250 CONSUMPTION 



prejudice, and secondly the difficulty of obtaining it thoroughly 

 fresh and at the same time fit for human consumption. 1 



It is important to notice that so far as substitution in an}^ of the 

 above forms becomes effective among consumers, there results a 

 saving of agricultural resources without any necessary decrease in 

 the nutritive value of the dietary. 



Among vegetarians it is held that nuts and other plant food- 

 stuffs of similar chemical composition can be used as a complete 

 substitute for meat, and similarly that vegetable oils can replace 

 butter and animal fats. The proportion of thorough-going vege- 

 tarians among the various white populations is quite small, and if 

 increasing, is doing so at a slow rate. There is not, therefore, much 

 likelihood that the per capita consumption of animal foodstuffs 

 will be appreciably reduced in the future by a spread of voluntary 

 vegetarianism in its pure form. Partial vegetarianism which dis- 

 penses with meat from the diet, but admits the use of dairy pro- 

 ducts and eggs, seems more suited to the taste of the average Euro- 

 pean than the former, and is therefore perhaps capable of greater 

 growth in the future. Modified forms of the latter, which aim at 

 reducing the consumption of flesh, without eliminating it as a matter 

 of principle, also exist. It should be noted that all forms of partial 

 vegetarianism, while reducing meat consumption, tend to increase 

 almost corresponding!}? the consumption of fish and especially of 

 dairy products and eggs. They may not therefore materially 

 relieve animal food supplies as a whole, except in so far as less 

 agricultural resources are required to produce a given unit of food 

 values in the form of the substitutes than in the form of meat. 

 Since, however, an acre of land will produce more food-units when 

 used for dairying than when used under similar methods of culti- 

 vation for meat production, there is some advantage in the saving 

 of food supplies, through substituting the former for the latter in 

 consumption. So far as vegetarianism in any form results in the 

 substitution of plant foodstuffs for animal, there is a distinct 

 advantage in that direction. 



The age-constitution of any given population will, other condi- 

 tions being the same, influence the per capita consumption of animal 

 foodstuffs and especially of meat. In many countries populated 

 by Europeans there has recently been a general decline in the birth- 

 rate accompanied by a decline also in the death-rate. The effect 

 of both of these changes is in the same direction, namely, to raise 

 the age-constitution of the population, or, mother words, to increase 



1 Under the old farm dairy system in which the cream is obtained by 

 skimming after the milk has been standing 12 hours or more, the skim-milk 

 will stand transportation and retailing only in cooler weather, while under 

 the creamery system the separated milk obtained is not of much value as 

 human food. It might, however, be possible to utilise milk to greater advan- 

 tage by withdrawing part of the cream as soon as possible for margarine pro- 

 duction and by disposing of the valuable remaining product for human con- 

 sumption in place of whole milk. 



