The World's Meat Future, 



Lord Harcourt recently said in the House of Lords that 

 while he was acting as President of the Board of Trade, in 1916, 

 he acquired information which caused him the greatest anxiety 

 in regard to the meat supply, and added, "After the war there 

 would be a scarcity of meat — almost a war famine. Germany, 

 Belgium, and Holland were faced with a post war deficit of 

 8,000,000 head of cattle, and Denmark, Austria, Servia and 

 Roumania another 8,000,000. Europe, therefore, would seek to 

 import from 16 million to 20 million head of cattle. Britain 

 produces only 60 per cent, of the meat consumed. He was, him- 

 self, so impressed with the seriousness of the position last year 

 that he sought to arrange a scheme for securing a supply of 

 chilled meat, which would be ample for Britain for several years 

 after the war. ' ' 



This statement, by a prominent British statesman, is of such 

 vital importance to the Empire that to the best of my ability I 

 am going to place before those who care to read it, the position 

 to-day in the various stock raising countries of the world. 



In commencing I must say that I fear the information given 

 to Lord Harcourt must have been of a hasty character. 

 Granted that the shortage in the seven European countries named 

 would amount to 16,000,000 head of chttle, that does not mean 

 that a similar number or more would have to be imjiorted to 

 make up the shortage. First of all there will be probably 

 16.000,000 to 20,000,000 adults less to eat meat, and the children, 

 or those of them left alive, will not by any means require much 

 meat for a few years after the war. Probably counti'ies like 

 Denmark, Holland, Germany and Austria will have kept a very 

 large ]>roportion of breeding stock, and in three or four years 

 a very large increase of young cattle can be looked for, particu- 

 larly if they buy bulls from Britain, United States, or Canada, 

 where there is plenty of young male stock available. INIeantime 

 people will have learned economy, the use of horse and whale 

 flesh, and the larger use of fish and cereals, also that there is not 

 the necessity they imagined for so big a meat diet. 



