Transactions of RHASS Volume 1940 - Page 010
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| Year | 1940 |
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| OCR Text |
8 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON AGRICULTURE. PRODUCTION AND IMPORTS or HUMAN FOOD AND ANIMAL FEEDING-STUFFS TO THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1937-38. pggiilcid Imported. Total. H mnan. Foods. Thous. tons. Thous. tons. Thous- tons. “'heat (as flour) . . 767 3,197 3,964 Sugar . . . . 469 1,618 2,087 Butter . . . . 45 472 517 Cheese . . . . 37 146 183 Eggs . . . . 409 190 599 Milk, condensed. . . 188 103 291 Beef and mutton . . 918 1,007 1,925 Bacon and ham . . 151 325 476 Fruit and nuts . . . 661 1,948 2,609 Milk, fresh . . . 4,556 . . 4,556 Vegetables . . . 1,871 1 644 2,515 Potatoes . . . . 4,400 145 4,545 Other cereals . . . 128 237 365 Miscellaneous . . . I 437 921 1,358 Total . . . 15,037 10,953 25,990 . Thous. tons Thous. tons Thous. tons 0071 cent/Tat“ for Animals- dry matter. dry matter. dry matter. Grain, milling offal . . l 2,29] 6,579 8,870 Oil cake . . . . . . 1,573 1,573 Miscellaneous (meat meal, molasses, &c.) . . 250 390 640 Total . . . 2,541 8,542 11,083 The table does not include grass and home-produced fodder crops, which amount to between 25 and 30 million tons per annum. Reckoned in bulk, home-produced foods and feeding- stuffs exceed imports, but bulk is not a true indication of the relative amounts of food. Speaking broadly, the bulky foods, such as potatoes, liquid milk, and vegetables and fodder crops, are produced at home, and the more concentrated foods, such as wheat, sugar, fats, butter and cheese, and concentrates for animal feeding, are imported. If we take the true index—via, the calorie or unit of food value—home production is estimated to provide somewhere between 32 and 35 per cent of our total supply. It takes about 20 million tons of shipping out of a total 1 This figure is an estimate of the Food (Defence Plans) Department for the years 1934-36. It is impossible to give an exact figure because there are no returns for vegetables grown in gardens and allotments. a rear 14. «Adiivsait 1%: w < 1 THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON AGRICULTURE. 9 ‘ ' ons er annum to import our food and feeding- 231%.“??th tlib Navy has been successful m_enab11ng imports to be maintained, with the exceptlon of feeding-stuffs. These are uneconomical to import on account of the-blg shipping space required in terms of the human food they;E produce. The following table shows the number of lbs. 0 feeding-stuffs required to produce 1 1b. of human food, both reckoned as dry matter. The figures are only approxrmate, because efficiency in transforming food depends upon the rate of production or the rate of growth of the animal :— Milk cow 5 1b- Pig n Hen . 15 H Beef cattle 20 n Immediately the war broke there was a shortage of feeding- stuffs. This is likely to continue, because it IS obwously more economical of shipping space to import the finished product than to import feeding-stuffs. _ . If the shipping position should become serlous, either through sinking ships or through ships being required for importing war materials, imports W111 be more and more restricted to foods which have a high food value per'unlt shipping space, and if, as will be the case if the war continues for a number of years, we must exercise the utmost economy in using foreign credits, imports W111 more and more be restricted to the foods which are cheapest to purchase abroad. The following table shows the relative storage space, food value, and approximate cost per 100,000 calories of the main foods we import :— Aggg-gbgggv- Avtlt‘é’f'til‘élsg? §fi§?,%§§%?§233 ‘CUb' “3' per ton‘ celliliiidifirgcsuptiicfd.’ dgdlgistrizs. Wheat (bulk) . . . E 50 56 5/5 Sugar . . . . l 45 83 4/3 Fats and tallow (in barrel) . l 80 118 8/4 Dried fruits . . . 50 55 21/— Butter . l 55 143 27/3 Cheese . . . . 1 60 56 39/4 Bacon . . . . 110 39 35/9 Frozen beef 95 26 40/2 Eggs in shell 120 12 74/5 It is seen that wheat, sugar, and fats are the cheapest foods and those which occupy the smallest shipping space per unit value. If, as Keynes the economist has suggested, we should come down to a national iron ration, these are the three foods ,2...‘ .@4..- .t ..., A .._ «Hep _ in} 543:: 's . M- uni»? "31. |
| Title | Transactions of RHASS Volume 1940 - Page 010 |
