will show that there is but one 

 place. We must have fibers for clothing. We must continue to have 

 bread, more of it rather than less, much more indeed. We must con- 

 tinue to have fruits and vegetables, more of them rather than less. 

 We should not attempt to reduce dairy products. It is upon meat 

 and meat alone that we have the possibility of shrinking. The 

 beasts, the blessed beasts, by their deaths, can save us. Their bodies, 

 if used for food, fill our plates once. The grain they would have 

 eaten had they lived will fill our plates several times over. 



It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the fact that 

 American agriculture has an animal base. In China, Japan, and 

 parts of India, animals are only one-twentieth part as numerous in 

 proportion to population as they are here. There man raises food 



