100 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1439 



the legends told us in our infant years than 

 in "the truth we live to learn." 



James Harvey Robinson 

 New School tor Social Eeseabch 



THE FOOD RESEARCH INSTITUTE 

 OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY 



The Food Research Institute of Stanford 

 University was founded in February, 1921, by 

 the Carnegie Corporation of New York in con- 

 junction with the trustees of Leland Stanford 

 Junior University, California. It is organized 

 for the purpose of intensive scientific study of 

 the problems of the production, distribution, 

 and consumption of food. The institute grew 

 out of a suggestion offered by Mr. Herbert 

 Hoover, and its location at Stanford University 

 was due partly to the fact that this university 

 possesses, in the Hoover War Library, a large 

 and unique collection of documentary material 

 relating to the food problems and other eco- 

 nomic aspects of the Great War. The Car- 

 negie Corporation guarantees stated funds for 

 the work for a period of ten years. Stanford 

 University provides quarters and facilities and 

 has appointed the directors of the institute to 

 positions on the Stanford faculty. 



The control of its policies and the active 

 direction of the work of the institute are en- 

 trusted to three joint dirctors. The plan of 

 the founders called for the selection of an 

 expert in agriculture and food manufacture, 

 an expert in economics and food distribution, 

 and an expert in the physiology and chemistry 

 of nutrition. In accordance with this plan, 

 the following directors were appointed in 

 April, 1921 : Carl L. Alsberg, M.D., Joseph S. 

 Davis, Ph.D., and Alonzo E. Taylor, M.D. At 

 the same time an advisory committee was ap- 

 pointed comprising the presidents of Carnegie 

 Corporation and Stanford University, ex 

 officio, and the following additional members: 

 Hon. Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce; 

 Dr. James C. Merriam, president of the Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington; Mr. Julius 

 Barnes, formerly president of the U. S. Grain 

 Corporation; Dr. William M. Jardine, presi- 

 dent of the Kansas State Agricultural College; 

 Mr. J. R. Howard, president of the American 



Fai-m Bureau Federation; and Mr. George 

 Roeding, formerly of the California Horticul- 

 tural Commission. 



The founding of the Food Research Institute 

 is an outgrowth of war experience. During 

 the late war, possibly for the first time in his- 

 tory, food production and distribution, nutri- 

 tion and dietetics had to be considered by 

 governments as national and even inter- 

 national problems. In determining policies 

 required to meet the emergency, food ad- 

 ministrators sought certain scientific informa- 

 tion, from agriculturists, economists, physiolo- 

 gists, and physicians. Many valuable data 

 were readily furnished. On the other hand, 

 much of the desired information was not in 

 existence, not because, given time, it would 

 have been difficult to obtain, but because no 

 one before the war had asked these questions 

 or attempted to reach an adequate answer. 

 Nutrition and dietetics had been studied mainly 

 as individual problems, not as mass problems. 

 The food supply had seldom been examined 

 with adequate reference to its international 

 aspects and to the particular commodities en- 

 tering into it. Marketing problems had re- 

 ceived mainly local investigation. There had 

 been little coordination of studies in several 

 important fields, and serious gaps were numer- 

 ous. In many instances, therefore, the lack of 

 essential information led to action more or less 

 in the dark. 



The founders of the Food Research Institute 

 were convinced that the scientific study of such 

 problems, from a broad national and interna- 

 tional viewpoint, was important in peace no 

 less than in war. While recognizing the essen- 

 tial services which research work in federal 

 and state agricultural departments and colleges 

 had rendered and will continue to render, they 

 considered that a non-governmental organiza- 

 tion with university affiliations could have ad- 

 vantages in attacking certain kinds of problems 

 without the limitations which apply to these 

 agencies. 



The institute proposes, therefore, to investi- 

 gate significant food problems from the stand- 

 point of their bearing upon national economy 

 and well-being, to deal with them as mass prob- 

 lems, and to emphasize the commodity and 



