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ing amounts of the highly prized foods which the govern- 

 ment offered him at low prices. John Q. Public observed two 

 conflicting signposts : price and exhortation. He followed the 

 example of history and chose the former. Unwittingly, but 

 with governmental approval, he did his best to help create 

 a shortage of the highly prized foods. 



Since the consumer did not react to the exhortations as 

 expected, the government handed him a ticket, and the gov- 

 ernment now determines what, when, and how much of the 

 highly prized foods he shall eat. 



If the pull-in-your-belt policy merely means eating less 

 milk, meat, and poultry products and substituting the unra- 

 tioned cereal grains instead, this policy is the solution to the 

 food problem. However, -this is not John Q. Public's interpre- 

 tation of the tighter-belt policy; to him it means eating less 

 food. In this respect it is not the solution. 



The rationing program will reduce our consumption of 

 certain types of food, but that reduction will be accompanied 

 by an expansion in the consumption of the unrationed foods. 

 It is practically impossible really to pull in the belt without 

 increasing the death-rate. 



All sorts of unique solutions for the food problem have 

 been proposed. It has been suggested that the coffee shortage 

 be solved by substituting a glass of milk for a cup of coffee. 

 During 1939 the nation consumed about eighty billion cups 

 of coffee. The problem would be to find enough milk to sub- 

 stitute for the coffee. The forty billion additional pounds of 

 milk that would be required are equivalent to more than a 

 third of the nation's production of all dairy products. 



Food a Weapon of War and a Tool of Peace 



Military strategists contend that we should send our allies 

 planes, tanks, guns, and food. This idea is embodied in Lend- 

 Lease. It is also contended that food will write the peace, and 



