416 



Departmekt of Health, Education, and Welfare. 



Washington, D.C. May 26, 1967. 

 Mr. H. E. Crowther 



Director, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 

 Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 Department of the Interior, 

 Washington, D.C. 



Dear Mr. Crowther: This is in response to your letter of May 25, 1967, con- 

 cerning the provision of P.L. 89-701, which prohibits the Secretary of the Interior 

 from commencing construction of the authorized fish protein concentrate demon- 

 stration plant until the Secretary of HEW provides an appropriate certification. 

 We assume, as you do, that the foregoing provision of P.L. 89-701 had been 

 met by the February 2, 1967, Food and Drug Administration amendment regard- 

 ing the use of fish protein concentrate. We shall, however, be pleased to provide 

 you with an appropriate certification if you determine it to be necessary or 

 desirable. 



No hearings have been scheduled with respect to the February 2, 1967, amend- 

 ment to the food additive regulations, and it is our current intention not to stay 

 the amendment in the event hearings should be scheduled. 



I trust this information will be satisfactory for your purposes. 

 Sincerely yours, 



Mild D. Leavitt, Jr., M.D., 



Deputy Assistant Secretary 



for Science and Population. 



Mr. Lennon. I have not been advised of it. 



So until the certification from the Secretary of Health, Education 

 and Welfare is made to the Secretary of the Interior, that having been 

 done, the Secretary of Interior, under the miindate of this act can 

 proceed according to the language of the act. 



Just how serious a problem does the world face in protein malnutri- 

 tion from the broad spectrum? 



INIr. Waters. Mr. Chairman, it is a very serious problem. In regard 

 to the availability of food in relation to the numbers of people, the 

 situation has been deteriorating for 2 years. The per capita avail- 

 ability of food has slipped rather than moved ahead. 



While we are concerned with all the aspects of food availability, we 

 are becoming more concerned about quality rather than just quantity. 

 What we have learned more about in the last few years is the devastat- 

 ing effects of malnutrition, malnourishment, and we are increasingly 

 concerned about this in the world. This is observed primarily in the 

 young children. Most of our health authorities in our health programs 

 assure us that the single greatest thing that can be done for improving 

 the health of the world is better nourishment of children. 



"\'VTiile the statistics in the world on child mortality may show deaths 

 caused by simple, normal childhood diseases, the real truth is that the 

 children are so undernourished that they die of disease that our chil- 

 dren toss off without any problems. The death rate that can be at- 

 tributed to malnutrition is increasing. The world is getting seriously 

 concerned about it. 



This is reflected in increased attention by all the international or- 

 ganizations, U.N., health organizations. Food and Agricultural Or- 

 ganization of the United Nations. It became serious enough for the 

 President to make this the major direction of our foreign assistance 

 program. We have given the highest priority of all of our foreign assist- 

 ance activities to the broad area of the war on hunger. 



We regard the war on hunder as covering not only meeting the im- 

 mediate requirements through the use of our food assistance programs, 



