( 104 ) 



lation, we ate less meat. Over long periods of time, the 

 amount of grain fed to livestock tends to decline as popula- 

 tion increases. This is one of the important equalizers in a na- 

 tion's food supply. 



Foreign Trade Equalizes Food Supplies 



Prior to 1900 food production increased and exports rose 

 (table 1). From about 1900 to the outbreak of World War I 

 the production of food increased slightly less rapidly than 

 population, and exports started to decline. Following World 

 War I, food production did not keep pace with our expanding 

 population and there was a drastic decline in our exports. 



From 1923 to the outbreak of World War II the nation 

 consumed more food than it produced, and a net import 

 balance was necessary to equalize our food supplies (figure 1, 

 page 153). 



TABLE 1. CHANGES IN PER CAPITA PRODUCTION OF 

 FOOD AND FEED CROPS AND FOOD EXPORTS, 

 1866 TO 1939 



With Rising Population, Our Exports Decline 



As the nation's population has risen, the quantity of vari- 

 ous foodstuffs available for export has dwindled. The propor- 

 tion of the cottonseed-oil production that was exported 

 declined from about fifty per cent in 1900 to practically noth- 



