The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1919-01-03
FOOD SURVEY OF EUROPE

Hr RncinrncnI News Service.

by Reciprocal News Service.
LONDON. Dec. (by maiD.-The
following survey of the food situa-
ton in Europe has been received from
the British Food Ministry:
1t is at once necessary to compute
as closely as possible the existing
food resources of Europe and the
available supplies of the world. Al
though starving and destitute may
have TO be relieved in the Central
Empires; the important neutrals near
them must be allowed to augment their
depleted stocks as soon as the block
ade is concluded; meanwhile the de-
mOblizing armies and the mObiliZing
populations in recovered and newly
occupied territories must have their
needs met 1t is evident that the
whole supplies available in these cOun-
tries. together with the surplus prod
uctS in more fortunate regions which
make up the world supplies, must be
used and distributed in the most econ
food of any kind to waste and in
many commodities there is a general
shortage that will remain for some
! time
The problem is somewhat simpli
/ fed by being presented at the time
/ when each European country has just
( had a harvest, and knows with some
degree of certainty how much il pos
sesses of bread cereals. Arrangements
were fairly complete for the necessary
/ imports of corn for the neutral cOun-
! tries: but in view of unrest which
/ is partly due to too small a bread
more than was at first arranged.
Ii is difficult to state accurately the
! situation in Germany. Up to the last
moment of the old regime optimistic
reports were circulated; there is now
/ an equal danger that the new govern
ment will eXaggerate in the opposite
| direction. In any case the original
| promise was merely that the basic ra-
! tiOn (flOur) should be continued. and
! this would give a general ration of
| about Alb a week of very coursely
milled and adulterated bread. A mod
crate ration in bread and potatoes has
I probably been secured, but i is the
| rest of the dietary which is SO meager
| and starved. while there is certainly
not enough bread and potatoes to live
on exclusively. Hungary should have
enough cereals, bat Austria needs i'm
ports, and cannot count on grain from
| the countries lying TO the Eastward.
! Serbia and Bulgaria must both be
| helped, particularly the former
But the most salient facts in a gen
eral survey are the shortage and low
weight of live stock. and the result
| ing shortage of meat, animal fat. but
| ter. cheese and milk
Considered from the agricultural
| point of view, the difficulty has been.
! first and foremost. want of fodder In
/ consequence of this the whole stock
! of animals and the yield of dairy pro
| duce have suffered terrible deteriOra-
| tiOn all over Europe Secondly, want
of fertilizers. in consequence of which
the crops have been less abundant and
I the land left impoverished Fodder
/ has been short because human beings
/ have encrOached upon the supply of
! cereals usually reserved for animals,
because fodder crops have been bad.
| and because oil cakes from the coun-
| tries making vegetable oils could not
! be circulated. There has been a
marked development in the use of sub
! stitute fodder; we have learned to util-
/ ize wasted materials for our animals
as well as for ourselves. But never
the less a proper world distribution
| of cereals must now include a world
! distribution of fodder cereals, and the
! supply of UII-cake and other concen-
! trated fodder must be similarly con-
! trGfied. The most important of fer
| tiliZers -n!trates-have been practi-
| cally mOnOpOlized for four years for
use in munitions. another sidelight on
/ the unspeakable waste involved in
| warfare
Practically all the belligerents and
! neutrals have had to live on small al
/ lowances of meat. There it has not
| been actually rationed meat has been
at so high price that the vast MAORI
| ty of the poulace have practiced meat