The Animal Food Supplies 

 of the World 



i 



INTRODUCTION 



ANIMAL foodstuffs are now regarded as essential, together 

 with cereals, in the dietary of all the great civilised nations 

 of the world, except, perhaps, of the Japanese, who, however, 

 have abundant supplies of fish available to furnish concentrated 

 proteids, and fats. With the rapid advance of industrialisation 

 and the massing of great populations in towns, subsisting upon 

 foodstuffs brought from a distance, the trade in these products has 

 assumed an importance which it never had before, and the question 

 of supplies stands out with ever-increasing prominence. 1 



Into the problems that arise from questions of supply and de- 

 mand, or, more precisely, of production and consumption of animal 

 food products, it is the purpose of the following chapters to enter. 

 In the course of this inquiry it is proposed to define such products 

 so as to include, first, meats of various kinds, including pork and 

 bacon ; second, meat products, such as extracts, lard and oleo ; 

 third, dairy products including whole milk, condensed and dried 

 milk, and margarine, in addition to butter and cheeses; and fourth, 

 poultry and eggs. Fish, which, it may be noted, can physiologically 

 serve as a complete substitute for meat and dairy products in human 

 diet, is intentionally excluded from the definition, since the geo- 

 graphical conditions of its supply are totally different. Fish, 

 therefore, are discussed in this inquiry only as far as they affect 

 the consumption of animal products. 



It is to be noted that difficulties immediately arise from any 

 arbitrary separation of animal food products from other food 

 articles of general or special consumption by human populations. 

 Cereals and other vegetable products, such as potatoes, and even 

 fruits, though produced or imported primarily for direct human 

 consumption, may also be partly used as feedstuffs for domestic 

 animals. But " the proportion of grain fed to animals is not 



1 The world's production of meat, exclusive of China, has been estimated at 

 about f>0,000 million Ibs. per annum. In calorie values, however, this is 

 equivalent to but l/14th of the world's rice crop and to but 1/tfth of its wheat 

 crop. In 1912 the export trade in meat (exclusive of live animals) has been 

 estimated as amounting to 7-7 per cent, of the world's production. U.S. 

 Dept. Agric. Office of Secretary. Kept. 109, 



