THE RATE OF CONSUMPTION 207 



The position of Canada in the matter of consumption of ani trial 

 foodstuffs is similar to that of the United States, though the scale 

 is not so high. Fish is consumed in greater quantities per capita 

 than in the United States, dairy products at least in equal quanti- 

 ties, while the per capita consumption of poultry products, though 

 considerable, is somewhat less by values. 



The per capita consumption of meat in Germany and the United 

 Kingdom is well above the world's average, taken at 93 Ibs., while 

 that of France is slightly so. In each of these countries, in spite 

 of considerable supplies of fish and of dairy and poultry products, 

 there is little doubt that the rate of meat consumption is capable 

 of great expansion among the masses of the working-class popula- 

 tion, given adequate purchasing power and sufficient supplies. 

 Some evidence of this appears in the fact that in these countries 

 the consumption of meat and other animal foodstuffs tends to rise 

 in times of industrial prosperity and to diminish in times of de- 

 pression. 1 



With regard to the remaining countries in the above table, if the 

 per capita figures are accepted as they stand, it is apparent that 

 the meat consumption is for one reason or another unduly low. 

 The principal cause in all of them is the relative poverty of the 

 masses of the population resulting in habitual low standards of 

 living among them. 2 



In the Mediterranean countries, in addition to general poverty 

 resulting from a backward state of economic development, further 

 causes contributing to a low pei capita consumption of animal 

 foodstuffs appear in the relatively warm climate which renders 

 animal foodstuffs less necessary, in the wide use of olive oil and 

 its substitutes in the place of butter and lard, and in the general 

 accessibility of most centres of population to fishing waters. Meat 

 tends to be an accessory in the diet rather than a necessity ; and 

 fruits, nuts and vegetable oils, which are widely produced, and 

 which are regarded as accessories elsewhere, tend to replace meat 

 and animal fats as staple articles of food. 



In other countries in this group distinguished by a low per capita 

 consumption of meat, such as Russia and the Scandinavian coun- 

 tries, fish is a very important article of diet, and the large quanti- 

 ties consumed make meat less essential ; in Russia enormous 



1 Schmoller, Grundriss der Allgemeinen Volkswivtschaft, p. 603. With 

 reference to the United Kingdom in particular, see (Cd. 2644), QQ. 388, 389. 

 It appears from investigations made in these countries that a considerable 

 fraction of the population has been chronically more or less under-nourished ; 

 and it is an interesting speculation whether an increased outlay on concen- 

 trated foodstuffs, such as those of animal origin, would not before long result 

 in a more than proportionate increase in the value of the industrial output. 



2 These populations are found mainly in those predominantly agricultural 

 districts of Europe where climatic conditions are often unfavourable to animal 

 industries and where agriculture tends to be in a backward state. Local 

 supplies of animal foodstuffs are consequently insufficient to produce more 

 than a meagre per capita supply, and the low purchasing power of these popu- 

 lations prevents them from competing for foreign surplus supplies!. 



