420 EVENING DISCOURSES 
but he knew the history of food production exceedingly well, and he had a 
great admiration for those scientists and engineers who have succeeded in 
increasing our food-supplies to such an extent that fear of scarcity has been 
banished for hundreds of years to come. He often referred to the gloomy 
prognostications of Malthus, roo years ago, that the world could not produce 
enough food to feed its growing population, and to the Presidential Address 
of Sir William Crookes to this Association when he uttered his famous 
warning: ‘England and all civilised nations stand in deadly peril of not 
having enough to eat—as mouths multiply, food resources dwindle.’ You 
will remember that Crookes was not concerned with food preservation, but 
was alarmed at the rapidly diminishing supply of natural fertilisers. To-day, 
the world is no longer dependent on such fertilisers. Science has shown us 
how to make them synthetically, and the supply is not only ample but more 
than ample. Indeed, our manufacturing chemists are seeking new markets 
and new uses, for the potential supply is greater than the demand. In 
this country alone, Imperial Chemical Industries can produce two hundred 
thousand tons of fixed nitrogen per annum, equal to about one million tons 
of sulphate of ammonia, and no doubt they would like to make more. 
THE PROBLEM TO-DAY. 
Since the days of Sir William Crookes, it is obvious that the problem has 
changed. ‘The question is no longer ‘How can we produce enough food ?’ 
but ‘ Where shall the food be produced, at home or overseas?’ If a con- 
siderable part is to be grown overseas, and all of it cannot be grown at home, 
then transport and storage are factors of great importance. 
When, seventeen years ago, Sir William Hardy decided to devote the 
remaining years of his life to the study of foodstuffs, he was attracted by 
both the scientific and the economic aspects of the problem. In imagination 
I can see him then looking up the Board of Trade returns, and noting that, 
even in those days of war, we were importing hundreds of millions of pounds 
worth of food. Just think of it : about three-quarters of a million pounds 
of money in this country is spent on an average every day on food brought 
from overseas. During 1932 imported meat alone was valued at over 
78 million pounds ; of eggs we imported about two thousand millions, and 
of apples—if we reckon three to four apples to the pound—we imported 
about three thousand millions. Of the lamb we imported, seven million 
pounds worth came from New Zealand, yet seventy years ago no one in 
this country had tasted lamb from New Zealand. The reason is simple : 
it could not be transported and remain fit as food. ‘To-day we can eat and 
enjoy New Zealand lamb, thanks to a great discovery and the engineers 
who developed the results. I refer to the making of cold by means of heat. 
We in this country owe much to the refrigerating engineer, who in turn owes 
his basic knowledge to Rumford, Carnot, Joule, Kelvin and other scientific 
workers. Hardy, however, was far from content; he was not satisfied 
merely to know that refrigeration preserved food: he wanted to know 
exactly what happened to the food when cold was applied to it. 
Another problem which was always uppermost in Hardy’s mind was 
that of waste. Of the vast quantity of food which we import and the food 
which we produce ourselves, how much goes to waste, and how much of 
this waste might be avoided if only we had more knowledge of the nature 
of foodstuffs ? ‘To Hardy, research on food was not only of vast scientific 
interest : he was fully conscious that it might lead to economic results of 
great importance. 
