diet. The specific animal protein is of little consequence. Beef, pork, 
chicken, rabbit, fish, mollusks, and crustaceans—any will serve. In 
fact, if man is to be adequately nourished, each source must be ex- 
ploited to the fullest. The relative inefficiency, however, of convert- 
ing agriculturally produced grains and grasses into animal protein, 
i.e., beef, pork, or chicken, makes it increasingly difficult to use these 
animal proteins to supply the needs of a hungry world with a rapidly 
increasing population. 
The available projected growth of world population indicates that 
the nations of the world will be hard pressed to meet caloric needs 
from conventional agriculture, ignoring the problem of providing 
reasonable amounts of animal protein (table 2.1). For example, one 
estimate states that? “the new mouths in the underdeveloped world 
will need some 300 million tons of additional grain annually by 1980— 
an amount approaching the present total production of North America 
and Western Europe combined.” Obviously neither our present sur- 
plus farm capacity nor a markedly increased effort here and in other 
developed countries can meet the growing nutritional needs of the 
world’s population. Before long i major portion of the food supply 
must be produced in the very countries where it is needed. Unfor- 
tunately, experiences in underdeveloped nations indicate that it is 
difficult to upgrade local agriculture to levels of production achieved 
in the United States and in Western Europe. Improvement of living 
standards in developing nations which have gained political inde- 
pendence but have yet to achieve industrial development cannot be 
expected unless their people are adequately nourished. 
TaBLE 2.1.—Projected World Population and Annual Protein Demands 
1900 | 1920 | 1940 | 1950 1960 1980 2000 
Population (billions)_-__-| 1.55 | 1.81 | 2.21 2.51 2.91 4,22 6. 27 
Annual: 
Protein demand 
(billion pounds) : 
AG oh ere | Naa een | eerie, ee en 20.0 23.6 33.9 50.3 
TAU S CS eh Ne Re oe alae cp 30; 2 Ome 50. 9 75.6 
Cereals aves eve a eee rans neo 90.3 | 105 153 227 
Roy eee ter eer cee ees) es Manes = eee | yen ee 141 164 238 353 
It. is for these reasons that the Panel considers it imperative that a 
third technique, full exploitation of the opportunities for obtaining 
food from the sea, be attempted as rapidly as possible. ‘These oppor- 
tunities are commensurate with the magnitude of the nutritional prob- 
1 International Science and Technology, December 1965. 
6 
