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about, but they are progress. The research workers in the 

 field of nutrition, the processors of food, and the consumers 

 of food are constantly exploring new possibilities. Some are 

 good and some are poor. But they must be tested in the lab- 

 oratory of human experience. This is the hard way, but it 

 is the way most progress is made. Tomatoes were considered 

 poisonous until some daredevil ate one, or perhaps someone 

 attempted suicide and cured his scurvy instead. Carrots were 

 once horse feed, now they are food fit for man. 



We Have Tried to Abolish Poverty 



It is frequently felt that, by some panacea or other, all 

 wants could be eliminated and all could live like kings. Food 

 is a popular commodity for such schemes. Two chickens in 

 every pot is a good rallying call for any political faith. 



The era of the "ill-fed" came during the middle thirties. 

 Food was given away. The Blue Stamp Plan was introduced 

 to attack underconsumption and malnutrition, the "Black 

 Plagues of the Twentieth Century." The plan was assumed 

 to kill no less than four birds with one stone. It attempted 

 to help (1) the farmer who sells the so-called surplus through 

 (2) the grocer, who thereby increases his volume of business, 

 to (3) the low-income families, whose health is bettered, and 

 finally (4) the nation, which gains all around through solv- 

 ing acute economic problems and lifting the standards of 

 health of the downtrodden third. 



Subsidized improvement of the diet of the downtrodden 

 third is popular politically since it has the support not only 

 of the prospective recipients but of some food-producers as 

 well, who think they see the possibility of a new market. To- 

 gether the farmers and the underprivileged consumers make 

 a majority in any country. 



The industrial recovery, the rapid rise in wages, the pres- 

 sure of Lend- Lease, and the food shortage, all contributed to 



