SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS PARTS I. AND II. 



The study of the questions relating to the production and the 

 consumption of animal foodstuffs made in this enquiry has led to 

 certain conclusions which for convenience may be summarised here. 



A stage has now been reached in the general economic situation, 

 in which the supplies of animal foodstuffs distinctly tend to fall 

 short of normal requirements throughout the world-market (I., 3). 

 This is due to three causes that work together to produce the same 

 result ; the first is that owing to the comparative lack of unde- 

 veloped fertile regions, the rate of expansion in the surplus pro- 

 duction of pasture-fed meat animals and of concentrated feedstuffs 

 from the newer overseas countries is slowing down (I., 3 and 4) ; 

 the second that the white meat-consuming population of the world 

 has been increasing rapidly arid still tends to do so (II., 1) ; the 

 third that with the general improvements in the financial status 

 of industrial and agricultural workers in Europe, their per capita 

 consumption of animal foodstuffs taken as a whole, tends to rise, a 

 feature that becomes all the more marked when the birth-rate falls 

 (II., 4). 



With regard to the supplies of animal foodstuffs derived from the 

 surplus-producing regions (I., 4), those from North America declined 

 remarkably in the period 1900-13, while those from South America 

 rose, but not to the same extent as the former declined (p. 141) ; 

 the change in both cases was most conspicuous in beef. Supplies 

 from other surplus-producing regions expanded at a moderate rate 

 only. The outlook for the immediate future does not disclose any 

 likelihood of a great increase in supplies except at much higher prices. 

 North America has increased its net surplus during the war period, 

 but may in the future become a deficiency area in the matter of 

 certain animal foodstuffs ; and owing to the war and to political 

 disturbances, the enormous surplus of animal foodstuffs and feed- 

 stuffs from Russia and Siberia has temporarily disappeared, and 

 this export trade may not recover for some time to come. As 

 regards the limitations imposed by geographical conditions upon 

 the production of animal foodstuffs, the situation may in the future 

 be relieved to some extent by the development of the pastoral 

 resources of the tropical highlands and by an increased output of 

 oleaginous seeds and nuts from the tropical and sub-tropical low- 

 lands (I., 5). 



The supplies of concentrated feedstuffs are of the greatest im- 

 portance r |as determining the output of animal foodstuffs in the 

 regions of more intensive agriculture in Western Europe (I., 2). A 

 number of countries showing a comparatively large surplus of these 

 foodstuffs, referred to in this enquiry as the elaborating-commercial 



