494 



Woeld's Food Resources. 



[Aug., 



Fish Supply thus : — " The Sea ! We have not discovered it yet. If man 

 insists on eating animal proteins and wants a twenty-fold or a hundred-fold 

 increase in the supply, I call his attention to the sea as a place where he may 

 drop his prejudice overboard, investigate, and probably find food in amounts 

 that are beyond present computation." The very recent discovery of the 

 adaptability of vegetable oils as a source of fat supply is described in detail 

 and illustrated by imposing trade statistics which are unquestionable. We are 

 reminded that sugar, which no.w bulks so largely in our normal dietary, is of 

 recent introduction. " Sugar has been all around us for countless ages but we 

 did not know how to get it " — only the bees possessed the secret. The 

 author draws the moral — The appearance and use of sugar afford a good 

 example of the service of science to man and of the changes that we may 

 expect in our food supply." 



Allusion has been made to the possil.)ility of criticism in detail, and it is 

 perhaps desirable to mention one or two points which affect this country. 

 One is the repetition, by inadvertence, of the common, but erroneous, statement 

 that England before the War produced " but a fifth of the food she ate "— 

 the reference being of course to wheat alone. In a description of international 

 trade in meat supplies, the importation by the United Kingdom of live animals 

 is mentioned as if it still continued. In a section dealing with the future 

 wheat supply of the world, a curious error, in which I have some personal 

 interest, is made. Referring to the " alarmist paper " of Sir William Crookes, 

 the author, has a footnote which states that Lord Rhondda brought out a new 

 edition of Crookes"s book ''with this frightened statement": " England and 

 all civilized nations stand in deadly peril of not having enough to eat." This 

 is followed by further extracts of sinfilar purport. In fact, this statement was 

 not made by Lord Rhondda, but by Sir William Crookes. The preface which 

 Lord Rhondda contributed to the book contained no sign of ''fright," 

 although it endorsed the useful advice given by Sir William Crookes, that the 

 aid of science should be enlisted in stimulating production, especially in this 

 country. I may be permitted to add, that having known Lord Rhondda for 

 many years and sat with him on the Council of the Statistical Society, I can 

 testify to the soundness of his views on statistical subjects, and I may perhaps 

 add that he would not have asked me to write a supplementary chapter to 

 Sir WiUiam Crookes's book if he had thought it necessary to express 

 frightened " opinions. 

 But it is not by small points such as these that this book should be judged. 

 In a chapter headed The Ultimate Food Supply," the author's main contention 

 is thus stated : — 



" It has been shown in connection with nearly every article of diet 

 save meat that Ave can easily and greatly increase the supply in the 

 Western World. Xevertheless, it is perhaps worth while to consider the 

 general question of the future food supply, because it is so generally 

 behevcd that the chances of making a living are growing fewer, that the 

 resources of the world for each man are less than they were a few years 

 ago. This belief is not founded on geographic or scientific fact ; it 

 belongs in the same class with the idea in the mind of the horse when he 

 sees a bar in front of him and he thinks he is fenced in, although he could 

 easily tear down the fence with his soft nose. If resources appear to be 

 growing scarce, the scarcity is due to the shortcomings of our suddenly 



