RELATION TO OTHER ARTICLES OF DIET 233 



Pressure of population upon agricultural resources tends there- 

 fore in general to cause a downward substitution of foodstuffs, 

 capable of yielding the required nourishment, according to the 

 scale of their relative costs. Meat, which is the most costly of the 

 great classes of nutritive foodstuffs 1 to produce in terms of agri- 

 cultural resources, may tend to disappear, especially among the 

 poorer classes, in favour of dairy products or fish, and these in their 

 turn may tend to disappear in favour of cereals and other plant 

 foodstuffs. 2 



Whether this process of substitution is desirable from the econo- 

 mic point of view depends on the level of the standard of subsistence 

 which, it will be admitted, should be maintained at a point that 

 involves neither mal-nutrition nor under-nourishment, since both 

 of these impair health and efficiency. In certain sections of the 

 white population, which consume normally a high proportion of 

 animal foodstuffs, this process of substitution might be carried to a 

 certain point without any injury ; among the poorer populations 

 of Europe there is little or no room for its operation their present 

 need is for upward rather than for downward substitution. How- 

 ever, among white populations in general there is little doubt that 

 economies in nutrition could be effected without injury to health 

 and efficiency by substituting certain kinds of meat for others and 

 by substituting fish more extensively for meats. 



1 That is, as distinguished from stimulants and luxuries. 



2 Various studies in nutrition point to the high comparative money cost 

 of meat as a source of nourishment. Thus in the United States it has been 

 found that meat and poultry, while supplying about one-sixth of the total 

 nourishment, account for more than one-third of the total expenditure on 

 food in the average household. U.S. Dept. Agric., Farmers' Bulletin, 391, 

 and Bureau of Statistics, Bulletin 55. Again in a standard dietary on a liberal 

 scale for middle-class adults in a large convalescent home near London in 

 1913 the cost of the various items in the weekly food budget shows that animal 

 foodstuffs (excluding, of course, fish) accounted for about 68% of the cost, 

 but only about 42% of the calorie value. Journal Board Agnc., March, 1917. 



