Production and Consumption 



of agricultural land is going up in other 

 countries, it is actually going down in the 

 United Kingdom. In round numbers, our 

 consumption of food is four hundred million 

 pounds' worth grown in temperate zones at 

 home and overseas, and some sixty million 

 pounds' worth imported from tropical coun- 

 tries. Of the four hundred million pounds* 

 worth one-half is produced in the United 

 Kingdom ; but of wheat we produce at home 

 only one-fifth of the total amount consumed. 

 Of meat we produce 60 per cent, of the 

 total, and of the other 40 per cent, four- 

 fifths come from the Argentine, where the 

 meat trade is largely controlled by the great 

 Armour Company of Chicago. Much more 

 meat could be produced in England, and 

 what has to be imported should come from 

 our colonies. 



All the food we consume could and should 

 be grown within the Empire itself; for it 

 is a great danger for a country to depend 

 largely upon sources of food supply over 

 which it has no control, especially when these 

 are remote and involve a long sea transit. 

 No man can say with certainty that no 



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