( 109 ) 



Rubber from Wheat 



The principal raw materials used in the production of syn- 

 thetic rubber are alcohol and petroleum. The program calls 

 for the production of over two thirds of a million tons of 

 butadiene. About two thirds of this is to be produced from 

 petroleum and one third from alcohol. This would require 

 the equivalent of about 10 per cent of our annual production 

 of wheat and 0.2 per cent of the petroleum. Although both 

 petroleum and food are scarce, the rubber program has the 

 greater effect on food and particularly grain. If all the buta- 

 diene synthetic rubber were made from grain, it would be 

 equivalent to one third of the wheat, whereas if it were all 

 produced from petroleum, it would represent only 0.3 per 

 cent of the production. 



The rubber-from- wheat program is another hangover from 

 the surplus-food era. It will change but will be changed the 

 hard way. 2 



Stocks of Food Are Running Dangerously Low 



The only food supplies for which there are large stocks 

 are wheat and livestock on the hoof. Of the two, wheat will 

 feed the more people ; it will feed seven times as many people 

 as wheat than as the meat that might be produced from it. 



The nation has been squandering its stock pile of wheat, 

 the one optimistic spot in the food picture. 



Synthetic rubber can be produced from petroleum or from 

 grain alcohol. Someone should weigh the relative supplies 

 and requirements for oil and grain. Both are apparently in 

 short supply, and the requirements on both are high. It would 

 not be surprising if we were shorter on food than on oil. 



2 It has been estimated that 150,000,000 bushels of wheat will be used 

 for industrial alcohol during 1943^4. 



There were reports current in the spring of 1943 that the government had 

 halted construction on four alcohol-from-grain plants. 



