PAGENO="0001"
Congress ~ JOINT COMMITTEE PRINT
1St Ses~iOfl J
/ *~) ~ :1,
FOOD AND PEOPLE
~~UBCOMMI~EE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY
OF THE
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
F~73
Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
77009 WASHINGTON: 1961
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D. C. - Price 25 cents
PAGENO="0002"
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
(Created pursuant to see. 5(a) of Public Law 304, 79th Cong.)
WRIGHT PATMAN, Texas, Chairman
PAUL H. DOUGLAS, Illinois, Vice Chairman
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENATE
RICHARD BOLLING, Missouri JOHN SPARKMAN, Alabama
HALE BOGGS, Louisiana J. W. FTJLBRIGHT, Arkansas
HENRY S. REUSS, Wisconsin WILLIAM PROXMIRE, Wisconsin
MARTHA W. GRIFFITHS, Michigan CLAIBORNE BELL, Rhode Island
THOMAS B. CURTIS, Missouri PRESCOTT BUSH, Connecticut
CLARENCE E. KILBURN, New York JOHN MARSHALL BUTLER, Maryland
WILLIAM B. WIDNALL, New Jersey JACOB K. JAVITS, New York
Was. SUMMERS JOHNSON, Executive Director
JOHN W. LEHMAN, Deputy Executive Director
RICHARD J. BARBER, C'lerk
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY
REPRESENTATIVE HALE BOGGS, Louisiana, chairman
REPRESENTATFeR HENRY S. REuss, Wisconsin REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS B. CURTIs, Missouri
SENATOR JOHN SPARKMAN, Alabama SENATOR PRESCOTT BUSH, Connecticut
SENATOR J. W. FULBRIGHT, Arkansas SENATOR JACOB K. JAvITS, New York
SENATOR CLAIBORNE PELL, Rhode Island
II
4
PAGENO="0003"
LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL
NOVEMBER 30, 1961.
To the Members of the Joint Economic Committee:
Transmitted herewith for use of the Joint Economic Committee
and other Members of the Congress are two study papers which have
been prepared for the Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Policy.
One is titled "Agriculture's Role in the 1960 Decade"; the other is
titled "Closing the World's Nutritional Gap." Both appear under a
single title, "Food and People."
It is hoped that these papers will be especially useful to the members
of the subcommittee and to other Members of Congress in their con-.
sideration and study of foreign economic policy.
WRIGHT PATMAN,
Chairman, Joint Economic Committee.
NOVEMBER 30, 1961.
HOfl. WRIGHT PATMAN,
Chairman, Joint Economic Committee,
U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C.
DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Transmitted herewith are two study papers
which have been prepared for the Subcommittee on Foreign Economic
Policy in connection with its present investigation and study of this
subject.
The first of these papers, in order of presentation, is titled "Agri-
culture's Role in the 1960 Decade" which has been prepared by Mr.
Ralph McCabe of the Washington Center for Foreign Policy Research
and School for Advanced International Studies, the Johns Hopkins
University, with the assistance of Mr. Arthur L. Fern, previously
with the Johns Hopkins Center and now with the U.S. Treasury
Department.
The second paper, titled "Closing the World's Nutritional Gap"
has been prepared by Dr. Louis H. Bean, an economic consultant
practicing in Washington, D.C. Dr. Bean has held a number of
high posts in the Government, mostly in the field of agricultural
economics. He was economic adviser to the Secretary of Agriculture
in the years 1933-40 and again in the years 1947-53, and has more
recently been a consultant to the Director of the Food for Peace
Program.
I believe that these study papers will be extremely helpful to our
subcommittee in its present review of all major aspects of our foreign
economic policy.
Sincerely,
HALE BOGGS,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Policy.
III
PAGENO="0004"
PAGENO="0005"
CONTENTS
AGRICULTURE'S ROLE IN THE 1960 DECADE
BY RALPH McCABE
Page
Agriculture's role in the 1960 decade 1
Chapter 1. Hunger in the cold war 5
Chapter 2. The West: Surpluses and problems 9
Mechanization 10
Increasing productivity and worker displacement 11
Chapter 3. Sino-Soviet bloc: Persistent food problems_ 13
U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe 14
Communist Asia 17
Chapter 4. Less developed area: Increasing food deficits 19
Latin America 21
Africa 22
West Asia and the Far East 23
Appendix 25
TABLES
Table 1. Agriculture in the tripartite world 6
Table 2. Cereal grains in the industrialized west 9
Table 3. Cereal grains in the Sino-Soviet bloc 13
Table 4. The Sino -Soviet bloc: Selected grains and all grains, pulses, roots,
and tubers, 1935-39, 1956, and 1959 14
Table 5. Average yield per unit area of selected cereals 15
Table 6. Cereal grains and starches in the less developed area 20
Table 7. Less developed areas: Selected grains and all grains, pulses, roots,
and tubers, 1935-39, 1956, and 1959 21
APPENDIX TABLES
Table A-i. Estimated population of the industrialized West, the Sino-
Soviet bloc,andthe less developed countries, 1935-39 and 1950-59 26
Table A-2. Annual rate of population growth for the industrialized West,
the Sino-Soviet bloc, and the less developed countries, 1935-39 and 1950-
59 26
Table A-3. Projected population of the industrialized West (by country),
the Sino-Soviet bloc, and the less developed countries, 1960, 1965, and
1970 27
Table A-4. Projected population of Brazil, Canada, China (mainland),
Egypt, France, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, and the United States:
1960, 1965, and 1970 27
Table A-5. Estimated population of Brazil, Canada, China (mainland),
Egypt, France, Guatemala, India, Pakistan, U.S.S.R., and the United
States: 1935-39 and 1950-59 27
Table A-6. Per capita daily caloric intake, by major areas of the world,
for the prewar period, 1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950,
1953, 1956, and 1958 28
Table A-7. Total area in selected cereals, by major areas of the world, for
the prewar period, 1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953,
1956, and 1959 28
Table A-8. Total production of selected cereals, by major areas of the
world, for the prewar period 1935-39, and for selected postwar years,
1950, 1953, 1956, and 1959 28
Table A-9. Average yield per unit area of selected cereals, by major areas
of the world, for the prewar period 1935-39, and for selected postwar
years, 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1959 29
Table A-b. Production of selected cereals per capita of total population
and rural population, by major areas of the world, for the prewar period
1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1959 29
V
PAGENO="0006"
VI CONTENTS
Page
Table A-il. Combined production of all grains, pulses, roots, and tubers,
by, major areas of the world, for the prewar period, 1935-39, and for
selectedpostwaryears, 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1959 30
Table A-12. Production of all grains, pulses, roots, and tubers per capita
`of total population, by major areas of the world, for the prewar period,
1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1959 30
Table A-13. Total production of selected cereals, by selected countries,
for the prewar period, 1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950,
1953, 1956,and1959 30
CLOSING THE WORLD'S NUTRITIONAL GAP
BY LOUIS H. BEAN
I. Summary 33
II. Current and prospective trends in world population and agricultural
production 37
III. The nutritional gap 43
Illustration and feeding programs go together 47
IV. Long-range economic development and human feeding programs - - - 49
The outlook for closing the nutritional gap 49
The need for additional sources of protein 51
Cost of commodities shipped for foreign relief, January-June,
1961 (at annual rate) 52
V. How to balance the world's food budget 55
New protein foods 55
The special role of soybeans in the Food for Peace Program~~ 59
VI. The need for quantitative goals for our foreign relief feeding programs 63
VII. Appendix 65
CHARTS
Chart. I. World population for three major areas, 1935-39, 1950-59, and
projectionfor 1971 38
Chart II. World production of all grains, pulses, roots, and tubers, per
capita, 1935-37, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1959, for three major areas 40
TABLES
Table 1. Annual percent change in total and per capita world agricultural
production by major regions, 1935-60 41
Table 2. Food consumption: Daily average per capita levels, by regions,
1958 43
Table 3. Production, consumption, and import needs for diet-deficit
countries 44
Table 4. Dietary deficiencies of diet-deficit regions not satisfied by pro-
jected consumption for 1962 and 1966 45
Table 5. Food deficits, in thousands of metric tons, in diet-deficit coun-
tries~_ 49
Table 6. Foreign donations and noncommercial sales of nonfat dry milk,
1959-60 52
APPENDIX TABLES
Table 1. Agricultural production: Total output and comparison with popula-
tion, arabic land, and per capita income, world by regions, 1958.
Table 2. Wheat and dry beans and peas: Requirements, production, and import
need or export availability, world by regions, 1958 and projected to 1962 and 1966.
Table 3. Nonfat dry milk and vegetable oils: Requirements, production, and
import need or export availability, world by regions, 1958 and projected to 1962
and 1966.
Table 4. World population, by countries, 1958 and projections for 1962 and
1966.
Table 5. Food consumption levels per person per day, in terms of caloric,
protein, and fat content, by country, 1958.
Table 6. Indexes of world agricultural production: Total and per capita, by
region, average 1935-39 and annual 1958-59 to 1960-61.
Table 7. Protein content of selected foodstuffs.
Table 8. Oil and protein content of oilseeds and oilseed protein concentrates.
PAGENO="0007"
AGRICULTURE'S ROLE IN THE 1960 DECADE
By
RALPH McCABE
1
PAGENO="0008"
PAGENO="0009"
AGRICULTURE'S ROLE IN THE 1960 DECADE
FOREWORD
In adjusting foreign economic policy to the rapidly changing world
of the 1960's, the United States faces major challenges. The intensi-
fying cold war has turned into an engagement of indefinite duration in
which the independence of the less developed countries and the sur-
vival of Western civilization are stakes. The challenge of "competi-
tive coexistence" is directed to the entire community of Western
nations-the free West European countries, Canada, Japan, Australia,
New Zealand and the United States.
By no means the least of these challenges is the outlook for continued
hunger and malnutrition in many of the less developed countries.
Despite efforts to increase agricultural production, in many of these
countries the population is growing faster than food supplies. Social
conflict, already endemic in some areas, may sharply increase as the
struggle over dwindling supplies of food rises. The Communists,
who thrive on disorder and subversion, will undoubtedly assume the
responsibility for organizing the conflict whenever it arises.
The inadequacy of food production in the Sino-Soviet bloc as a
whole precludes any substantial assistance from that area in closing
the steadily widening gap between demand and supply in the less
developed areas. Thus, the question is whether, by helping to solve
agricultural problems, the Western Community can help these four-
score countries maintain independence and achieve economic viability.
The question, in short, is whether the West will assume responsibility
for organizing the progress and the harmonious relations between
societies which make progress possible?
3
77009-6i-2
PAGENO="0010"
PAGENO="0011"
CHAPTER 1
HUNGER IN THE COLD WAR
Primarily agricultural, the less developed countries are historically
related to the industrialized West by trade ties, common traditions,
and attachment to free institutions, including freedom of religion.
The outcome of the cold war will determine whether these countries,
many of which have not achieved stable nationhood, are to retain
their historic ties with the West-and their independence-or whether
they shall gradually be drawn into the Communist system. What
happens in this large area, embracing about half the population of the
planet and half the earth's surface, can determine the ultimate position
of the West.
In any consideration of the non-Communist world, account must
be taken of the contrast between the surpluses of the West and the
shortages, particularly of food, that prevail almost universally in the
less developed countries.
For more than two-thirds of the world's people, malnutrition is a
daily, engrossing concern. The extent of this problem is described in
a recent report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, "The World
Food Budget, 1962 and 1966." 1 The analysis indicates that in many
of the less developed countries shortages exist in proteins, fat, and
calories, and that it is not likely that the food problem will be solved
soon. Diet-deficit regions are reported as Latin America, Africa,
West Asia, the Far East, and Communist Asia. In these regions, the
nutritional gap, projected for 1962, amounts to:
* * * animal protein equivalent to 1.5 million metric tons of nonfat dry milk;
pulse protein equivalent to 150,000 tons of dry beans and peas; fat equivalent to
3 million tons of vegetable oil; and other protein and calories equivalent to 29
million tons of wheat.
Furthermore, "About the same shortages are projected for 1966."
Until these regions can increase and diversify their agricultural
production, major reliance for improving diets must be placed on
cereal grains. Starch foods, particularly cereal grains, are the critical
factor in the world's food supply because of two kinds of efficiency: (1)
The caloric content of a pound of milled rice is over 50 percent more
than that of a pound of medium beef and equal to that of a pound of
medium pork; (2) on the average, the production of a pound of meat
requires about 8 pounds of grain. The result is that in the poorer
and more crowded sections of the world, nearly all the cereal grains
produced are eaten by man, as compared to nearly 70 percent of U.S.
grains, excluding sorghums, consumed by animals.2 Starches repre-
sent about three-quarters of caloric intake; grains constitute more than
four-fifths of all starches.3
1 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Economic Report No. 4 (Washington, October
1961). See, especially, tables 3, 4, 5, 23, and 25.
2 U;S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
~Ibid.
5
PAGENO="0012"
6 FOOD AND PEOPLE
As we turn to an examination of the food supplies and needs in
The three areas of the world-the industrialized West and Japan,
the Communist countries, and the free world underdeveloped coun-
tries-a number of reservations must be made. In summing up the
situation in each area for the purpose of a three-way comparison, the
usual distortions incident to averages arise. No two countries in the
less developed nations are directly comparable in detail; in statistical
aggregates, important differences are made to disappear. Yet it is
ne~essaryto simplify if broad judgments are to bemade; it is necessary
to simplify if the sheer complexity of the economic affairs of more than
100 countries is to be reduced to understandable terms and treated
with reasonable brevity.
TABLE 1.-Agriculture in the tripartite world, 1959
Area
~
Percent
world popu-
lation (1960)
Percent
world arable
land
Percent
starch food
output
Kilograms
of grain per
capita
Industrialized West
Sino-Soviet bloc
Less developed countries
18
35
47
21
28
46
32
37
31
529
281
169
Source: Data in appendix tables and in Food and Agriculture Organization, Production Yearbook, 1959.
The diet composition is only one of the many contrasting factors
between the West and the rest of the world. The West also has
a much higher daily caloric intake than other populations-about
3,000 calories per day as compared to 2,400 in the Communist coun-
tries and 2,300 in the less developed countries. (See appendix table
A-6.) These differences are more pronounced, furthermore, when
differences in the output of muscular effort between the West and other
areas are considered.
A third dramatic contrast is found in the share of the population
engaged in agriculture. In the West, only about 110 million people
are associated with agriculture; in the Soviet area, about 615 million;
in the less developed area, about 1 billion.4 In the West, there are
3 acres of cereal grain for every member of the farm population; in the
Communist area, about 0.9 of an acre; and in the less developed area
about 0.5 of an acre per capital of rural population.4 (Derived from
appendix table A-7).
The typical farmer in the less developed countries is rarely able to
produce more than his family needs-sometimes not enough. In the
late 1930's, the less developed area as a whole was a major net exporter
of food products. At that time, *the area's cereal grain exports
amounted to an average of 12 million tons a year. At the beginning
of the 1960's, it had net imports of more than 3 million tons of cereal
grains annually.
~c. The West has a preponderately urban population; the other two
areas are preponderantly rural. In the less developed area, the 400
million persons in urban areas are unable to live on the declining sur-
pluses provided by the countries' billion farmers.
In the West, acreage of cultivated land is declining while production
and yields are rising. Technology in agriculture has advanced to a
point where one U.S. farmworker can grow enough food and fiber
4 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),ProductionYearbook, 1959 (Rome~ 1960),p. 16 if.
PAGENO="0013"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 7
for 26 other persons. This advance of agricultural technology has
brought the train of problems that usually accompany accelerating
productivity. Some farmers lag behind others, depending on the
quality of their land, mechanical equipment, educational levels, type
of crop, and other factors. In a similar way, some countries lag
behind others. But in most cases, surpluses have led to price supports
to protect domestic agricultural incomes. The United States, because
of rising productivity, faces the necessity of converting land from
commercial agriculture to other uses.
Western agriculture is capital intensive, with most of the work per-
formed by machines; in most of the rest of the world, human labor is
the primary factor. The productivity of agriculture, the output per
worker engaged, tends to increase geometrically with artificial energy
inputs, in association with the use of improved seeds, chemical fer-
tilizers, and weed and pest killers.
The West has less than a quarter of the world's cereal grain acreage,
but possesses about three-quarters of the tractors and uses about 70
percent of all nitrogenous fertilizers.5 The results in terms of output
per unit of rural population are remarkable: in the West, the per
capita output amounts to 1.7 metric tons of cereal grains; in the Corn-
munistarëa, 039tiietric ton; and the less developed area, 0.25 metric
ton. (See appendix table A-b.)
The effect of the capital intensive agriculture of the West is more
sharply in evidence if the outputs per unit of arable land are contrasted
for the last 25 years. In the West, a 60 percent increase in cereal yield
per acre occurred from the period 1935-3 9 to 1959; in the Sino-Soviet
area, about 4 percent; in the less developed area, about 3 percent.
(See appendix table A-9.) During the same period, the population
increase jn the West amounted to about 20 percent; in the Communist
area, about 25 percent, in the less developed area, about 50 percent
(See appendix table A-i.)
The contrast is similarly sharp when the per capita production of
cereal grains for the two periods is compared. In the West, the pro-
duction per capita of the population was slightly over three times that
in the less developed area.
It is unlikely that substantially increased food production can be
accomplished outside the West merely by putting additional land
under cultivation. During the past decade, this was partially suc-
cessful, both in the Communist and less developed areas, and led to
some increases~~in food production. There is, however, a limit to
the arable Find
During the past decade the Communist and less developed areas,
together possessing four-fifths of the population and three-quarters
of the land surface of the earth, have pressed the trend for adding land
to the cultivated area to a point that may be beyond the natural
limit. In any case, production is not increasing as fast ~s population,
and yields, except for the bad years, remain relatively constant.
Because of the chain reaction set up by the population eruption and
Communist failures in the agricultural sector, food has now become
one of the pivotal realities on the world scene. It is a matter upon
which a unified Western policy is urgently required; it should receive
close and continuing attention.
~Ibid., pp. 98 and 101.
PAGENO="0014"
8 FOOD AND PEOPLE
The main solution to the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the
underdeveloped areas lies in raising yields on land now under cultiva-
tion. This requires the introduction of modern technology, adapted
to localrequirements.
Increases in agricultural yields should take precedence over other
considerations in Western assistance programs. Until these massive
populations are able to feed themselves adequately, there will be little
prospect for other improvement in their national economies. The
West, in possession of the world's only significant surpluses of food
and fiber, is in a position of strength and leverage.
Yet the West will not be able to provide enough food for the 300
million new members who will be added to the less developed societies
in the next decade. Thus, the emphasis on Western assistance to
these countries should be oriented to the development of agriculture
and to an increasing interdependence of rural and urban areas. The
alternative appears to be a continuing regression in the agricultural
regions and arising opportunity for Communist inroads.
A critical factor in improving agriculture in the less developed area
is the substantially expanded use of chemical fertilizers. To this end,
large investments in chemical fertilizer plants throughout the area will
be required. For example, the production of fertilizer in Africa and
west Asia amounted only to 1.6 percent of the world's total in 1958;
in Latin America, to 1.4 percent; and the Far East (excluding Japan),
to 0.8 percent. In the same year, Communist Asia produced only
0.9 percent of the total although the U.S.S.R. and the Eastern Euro-
pean satellites did better with 20.2 percent of the total. This com-
pares with fertilizer production in Western Europe amounting to 39.8
percent of the total; in the United States and Canada, 27.6 percent;
and in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, 7.7 percent.6
Transport and draft power also are critical factors. To meet these
needs, the West would be well advised to develop an inexpensive,
reliable, multipurpose, and multifuel vehicle. Such a vehicle not
only would displace draft animals (releasing the land needed for their
support), but also provide transport for the fertilizer and other
requirements of a productive agriculture, as well as for marketing
purposes. It would provide a sustaining economic relationship be-
tween the agricujtural and urban areas.
- $ U.8. Department of Agriculture, "The World Food Budget, 1962 and 1966," op. cit., table 24, p. 77.
PAGENO="0015"
CHAPTER 2
THE WEST: SURPLUSES AND PROBLEMS
In the industrialized West, the world's oniy area of food surplus,
a major revolution in agricultural technology began in the 1950's.
In North America, the fundamental changes in the process began
before World War II; in the other countries of the Western com-
munity, the process did not get started until about 1950-after
recovery from the effects of the war. The revolution is still underway
in both North America, and in the other countries of the Western
community. The effects may be illustrated in a number of ways.
For example, in the period 1935-39 to 1959, the production of the
main cereals per capita of the Western rural population increased
75 percent. Expressed in another way, the total production of cereal
grains increased by over 50 percent while the total acreage declined
approximately 7 percent. Table 2 provides the salient statistics on
Western supplies of cereal grains.
TABLE 2.-Cereal grains in the industrialized West
Year
Population
(millions)
Area
(million
hectares)
Average
yield (quin-
tals per
hectare)
Total
output
(million
metric tons)
Output
per capita
(kilo.
grams)
Percent
change, out.
put per cap-
ita 1935-39
1935-39
1950
460
490
509
528
548
140
137
137
127
131
13.7
16.9
18.3
20.7
22.0
192
233
251
262
289
417
475
494
497
529
+13
+18
+19
+26
1953
1956
1959
Source: Derived from appendix tables A-i, A-7, A-8, A-9. and A-b.
When the developments in the United States are considered
separately, this acceleration in productivity has been such that in two
decades, the output per worker has risen much more than in the
preceding 70-year period. In 1870, the U.S. farmworker produced
~nough food to supply .5 persons; in 1940, enough to supply 10.7
persons; in 1950, 14.56 persons; and in 1960, 26.1 persons. On one
accounting, U.S. agricultural productivity has tripled since 1940, and
doubled since 1950.'
Behind these phenomenal advances have been rapid increases in
scientific knowledge and technology, efficiently and pr.omptly applied.
Application of the new technology has, moreover, required sharp
increases in capital investment per worker. Capital investment per
farmworker is now considerably larger than capital investment per
worker in U.S. manufacturing.
The new technological advances include mechanization, new ferti-
lizing procedures, pesticides, herbicides, irrigation, and maj or advances
in scientific control and development of plant and animal strains,
1 U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate based on productivity increases of land and labor.
9
PAGENO="0016"
10 FOOD AND PEOPLE
and as yet no end to further productivity from these advances is in
sight.
Mechanization
In countries where productivity increases have come mainly from
mechanization, the principal instrument of the transformation has
been the tractor, which is not oniy the main source of traction power
but also of power for many other farm operations. In 1918, there
were about 27 million horses and mules in the United States; in 1960,
only about 3 million. The number of tractors in operation increased
during the same period from about 300,000 to 4.8 million.
The efficiencies leading to this transformation are fivefold: (1) fuel
is cheaper than animal feed, (2) land formerly devoted to the produc-
tion of feed for draft animals is released for other purposes, (3) ma-
chines consume fuel only when they are operating, (4) animal mainte-
nance requires more time than machine maintenance, and (5) machines
can perform a great many more operations than horses and mules-
digging postholes, handling materials, etc.
As the mechanization of agriculture has progressed, manpower
directly engaged in agriculture has declined at about the same rate
as animal draft power. In the period 1940-60, nearly 20 million
members of U.S. farm population migrated to the city; the farm
population declined almost 50 percent in a period in which grain output
increased by about two-thirds.2
The mere statistics on the increased use of tractors fail to commu-
nicate the multiple advantages of the tractor: the immense savings in
human labor and other economic outlay on maintenance, and the
much-increased facility and flexibility deriving from the use of mechan-
ical power.
The Yearbook of Agriculture, 1960, observes, "the method and
equipment used in planting seed can make the difference in getting or
*not getting a stand." ~ Mechanization has led to much more effective
control of the factors involved in getting a good stand, as well as
quicker and more timely performance of the operations. A single-row
one-horse planter able to average 7 acres a day has given way to a six-
or eight-row, tractor-drawn planter that will cover 80 to 100 acres a
day. With mechanization, soil and moisture conditions can be more
efficiently controlled and the critical planting operation can be carried
out at the most favorable time.
Mechanization also improves the efficiency of applying fertilizer.
If not properly applied fertilizer may damage the plant or fail to
contribute effectively to growth. The protection of crops against
weeds and pests is also dependent to a large degree on mechanized
operations. As the already staggering number of chemical agents
used in weed and pest control increases, with concurrent efficiency
and timeliness of application, the time may soon arise when these
ancient threats are brought under relatively full control.
Mechanization still has a long way to go before the productivity of
Western agriculture reaches an optimum level. This may be illus-
trated by the labor requirements for an acre of cotton: the first stage
of mechanization reduced the labor required to grow and harvest an
2 See Philip M. Hauser, "Population Perspectives" (New Brunswick, 1961), and "Scientific American,"
July 1961, for detailed appreciation of U.S. Changes.
3 U.S. Department of Agriculture (Washington, 1961). The yearbook is also the source (p. 36) of chart 1.
PAGENO="0017"
FOOD AND PEOPIJE~ ii
acre of cotton from 150 to 30 hours; the next stage, already in effect
in some areas, will reduce the labor to 6.5 hours.4
In creasing productivity and worker displacement
In a hungry world, the developing food surpluses generated by
Western agriculture have become a continuing embarrassment.
Western Europe, increasingly dependent for almost a century on
imports of bread grains and the historic market for North American
and Australian exports, is now a declining importer of bread grains.
Japan is self-sufficient in rice after a long and heavy dependence on
imports.5 At the same time that European imports of bread grains
have been declining, the share of North America in world grain exports
has been increasing. U.S. exports are increasingly being diverted
from historic markets to the hungry areas-markets which are unable
to import food at world prices. In fact, so much of U.S. food exports
move under special Government export programs that the United
States is no longer a net dollar exporter of. food-outlays on food
imports in 1960 were larger than the amount realized on exports.
In the late 1930's, North America provided only 45 percent of the
total world exports of bread grains; Latin America, over 20 percent;
Australia about 25 percent; and the U.S.S.R. about 10 percent.
Africa and Asia were almost self-sufficient. Europe accounted for
about 90 percent of all imports. Today, with more than twice as
many exports, only North America and Australia are significant
exporters-with the United States and Canada now accounting for
nearly 90 percent of the total. Africa has a significant deficit; the
Asian deficit has risen rapidly; Latin America is a deficit area.
If the population of the less developed area continues to increase
at current rates, just to maintain present nutrition, the year 1970
may see the development of an additional annual import requirement
of 25 to 30 million tons or more of cereal grains. India alone may
require an additional 8 to 10 million tons of grain.6
In the industrialized West problems associated with the agricultural
surplus are sources of acute difficulty within countries and no small
source of economic disunity among countries. The governments of
almost all of these nations protect or support their farmers' incomes
in one way or another. In Western Europe deep-rooted adherence
to policies of maintaining protected markets for domestic agriculture
appears to be a main obstacle to continuing progress of the Common
Market concept. In the United States, where agriculture is, rela-
tively speaking, a high-efficiency "industry," surpluses are greatest,
and in large part because most U.S. agricultural products are met by
high tariff walls in most countries of Europe. And, of course, in the
United States, too, most agricultural products enjoy price supports
and quotas or other barriers which have been imposed to provide a
protected market for domestic producers.
The various price-support and other Government programs for
agriculture in the industrialized nations have led to some anomalies.
In Japan, for example, paddy rice prices are supported at about $200
per ton, as compared with $100 in the United States, and $30 in
Burma. United States textile producers are paying 8.5 cents a
pound more for their cotton than Japanese and Hong Kong importers
`Ibid., for general increases in efficiency of farm labor, see p. 317 if.
`New York Times, July 25, 1961, p. 33.
6 U.s. Department of Agriculture estimate.
77009-61-3
PAGENO="0018"
12 FOOD AND PEOPLE
of United States cotton. At the same time, Japanese and Hong
Kong exports of cotton textiles to the United States have been
increasing.
Underlying these protectionist policies-and perhaps in part be-
cause of these policies-forces are at work which have been creating
severe problems of readjustment for populations within several of the
Western nations. This is particularly true in the United States where
a new technological revolution in farming has been in progress for at
least two decades. That the price-support and other agricultural
programs in the United States tend to support the marginal farmer
and retard increases in productivity is no doubt true. Even so, the
productivity increases in agriculture have been more than double
those of the nonagricultural sector of the economy over the past two
decades. Between 1947 and 1960, for example, the average annual
increase in output per man-hour worked in agriculture was 5.8 percent
while the average increase in the nonagricultural sector of the economy
was 2.8 percent.7 This rapid increase in output has resulted in a
prolonged and sharp decline in agricultural employment, with the re-
sult that over the past 20 years approximately a mfflion people a year
have migrated from the rural areas to the cities, or to the suburbs of
the cities. In the United States, and to a lesser extent in a few other
Western coantries, the rural populations have shown an absolute
decline during the past decade or two.
In the United States, this unprecedented movement of rural popu-
lations into the cities continues to cause severe strains. In the early
postwar years, when industry was making a rapid expansion and in
need of an expanding labor force, the rural migrants to the cities were
readily absorbed in productive operations. In more recent years,
however, there has been substantial adoption of automation tech-
niques in industry. Many workers moving to the cities are unable to
find jobs. Indeed, total employment in manufacturing operations
has been declining. Conversely, in any migration movement many
people are reluctant and slow to leave long-established homes even
after employment opportunities in the area have dried up.
If the industralized countries are to achieve the benefits of a more
efficient division of labor and better unity in pursuit of their common
causes, it would appear that they face some difficult task in evolving
policies to: (1) reduce their respected barriers to trade in agricultural
products, (2) encourage the shift and absorption of workers, capital
and land from agricultural of nonagricultural pursuits, and (3) make
a larger contribution, and a more equitably shared contribution, to
the food needs of the underdeveloped countries while these countries
are achieving their own agricultural and industrial revolutions.
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, USDL 4698.
PAGENO="0019"
CHAPTER 3
SINO-SOVIET BLOC: PERSISTENT FOOD PROBLEMS
The Sino-Soviet bloc, as a whole, has suffered from a persistent
shortage of food, with occasional lapses into massive deficits and
famine. The disasters of Chinese agricultural policy have become the
most conspicuous in the Communist area, but failures in the U.S.S.R.
over a period of more than 40 years, persistent as well as post-World
War II failures in the Eastern European satellites, would be regarded
as catastrophic if compared with any but the Chinese experience.
Food is a major preoccupation of all the governments of the Com-
munist area, from East Germany to North Korea. In every country
massive efforts have been made to increase the production of food
and fiber. Table 3 sets forth the relevant data.
TABLE 3.-Cereal grains in the Sino-Soviet bloc
Year
Popula-
tion
(millions)
Area
(million
hectares)
Average
yield
(quintals
per
hectare)
Total
output
(million
metric
tons)
Output
per capita
(kilo-
grams)
Percent
change
output per
capita
1935-39
1935-39
1950
1953 -
800
859
906
962
1,025
199
195
206
235
223
12. 4
10. 7
1L 8
12.6
12.9
246
210
244
296
288
308
244
269
307
281
-20
-13
-9
1956 .
1959
Source: Derived from appendix tables A-i, A-7, A-8, A-9, and A-10.
While analysis of agricultural developments in the Sino-Soviet bloc
is difficult, because of the unreliable data made available by the
Communist countries, it appears that the trend in production of
cereals during the 1950's as a whole was upward. Production seems
to have increased, however, more or less as additional acreage has
been put into cultivation. Yields in 1959 were only slightly higher
than the average for 1935-39. The 1959 output of cereals per capita
was still less than in 1935-39.
The situation in the different countries in the bloc varied con-
siderably. Eastern Europe as a whole appeared to have produced
enough food to meet basic nutritional standards, although the ade-
quacy of diets varied from section to section. In Communist Asia,
where reliable information is even more scanty than elsewhere, it is at
least clear that starvation is a major problem.
Output of selected cereals and all grains, pulses, roots, and tubers
in the three sections of the bloc for 1935, 1956 (an especially good year
in the U.S.S.R. and mainland China), and 1959, is shown in table 4.
13
PAGENO="0020"
14 FOOD AND PEOPLE
TABLE 4.-The Sino-Soviet bloc: Selected grains and all grains, pulses, roots, and
tubers, 1935-39, 1956, and 1959
Area and year
Selected cereals
Total output,
all grains,
pulses, roots,
and tubers,
(thousand
metric tons)
Average
yield (quintal
per hectare)
Area
(thousand
hectares)
Total output
(thousand
metric tons)
U.S.S.R.:
1935-39
1956
1959
1960
European satellites:
1935-39
1956
1959
1960
Communist Asia:
1935-39
1956
1959
1960
8.5
9.1
8.6
8.4
14. 0
13.3
16.4
(1)
17. 9
17.2
17.7
(1)
101,740
116,783
112,830
106,653
37,297
35,435
35,979
(1)
59, 803
82,510
74,440
(1)
86,900
106,567
96,943
89,617
52,364
47,011
59,177
(1)
107, 190
141,974
131,723
(1)
113,605
137,430
122,170
71, 563
61,296
75,877
(1)
148, 983
202,959
201,446
(1)
I Not available.
Source: Appendix tables A-7, A-S A-9, and A-li.
About 75 percent of the Communist's total trade is within the bloc
itself, and the remainder is with the West and less developed coun-
tries. Agricultural products play an important part in bloc trade,
both internal and external. For example, some 13 percent of all
NATO exports to the bloc in 1959 were foods, beverages, tobacco,
fats, and oils; and 25 percent of NATO imports from the Communist
countries were in the Same category. That same year, the bloc
exported to the less developed countries wheat valued at $36.4 million
and rice amounting to $64.3 million; from them, it imported food,
beverages, tobacco, fats, and oils valued at $144.2 million.
The U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe
The record of Soviet agriculture over the period since 1917 may
provide the most reliable guide to the effectiveness of Communist
agricultural policy. During the period called military communism,
in the years following the revolution, there was widespread famine,
with mortalities estimated at from 10 to 20 million. In the succeeding
period of the new economic policy, when the peasants were free of
state control, agricultural output recovered and there was an approach
to prewar production levels.
The collectivization program, which culminated in the extensive
famine of 1930-33, was, in many respects a recapitulation of the
earlier experience under military communism. The estimated mor-
talities again ranged from 10 to 20 million. In the late 1930's, output
of food gradually increased, only to be followed by World War II,
during which a large part of the agricultural system collapsed. War
and famine in the years 1941-45, apparently accounted for the death
of some 40 mfflion Soviet citizens.
In 1958, there were nearly a million tractors in the U.S.S.R.; an
average of almost 20 for each of 55,000 collective farms. This number
does not compare with the 4.8 million tractors in use in United States
agriculture, or, on a cultivated-area basis, with the 700,000 in use in
PAGENO="0021"
FOOD AND PEOPLD 15
West Germany. Nevertheless, the U.S.S.R. is second only to the
United States in the total number of tractors in use.' Lenin's direc-
tive to mechanize agriculture would seem to have been fulfilled if
Khrushchev's somewhat questionable claim that all major field
operations are now mechanized is correct.
The Soviets have been industriously expanding their planted area.
In 1950, about 92 million hectares were sown to cereal grains; in 1959,
the area had expanded to 113 million hectares-an increase of almost
25 percent. (See appendix table A-7.) Furthermore, fertilizer out-
put has been significantly increased over the past decade, although it
still lags far behind the West. The weed and pest killers so widely
used in the Western area are not generally used.
Despite continuing efforts, however, Soviet agriculture does not
appear to progress at a rate which could be expected. Indeed, the
agricultural population of about 10 million seems to have been marking
time since the late 1930's, when the average annual output of the main
cereals averaged about 87 mfflion metric tons a year. In 1950, cereal
output fell 16 percent below the prewar average, and much the same
state of affairs persisted through 1955. In 1956, a very good year, out-
put increased about 20 percent, but then declined again in the following
years. (See appendix table A-8.)
The difference between the unprecedented advance in the West's
productivity in both land and labor since 1940 and developments in
the U.S.S.R. are highlighted in table 5.
TABLE 5.-Average yield per unit area of selected cereals
[Quintals p
er liectare]
Years U.S.S.R.
Industrialized
West
Years
U.S.S.R.
Industrial-
ized West
1935-39
8.5
13.7
1956.
9.1
20.7
1950_ -
8.0
16. 9
1959...
8. 6
22. 0
1953~
7. 7
18. 3
1060...
8. 6
23.4
Source: Appendix table A-9.
In a speech to the plenary session of the Party Central Committee
on January 17, 1961, Khrushchev estimated that wheat actually
procured in 1960 was 25 percent below the level needed to meet re-
quirements in full, and in respect of corn, procurements were 75 per-
cent below requirements. The climate in 1960, it should be noted,
was poor.
In this same speech Khrushchev discussed a number of alleged
abuses in Soviet agriculture. After reading a letter from Lipetsk
Province complaining of "drunkenness among the workers" and
asserting that "the moonshiners live like capitalists," he said:
Apparently stricter laws should be adopted in the republics against pilfering,
homebrewing, and drunkenness.
Also:
Punishment should be imposed not only on those who brew moonshine but
also upon its consumers * *
I FAO, Yearbook, op. cit., p. 101.
PAGENO="0022"
16 FOOD AND PEOPLE
Khrushchev was also concerned with other abuses, as the following
paragraph suggests:
We must mercilessly root out such evils as parasitism, a negligent attitude to-
ward work, and private property psychology. A relentless struggle against the
survivals of capitalism is needed * * *, and now I wish to speak about intensifying
the struggle against wastefulness, about how we must be more thrifty in spending
public funds."
The abuses in Soviet agriculture arising from "survivals of capital-
ism" were carefully enumerated in Khrushchev's speech. One of the
most distressing was the widespread practice of "hoodwinking and
report padding" of agricultural production and procurement.
Accordingly, at the plenary session of the party central committee
in July 1961, a new control commission was established to stamp out
the practice of padding agricultural production and procurement
reports.3
This new measure of the Communist Party raises again the old and
persisting question of the reliability of Soviet statistics. Soviet agri-
cultural output was reported for many years on a "biological basis,"
that is, on estimates made before the harvest. This was corrected in
the 1950's to an "in the barn" basis-the yield actually realized after
the harvest. In the barn data, theoretically, were about 10 percent
below the biological data; practically, the difference was much larger.
However, in any event, it still appears that reports are padded seri-
ously enough to warrant the setting up of an entire enforcement appa-
ratus with representatives in every state and at each collective farm.
These farms are huge. The average state farm is said to be 22,485
sown acres; the average collective farm about 6,785 sown acres.
The Soviet record over the past 20 years can hardly be described
as effective. In 1959, the cereal output per capita of the Soviet
population was below the average prevailing in the years 1935-39.
There may, accordingly, be some doubt whether the grandiose plans
outlined in Khrushchev's 20-year plan can be carried out. On the
record, Soviet agriculture has been less successful than that of the
less developed area, in which total output of cereals increased almost
29 percent in the 25-year period as compared to about 11 percent for
the U.S.S.R. (See appendix table A-8.)
In the East European satellites as a group, agricultural develop-
ments have not been as unfavorable as in the other sectors of the
Communist bloc. Over the entire area of Eastern Europe, food avail-
abilities have increased substantially since 1950. According to official
reports, they have now about reached the level prevailing in the
prewar period. Total output of the main cereals has increased above
the prewar level. (See appendix table A-9.)
Food, however, is still a major problem. In Poland and East
Germany, it has been a constantly disturbing factor. In East Ger-
many, the population has declined about 1 million during the 1950's
and agricultural output has not been sustained. In Poland, a popula-
tion increase of nearly 5 million has more than canceled out production
increases.
Substantial amounts of food are imported by the satellites from
outside the bloc. Such imports, in 1959, included cereal grains, fruits,
vegetables, lard, sausage casings, and fish. In the same year, the
satellites exported to non-Communist countries food and beverages,
New York Times, July 24, 1961, p. 1.
PAGENO="0023"
FOOD AND PEOPLE~ 17
live animals (some for food, some for other purposes), meat and meat
preparations, eggs, sugar and sugar preparations, and bakery products.
Communist Asia
The famines of 1960 and 1961 in mainland China have brought on
"food riots" and widespread starvation. The Peiping government
announced in January 1961 that more than half the cultivated acreage
of China has been stricken in various degrees by drought, typhoons,
and floods; 8 of the 12 main rivers in Shantung province were said
to have dried up completely.
The extent of the food deficit is not clear because of the lack of
reliable statistics. In 1957, the Chinese reported output of grain and
other food products, expressed in grain equivalents, amounting to 185
million metric tons. On this accounting, the per capita daily availa-
bilities for a 640-million population would amount to something over
1.8 pounds, as compared to an official ration of slightly over 1 pound
per day in the 1960-61 period.4
Nevertheless, mainland China has continued to export food to the
West and to the less developed area. Among its exports in 1959-
also a year of acute shortages-were rice, beans, peas, other pulses,
soybeans, and nuts.
Imports from the West have been planned for 1961 at 5.87 million
eons of cereal grains, to come largely from Australia and Canada.
This would suggest, after netting the decline in exports and the in-
crease in imports, that the 1961 deficit of cereals may amount to 10
or 20 million tons-the food supply, at rationed levels, of some 50 to
100 million Chinese.
The costs of these grain purchases will amount to about $340
million, of which the West has extended credits of $120 million.
In 1962, it is anticipated that the Chinese will attempt to purchase,
on credit, another 6 million tons of cereal grains. The availability of
such an amount may reduce disorder and, perhaps, prevent revolt in
the cities; it will probably do little for the large rural populations,
however, which are most seriously affected.
The principal question arising in this contetx is whether the West
should extend credit to an insolvent enemy. Humanitarian considera-
tions may preclude an embargo. However, in view of the $4 to $9
billion of gold reserves possessed by the U.S.S.R., it would seem un-
necessary for the `West to extend credit.
Famine conditions in Communist China appear to be only at the
beginning. The Economist, June 17, 1961 (p. 1212), reported that
as a result of the forced slaughter of millions of draft animals in 1960,
more than 20 million men were recruited from the cities to assist in
agricultural work. While forced labor in agriculture is not without
precedent in the Communist area, this is a retrogressive development,
in that draft animals are a more efficient form of draft power than
human beings, and involve a lower maintenance cost.
In the Soviet famines-during the period of military communism,
1917-22, during the collectivization in 1930-32, and during World
War TI-the populations affected could be measured in tens of millions.
In China, famine now affects hundreds of millions. In the West,
catastrophes of this dimension are hardly comprehensible.
4 U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates of Chinese production of the main cereals are not consistent
with reported Chinese estimates, which appear to be most inflated. See appendix table A-8; and also,
USDA, Foreign Agricultural Circular, March 1961, and Far Eastern Economic Review, "China's Third
Bitter Year," September 1961.
PAGENO="0024"
PAGENO="0025"
CHAPTER 4
LESS DEVELOPED AREA: INCREASING FOOD DEFICITS
In the less developed countries, with 1.4 billion people and increasing
food deficits, viable agricultural programs might well be made the
first consideration in developmental policy.
Most countries of the less developed areas are plagued-though to
differing degrees-by similar hindrences to immediate, large-scale
improvement in the output of food and fiber.
A substantial proportion of the population is tied to unproductive
agriculture. Most farmers produce little more than that required for
bare subsistence. The amount of arable land per capita is steadily
shrinking and the soils are being depleted.
Where large farms exist, they usually are cultivating commercial
crops for export; and they usually are the only farms with modern
machinery and agricultural practices. The governments often offer
guaranteed prices or other incentives for export crops, because of
their great need for foreign exchange. The small farmers, however,
produce mainly for themselves, not for the urban areas. And in
many countries, the high rate of illiteracy makes it difficult to change
existing production patterns rapidly.
An enormous amount of capital will be required for farm machinery,
fertilizer plants, irrigation works, improved seeds and pesticides-and
related power and transportation facilities-in order to build up
agriculture in all these areas. Only an intensive educational and
training program will make it possible for farmers to shift from their
traditional, sometimes stubbornly retained, farm and marketing
practices.
In the less developed countries, as cereal grain acreage has increased,
the ratio of cultivated land to output has remained about the same.
In the West, the total area in cereal grains has declined while output
has risen over 50 percent. In the past quarter century production
of cereals on a per capita basis has declined 14 percent in the less
developed area and increased about 25 percent in the West. In the
less developed area, 72 percent of the population is on the land; in
the West only 20 percent.
As stressed earlier, the basic factors in the present food crisis in
the less developed area are rapidly growing populations with only
slight increases in food production. In the 25-year period through
1960, population increased by over 50 percent. This compares with
population increases of 20 percent in the West and slightly less than
30 percent in the Communist bloc.
19
77OO9-6i~-----4
PAGENO="0026"
20 FOOD ~D PEOPLE
TABLE 6.-Cereal grains and starches in the less developed area
Year
Population
(millions)
Area
planted in
cereals
(million
hectares)
Average
yield,
cereals
(quintals
per hectare)
Total
output,
cereals
(million
metric tons)
Cereal
output per
capita
(kilograms)
Total
output,
starches
(million
metric tons)
Starch
output
per capita
(kilo-
grams)
1935-39
1950
1953
1956
1959
Change, 1935-39 to
1959
914
1,129
1,202
1,279
1,362
162
168
186
191
203
11.1
10.1
11.5
11.1
11.4
179
170
214
212
230
196
150
178
166
169
247
234
286
293
325
270
207
237
229
238
Percent
48 25 3 28 -14 30 -12
Source: Derived from appendix tables A-i, A-7, A-8, A-9, and A-10
The picture with regard to production of grains and pulses, roots,
and tubeis in the major areas of the less developed world are given in
table 7. Within each of these areas, naturally, some countries have
made more progress than others in increasing agricultural productivity.
In all, however, there is much room for improvement. In 1960, for
example, total Government and commercial shipments of foodstuffs
from the United States to the less developed area amounted to about
$1.3 billion. From July 1, 1945 through December 31, 1960, the
U.S. Government's economic and technical assistance to the less
developed area amounted to about $19.1 billion. Additional figures,
also prepared by the Department of Commerce, indicate that the
total aid program (including aid to some Western countries) from
July 1, 1945 through December 31, 1960, took the following forms:
Billions of dollars
Mutual security and related programs 26. 6
Development loan fund . 4
Under authorizations for farm products disposals (the majority under
Public Law 480) 5. 7
Under Export-Import Act 3. 0
Total net economic and technical assistance 49. 9
Under these programs, substantial amounts for aid to agricultural
development, in addition to food shipments under Public Law 480,
have gone to the less developed area.
PAGENO="0027"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 21
TABLE 7.-Less developed area: Selected grains and all grains, pulses, roots, and
tubers, 1935-39, 1956, and 1959
Area and year
Population
(millions)
Selected cereals
Average Total
yield Area output
(quintal (thousand (thousand
per hectares) metric
hectare) tons)
Total out-
put of all
grains,
pulses,
roots, and
tubers
(thousand
metric
tons)
Total
output
per
capita
(kilograms)
Latin America:
1935-39
1956
1959
Africa:
1935-39
1956
1959
West Asia and Far East:
1935-39
1956
1959
188
202
(1)
233
250
798
848
11. 0
11.8
12. 2
8. 0
9.5
9.0
11. 8
11.2
11.5
26, 992
34,527
35, 381
19, 704
26,015
27,274
101, 899
118,114
127,418
29, 684
40,357
43, 128
15, 676
24,676
24,428
120, 468
132,835
146,498
34, 422
50,207
53, 441
45, 159
57,925
58,710
151, 292
167,079
193,833
(1)
267
266
(1)
249
235
(1)
209
229
1 Not available.
Source: Appendix tables A-7, A-8, A-9, and A-il.
In its "World Food Budget," the Department of Agriculture reports
that food is available for above-standard diets in Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Cuba, Mexico, and Uruguay. In the remaining countries,
with 32 percent of Latin America's population, there are distress-
ing food deficits. In 1958, total deficits are estimated to have been
the equivalent of 2.5 million metric tons of wheat, 10,000 tons of
nonfat dry milk, and 100,000 tons of vegetable oil. Calorie levels
ranged from a substandard 1,900 in Bolivia and Haiti to more than
3,300 in Argentina. Other figures given in the Department's report
indicate the underlying problems in developing Latin American agri-
ulture:
Latin America
Further, the population of Latin America is growing faster than in
the other parts of the less developed area-at a rate of more than 2.5
percent annually. As a whole, Latin America's agricultural produc-
tivity has been increasing in the last 25 years, and it is using increasing
amounts of farm machinery, fertilizer, improved seeds, and breeding
stock. However, this is mainly taking place on the large farms which
produce grain, livestock, sugar, cotton, coffee, bananas and other
fruits for export.
The use of averages in connection with Latin America's agriculture
is somewhat misleading because of the wide differences from country
to country. For example, Mexico has had a good production record.
Cereal output has increased, on the average, more than 200,000 tons
a year, but dependence on imported food tends to increase year by
year. The population increase amounts to somewhat less than a
million a year. Guatemala is in a serious situation. Production of
cereals in the last decade has increased little, while a million people
have been added to the population.
PAGENO="0028"
22 FOOD AND PEOPLE
Per capita availability of arable land, hectares 0. 5
Percent of world fertilizer production - 1. 4
Labor force in agriculture, range from:
Argentina and Uruguay (percent) 25
Haiti, Bolivia, and Central America (percent) over 60
Literate population (percent) 40
Average income per capita, all Latin America $254
Highest income per capita, Venezuela $600
Lowest income per capita, Haiti $65
Cuba's situation is interesting for a number of reasons. Nearly
half of its food grain requirements normally were imported, somewhat
over 400,000 tons. The cost of the grain imports was about half
that of sugar exports to the United States. Cuba's sugar production
went to the United States at a premium price. Half the market for
its sugar-the United States-disappeared in the course of a year.
Today, the value of Cuba's sugar exports in the world market are not
significantly different from the cost of wheat imports. The U.S.
producers of sugarbeets and foreign cane producers can meet any
U.S. demand. The increase in productivity of U.S. sugarbeet pro-
ducers has been a remarkable development-40 percent in a period
of 5 years.
However the course of Cuban affairs may turn, the increasingly
critical concern of U.S. policy is with the non-Communist less devel-
oped countries that are gradually moving toward the disorder that
hunger and crowding create.
Africa
With about 240 million inhabitants, Africa has the soil and climate
required to meet the food needs of its growing population if the re-
sources were only used effectively. At present, Africa is a diet-
deficit area, and in some areas there are critical nutritional shortages.
The Department of Agriculture lists the Republic of South Africa and
the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland as the only two African
countries where food consumption meets nu tritional standards.
Wheat production is lagging behind population growth, and in 1958
import needs amounted to about 2 million tons. Production of other
major foods have been keeping pace with population increases in
Africa as a whole. However, there have been shortages of animal
proteins, pulses, and fats in some areas and countries. Part of the
problem is the lack of an adequate marketing system-there may be a
deficit in pulses in one area, while nearby there is a surplus.
Most of Africa's modern agriculture is in export crops. Its leading
exports-averaging about $3.4 billion annually during the late 1950's-
were cotton, tea, tobacco, and hard fibers. The production of coarse
grains and vegetable oils is increasing and these foods are expected to
become important exports during the next decade. Food accounts
for most of Africa's imports, which amount to about a third of the
value of exports. Among these are grain and grain products, the
most important, and sugar and dairy products.
North Africa imports large amounts of grain since calorie deficien-
cies are greater there than in other parts of Africa. Egypt, where the
population has been increasing at an annual rate of more than half a
million, has more need for wheat imports than any other African
country. During the past decade, in which about 5 million people
were added to the population, the Egyptian output of food grains
PAGENO="0029"
FOOD AND PEOPIJ~ 23
increased only 200,000 tons, an amount sufficient for little over a
million people.
The following figures from "The World Food Budget" are relevant
to Africa's future success in improving agriculture:
Per capita availability of arable land, hectares 1 0. 9
Percent of world fertilizer production (percent) 1 1. 6
Literate population (percent) 15 to 20
Average income per capita $100
1 Average for Africa and west Asia.
West Asia and the Far East
Since the mid-1940's, west Asia's population has been increasing
at a rate in excess of 2 percent a year. Over half of the people in the
area are in Turkey and Iran; the others are in Iraq, Israel, Jordan,
Lebanon, Syria, and other small countries.
Wheat is the basic food in west Asia-accounting for two-thirds of
the total energy intake-and the area's most important agricultural
products are grain and livestock. Sugar, fats and oils, fruits, and
vegetables also are important in the diet. In recent years, its annual
agricultural exports-mainly fruits and nuts, cotton, and tobacco-
have averaged about $560 million and imported agricultural products
have amounted to about $375 million.
The area as a whole was below nutritional standards in calories,
even with the addition of substantial imports of foods. About 12
percent of the average intake of energy foods for the area as a whole
was supplied by imports; in Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan imports
supplied about two-thirds of the total. Protein needs are met in
most countries of the area but the use of fats and oils is below nutri-
tional standards in several.
A small net export position in coarse grains probably will be reversed
as the livestock and poultry industries continue to be developed, and
increased needs of milled rice and vegetable oil are expected. Sub-
stantial increases are expected for imports of wheat, which in 1958
amounted to 625,000 tons.
Relevant figures to the general agricultural outlook in west Asia
include:
Per capita availability of arable land, hectares 10. 9
Percent of world fertilizer production 1 1. 6
Literate population (percent) 33
Average income per capita $175
1 Average for West Asia and Africa
The Far East contains almost half of the world population and its
population is increasing at a rate almost as great as Latin America.
Although food production has been increasing in recent years, the
amount of food per capita still is less than it was before World War
II. The food deficit is so great throughout the area that maintenance
of current substandard nutritional levels, even with increased imports,
will be difficult in the years ahead.
Food consumption levels in the area are lower than those in the other
less developed areas. Diets are high in carbohydrates and deficient
in fats and animal, pulse, and other proteins. In 1958, these de-
ficiencies were the equivalent of 20 million tons of wheat, 100,000
tons of dry beans and peas, 670,000 tons of nonfat dry milk, and 1.5
million tons of vegetable oil.
PAGENO="0030"
24 FOOD ~D PEOPLE
Most of the agricultural resources of the Far East are devoted to
food production, but per capita yields are among the lowest in the
world. This is the result of the small amount of agricultural land per
capita, the low capital inputs in agriculture, and the inefficient sub-
sistence farming which characterizes the area. Per capita income is
lower than any other region of the world except Communist China.
Some Far Eastern countries have to export foods in order to buy
other necessities; others divert land to nonfood crops for export in
order to obtain foreign exchange. Even so, the area-a net exporter
before World War TI-now is a net importer of over 10 million tons of
food grains, mainly wheat, but also pulses, fruit and vegetables, and
dairy products.
India's problem is conspicuous. Over the past 25 years, during
which the population increased 120 million, cereal production has
increased Only 20 million tons. In the years immediately ahead
with population increasing by nearly 8 million new Indians a year,
India will need to import at least 4 million tons of grain and by 1970
as much as 8 to 10 million tons.
Pakistan, with an annual population increase of 2 million or more,
was once an exporter of wheat and rice. It is now an importer of both.
In a recent interview while in the United States, Ayub Khan of Paki-
stan conceded that Pakistan will require 1.5 million tons of food from
the outside to feed 2 million new mouths added to the population each
year.
The population of Indonesia is increasing at a rate of 1.5 million a
year; imports of cereal grains are increasing. The situation is similar
throughout the Far East.
The Department of Agriculture sees little prospect that there will
be large production gains over the next few years for the Far East as
a whole, although India has better prospects than other countries for
improvement. The estimate is that imports of wheat will go up 50
percent between 1958 and 1966; nonfat dry milk imports will double;
the net importers of vegetable oil will triple imports.
The difficulties to be overcome before the food deficits are reduced
significantly are indicated by these figures:
Per capita availability of arabic land, hectares 0. 3
Percent of world fertilizer production 0. 8
Labor force in agriculture (percent) 70
Literacy of rural population, examples:
Afghanistan (percent)~
Pakistan (percent) 15
India (percent) 20
Average income per capita $80
The problem posed in the Far East is serious. Even if supplies
were available from other areas in sufficient quantities to fill the need
and if foreign exchange were not required to pay for imports, there
are other barriers to an early solution. People have to learn to
prepare and eat foods to which they are not accustomed. Usually,
unloading facilities at ports, storage and processing establishments,
and transportation are inadequate. `While some gains along these
lines are being made, particularly in India, the food deficiency could
very well become more severe in the next few years. The area is in
urgent need of outside financial and technical assistance, and new
ideas on ways to meet the crucial danger of increasing hunger for
millions of people.
PAGENO="0031"
APPENDIX
NOTES ON APPENDIX TABLES
(1) Unless indicated otherwise, the three areas referred to in the
appendix tables are composed of the following countries and regions:
Industrialized West includes the United States (excluding
Hawaii and, prior to 1959, Alaska), Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany), Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Sino-Soviet bloc includes the U.S.S.R., mainland China, Al-
bania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, North
Korea, Outer Mongolia, Poland, Rumania, North Vietnam, and
Yugoslavia.
Less developed countries are the rest of the world, including
Africa, residual European countries, Latin America, West Asia
and the Far East, and other Oceania.
(2) When "selected cereals" are referred to in the tables, unless
noted to the contrary, the cereals are wheat, rye, rough rice, barley,
and oats.
(3) Tables A-i through A-5 were obtained from the same source.
A-7 through A-i3 are from the source given on table A-6.
(4) Weights and measures used in the tables may be converted as
as follows:
1 hectare=2.47i acres.
1 metric ton== 1,000 kilograms, 2,204.6 pounds.
1 quintal== 100 kilograms, 220.46 pounds, about 3% bushels of
wheat.
25
PAGENO="0032"
Area
1935-39
(average)
1950
1951 1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1950
World
Industrialized West
Sino-Soviet bloc
Less developed countries
2, 173.2
2,478. 1
2,522.3 2, 568. 7
2,615.9
2,665. 9
2,716. 6
2,768. 9
2,823. 1
2,878.4
2,935.0
459.8
799. 7
913. 7
490.2
859.0
1, 128.9
496. 6 502.9
873. 1 888. 9
1, 152. 6 1, 176. 9
508.6
905. 5
1,201.8
515.0
923. 8
1,227. 1
521. 1
942. 5
1,253.0
527. 5
962. 0
1,279. 4
534. 1
982. 6
1,306. 4
540. 6
1,003.8
1,334.0
Source: Prepared by the Foreign Manpower Research Office, Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. Figures appearing in the various issues of the United
Nations, Demographic Yearbook, Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, and Population and Vital Statistics Report were used except for those countries for which the Foreign Manpower
Research Office prepared alternate series.
TABLE A-2.-Annual rate of population growth for the industrialized West, the Sino-Soviet bloc, and the less developed countries: 1935-39
and 1950 to 1959
Area 1935-39
(average)
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
World 1.1
Industrialized West. . 7
Sino-Soviet bloc 1.2
Less developed countries 1.3
1.8
1.8
1.8
1.9
1.9
1.9
2.0
2.0
2.0
1.9
1. 3
1.6
2. 1
1. 3
1.8
2. 1
1. 1
1.9
2. 1
1. 2
2.0
2. 1
1. 2
2.0
2. 1
1. 2
2.1
2. 1
1. 3
2.1
2. 1
1. 2
2.2
2. 1
1. 3
2.1
2. 1
1. 3
2.0
2. 1
TABLE A-1.--Estimated population of the industrialized West, the Sino-Soviet bloc, and the less developed countries: 1935-39 and 1950 to 1959
[Midyear population in millions; figures relate to the present territory]
547. 6
1,025.2 ~:rj
1,362.2 Q
_____ 0
_____ 0
PAGENO="0033"
~JJ)~D ~
~CD
Efl
CD~ CD
CD~
a
0
CD
CD
a ~
CD CD ~ CD CD
CD~
~P CD: ~:
CD~ CD
CD~
CD~
CD'
0
CD
a
CD2 ~ ~
~C~CDCDCCD~~
~ CD~a~CD
I ~°! ~: ~` ~
CD
CD:
0 CD~
CD~CD~
~
CD DD~-CCD
CD
~CD CD
CD~C~D_
CD CD
CDCDCDZ
0 CD CD
CD
CD0~
CD
- ~DDCD
CD~
CD
CDCD~
CD~
CD ~CD
~-CCD
~CDCD
CDCD_.
CDCD ~
CDCD CD
~
CD
CD00
CD
CD® CD
CD
0 .~
~
~fl~r~;
a
0
CD
CD
ii
a
~
CD
CD
I ~-4
a ~
CD
CD ``
CD ~D
0p~D*:-':C)
CD CD DC -1 CD CD
CD~®
®~cr
CD CD
CD
~1~CD~CD
CD
0~CDbD
CD
CDCCDCD
DC
CD® CD -~ ~ DC® CD®
CD® CD C CD DC DC DC ~ CD
CDCDCDCD®-ICDCDCDCD
CD
CD
CD
a~®~ ~DCaCDCD
CDCDDCCD~CCD~
~aCD~D6~
CDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCCD
CD
DCCDCD~CDCDCD-1CDCD
CD
~9CD~~CD~
DC CD CD CD® CD DC CD CD CD
C
CDDC ~ CD
~
CDCDCDCDCDCDCD~CD
®
CD
:1-
CD
CD
CD
CD
0
CD
CD
CD
~ a
CD
CD CD
CD
CD
CD
~CD
CD
CD ~
a ~
0
CD (D~-~
CD~
E
lCD
CD~
CD.
CD~
CD ~ CD
CD
CD DC® CD CD CD® -~ CD
-~ -C CD -I CD® CD®--C
w
r~QH
CD
CD.
CD~
CD
a ~
CD
CD
CD CD
0
CD
CD CD®.
CD
c~CD
~
-. CD~
CD CD~
~ U.
CD
CD
CD
0
0
0
CDCDD~ C.DC~CD-~l
CD ~ -4 CD CD® CD
CD® CD CD CD CD CD CD®
CD
CD ~ CD CD CD CD CD ~ CD CD®
~ CD CD CD 4 CD DC DC CD® CD CD -3 ~ CD® -I CD CD
CD CD CD -C 14 CD CD CD CD CD CD CD -C CD ~ DC ~ CD
CD
DC
~
~ DC
CD
CD
CD
CD
CDCD®CDDCCDCD~CD~C~
CD CD® CD CD® CD CD CD-I CD®-C® CD CD ~ -C®
PAGENO="0034"
28
FOOD AND PEOPLE
TABLE A-6.-Per capita daily caloric intake, by major areas of the world, for the
prewar period, 1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953, 1956, and
1958 1
[In calories]
Major areas
1935-39
1950
1953
1950
1958
Industrialized West
Sino-Soviet bloc
Less developed countries
2, 950
(2)
(2)
2,900
(2)
(2)
2, 900
(2)
(2)
2, 950
(2)
(2)
2, 950
2, 400
2, 300
1 Comparable data was only available in 1958 for the Sino-Soviet bloc and the less developed countries.
Figures for 1958 include 95 percent of the world population. Data rounded to nearest 50 calories for in-
dustrialized West, and to nearest 100 calories for other two areas.
2 Not available.
Source: Tables compiled by Department of Agriculture.
TABLE A-7.-Total area in selected cereals, by major areas of the world, for the pre-
war period, 1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1959
[In thousand hectares]
Major areas
1935-39
1950
1953
1956
1959
1960
Industrialized West
Western Europe
Japan
Australia and New Zealand
Canada
United States
Sino-Soviet bloc -
U.S.S.R
Eastern Europe
Mainland China and other Commu-
nist Asia
Less developed countries
Other Europe
Latin America.
Africa
West Asia and the Far East
Other Oceania
140, 130
137,242
137,298
126, 682
131,378
138,033
29, 511
4,825
6, 484
17, 855
81,455
27, 348
5, 106
6,053
18, 897
79,838
27, 607
4, 739
6, 118
18, 661
80,173
206,388
27, 632
4, 990
5, 354
17, 780
70, 926
27, 826
4, 931
6, 985
17, 706
73, 930
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
198,840
195, 237
234, 728
223, 249
101,740
37, 297
59,803
91,806
36, 517
66, 914
97,126
35, 504
73,758
116,783
35, 435
82,510
112,830
35, 979
74, 440
106,653
(1)~
(1)
161, 506
167, 620
186, 445
191, 192
202, 730
(1)
12,903
26, 992
10, 704
101,899
8
12,225
27, 954
22, 197
105,214
30
12, 749
31, 061
24, 618
117,985
32
12,484
34, 527
26,015
118, 114
52
12, 626
35, 381
27,274
127, 418
31
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
1 Not available.
TABLE A-8.-----Total production of selected cereals, by major areas of the world, for the
prewar period, 1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953, 1956, and
1959
[In thousand metric tons]
Major areas
1935-39
1950
1953
1956
1959
1960
Industrialized West
Western Europe
Japan .
Australia and New Zealand
Canada
United States -
Sino-Soviet bloc
U.S.S.R
Eastern Europe
Mainland China and other Com-
munist Asia
Less developed countries - - -
Other Europe
Latin America
Africa
West Asia and the Far East
Other Oceania
191, 830
232, 612
251, 407
262,365
289, 439
308, 858
52, 717
15, 350
5, 708
16, 063
101, 992
52, 764
15, 306
6, 437
23. 463
134, 642
61, 900
13, 758
7, 348
29, 952
138, 449
65, 733
17, 262
5, 931
30, 468
142, 971
70, 333
19, 413
9, 391
23, 228
167,074
287, 843
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
246, 454
209, 635
243, 056
295,552
(1)
86,900
52, 364
107, 100
73,135
39, 717
96, 783
75,148
46, 741
122, 067
106,567
47, 011
141, 974
96,943
59, 177
131, 723
89,627
(1)
(1)
179, 304
169, 714
213, 552
211, 850
230, 1160
(1)
13, 460
29, 684
15, 676
120,468
16
12, 341
30, 453
18, 371
108, 505
44
13, 844
36, 767
22, 100
140, 793
48
13, 870
40, 357
24, 676
132, 835
112
16, 006
43, 128
24, 428
146, 408
56
(1)
(1)
(1)
(`)
(1)
1 Not available.
PAGENO="0035"
29
FOOD AND PEOPL1i~
TABLE A-9.-Average yield per unit area of selected cereals, by major areas of the
world, for the prewar period, 1935-39, and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953,
1956, and 1959
[In quintals per hectare]
Major areas
1935-39
1950
1953
1950
1959
1960
Industrialized West
Western Europe
Japan
Australia and New Zealand
Canada
13. 7
10. 9
18. 3
20. 7
22.0
22. 4
17. 9
31. 8
8.8
9.0
12. 5
19.3
30. 0
10. 6
12. 4
16.9
22. 4
29. 0
12. 0
16. 1
17. 3
23. 8
34. 6
11. 1
17. 1
20.2
25. 3
39.4
13.4
13. 1
22.6
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
United States
8mb-Soviet bloc
12.4
10. 7
11. 8
12.6
12.9
(1)
U.S.S.R -
Eastern Europe
Mainland China and other Commu-
nist Asia
Less developed countries
8.5
14. 0
17. 9
8.0
10. 9
14. 5
7.7
13.2
16. 5
9.1
13.3
17.2
8.6
16. 4
17. 7
8.4
(1)
(1)
11. 1
10. 1
11. 5
11. 1
11. 4
(1)
Other Europe
Latin America
Africa
West Asia and Far East
Other Oceania
10. 4
11. 0
8. 0
11. 8
20.0
10. 1
10. 9
8.3
10. 3
14. 7
10. 9
11. 8
9.0
11. 9
15.0
11. 1
11. 7
9.5
11.2
21. 5
12. 7
12. 2
9.0
11. 5
18. 1
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
1 Not available.
TABLE A-1O.-Production of selected cereals per capita of total population and
rural population: by major areas of the world, for the prewar period, 1935-39,
and for selected postwar years, 1950, 1953, 1956, and 1959
[In kilograms]
Major areas
1935-39
1950
1953
1956
1959
Total population:
Industrialized West
417.2
474. 5
494. 3
497. 4
528.6
Sino-Soviet bloc
308.2
244. 0
269. 4
307.2
280. 8
Less developed countries
196.2
150.3
177. 7
165.6
168. 9
Rural population: 1
Industrialized West
Sino-Soviet bloc
970.3
380. 4
1,282. 3
317.0
1,412. 4
354. 5
1,507.0
415.2
1, 704.6
390.0
Less developed countries
251. 6
205. 9
246. 8
230.5
248.4
1 This is more than farm population as it includes persons living in rural areas and small villages. Farm
population in the United States was 22 percent in 1940 and 13 percent in 1955, whereas the rural population
used in this table was 47 percent in 1935-39 and 31 percent in 1956. In the less developed countries, farm
population and rural population are more nearly synonymous.
PAGENO="0036"
~g~c~ci
g
~ ~, CD~ c~
C!
C
C)
C
0
C
C
~C) ~
C) -~ ~ C) ) C) C) C) C) C) C)
© ~ C) C) C) C) C) C) C) C)
U)OC
C)
~
C:
C) C) C)
C) C) 00
C) C) C)
C) C)
C) C) C)
00 C)
C) C) C)
C) ~ C)
00 C) C)
~O-i ~
F
~ L~i
C)
C)
N
-
~ ~0
C
C)
C) OC
)+
C
C
I-.) C
C
~ C
~C) ~
C) C) C) C) C) C) C) C) ~ C)
C) ~) C) C) - C) C) C) C) C)
C)
C)
C)
~
~
~
~0C
~ C))
C)
~
0C~
C -
C
C
F ~
~ 0~0
CC
CC
C
C)C)C)C)C)C) C)C)C)
C)C) C)-)~C)C)o©~
C) C) C) C) C) C) C) C) C) C) )~
C) C) C) C) ~ C) C) C) C C) C)
C)
C)
©~ C
~ ~
C)i
Ii!.
C)
0~
C
oF.
0
0
0
t~rJ
C) C)C)C)C)C)C)C)~
C)~)!. C)C)-~©C)~
C) -~ C) C) -~ C) C) C) -1 C)
~ )~ C) C) C) C) C) C) C) C)
C) C) ~ C) )~ !)~ C) C) C) C) ~
C)C))C)C)
C) C) ~ C)
C) C) C) C) C)
C)C)
C) C) C) ~)
C) C) C)-!
~C) -C)
C) C)-! C) C) C)
C) C) C) C) C) C)
C)
C)
C)
C)C)C)C)
C)~
~
~C) C)C)
~
C)
C)
C) C)
C) C) C) C) C)
C) C) C)
C) C) C)
~ ~
~ C) C) C)
C) C)
C) C) C) C) C!)
~
C) C) C) C) C) C)
C)
C)
~
C)
C)
~
PAGENO="0037"
CLOSING THE WORLD'S
NUTRITIONAL GAP
By
LOUIS H. BEAN
31
PAGENO="0038"
PAGENO="0039"
L SUMMARY
This report points to steps that could hasten the closing of the
world's nutritional gap. The world's food budget is unbalanced, with
a great deficiency of high-protein foods in the less developed counties.
It is likely to remain so for many years to come because much of the
past and prospective benefits of economic and technical assistance in
agricultural and industrial production is offset by rapid increases in
population.
Ten to twelve years hence the countries comprising the industrialized
West-the free West European countries, Canada, Japan, Australia,
and New Zealand-will show an increase of about 100 million people;
the Sino-Soviet bloc, an increase of about 300 million; and the rest, the
less developed countries of non-Communist Asia, Africa, and Latin
America, an increase of over 400 million. The total world population
will rise from about 3 billion today to nearly 4 billion in the early
1970's. The Sino-Soviet bloc will then have about twice as many
people as the Western industrialized countries, and the less developed
countries about three times as many.
In spite of projected increases in production and in food aid, the
world will continue during the 19 60's to be short of proteins and
calories equal to over a billion bushels of wheat. In addition, it will
continue to be short of animal proteins in terms of nonfat dry milk of
about 2 million metric tons, and short of fats in terms of vegetable oils
of approximately 3 million metric tons.
The inevitably slow pace of industrialization in the face of rising
populations will tend to perpetuate per capita food consumption in the
less developed countries at about 40 to 45 percent of the average in
the industrialized countries. It is about 41 percent today.
However, the closing of this gap can be hastened by stepping up the
feeding activites of the Food for Peace Program at the same time that
long-range economic development programs are being projected and
put into effect. The world's nutritional gap is largely concentrated
among infants and children of preschool age, who within a few years
will become part of the labor force. Their health is a basic economic
asset.
The present Food for Peace Program directed toward preschool and
school children is limited by the shortage of high-protein foods. We
have an abundance of cereals, feed grains, and vegetable oils. But the
great need is supplementary protein foods which has been met only
moderately by our donations of dry skim milk, the supply of which is
limited and costly. To step up the donation of dry skim milk by
increasing domestic production would bring on costly surpluses of
butter for which the domestic demand is shrinking.
Additional sources of high-protein foods for supplementing both the
low-protein content in cereal foods and the limited supply of dry skim
milk are now available. The outstanding new sources of high-protein
foods are flours derived from cottonseed, peanuts, sorghums, and soy-
33
PAGENO="0040"
34 FOOD AND PEOPLE
beans. Outside the United States, there is also a great deal of interest
in fish flour as a potential high protein food additive.
As a result of research and technological advances beverages for
child feeding, nutritionally the equivalent of cow's milk, now can be
made from cottonseed flour, particularly from soybean flour, and
a completely adequate protein supply can be obtained solely from
vegetable sources with the addition of essential amino acids.
Soybeans as a protein source outrank in volume all the other oil
seeds. Its human food products have ready acceptability in the Far
East and elsewhere. Converted into flour, it is now available as a
high-protein additive to standard foods consisting largely of wheat,
or corn, or rice, or other starchy foods deficient in protein. High-
protein soybean products have for years been available in the United
States as food additives, or as soy milk prescribed for infants or
persons allergic to cow's milk, and more recently, as weight-restraining
beverages. Soybeans now are the fourth largest U.S. cash crop and
likely to be in abundant supply. As a result, processors are actively
engaged in bringing the new uses of soybeans to the attention of
many of the less-developed countries. In combination with cereals
and other widely used starchy foods and with nonfat dry skim milk,
these products can materially reduce the cost of protein per person
receiving food aid. For the same protein efficiency, 100 pounds of
wheat flour can be replaced by 40 pounds of wheat flour and 5 pounds
of soy flour with a reduction in protein cost of over 50 percent.
The facts highlighted in this report-especially the recent progress
in combining different products to produce low-cost, high-protein
foods; the emergence of one of our crops as a major source of low-
cost protein for humans; and the possibility of increasing our foreign
feeding activities without necessarily increasing costs-all suggest that
we are now in a better position than ever before to plan foreign feeding
operations on a stepped-up, stable, continuing basis. The several
agencies with responsibilities in the food for peace program should
become more aware of these current developments, should appraise
their significance in terms of cost and nutritional importance and,
depending on their common findings, should make them part of
expanded feeding programs under Public Law 480 in line with our
officially declared intentions.
Much of what has been recently developed in food technology, in
new foods, and in nutritional experiments is as yet not generally known
at the top levels of policy and administrative responsibility. Partly,
this is because the developments are new, and partly because there
has been no provision in the executive branch for centralizing this
information for the foreign feeding operations. Furthermore, to make
these programs more effective, specific year-to-year increased obj ec-
tives as well as long-range objectives are lacking. It is, therefore,
recommended that-
(1) The Food for Peace Program should have the responsible
agencies draw up a balance sheet of food needs for the less
developed countries, and match them with the current and
potential supplies of animal and vegetable proteins, pulses,
cereals, and vegetable oils, with special attention to the new
sources of low-cost vegetable proteins.
(2) It should have the agencies prepare a long-range (5- or
10-year) program of feeding operations under Public Law 480
PAGENO="0041"
FOOD AND PE0PL~E~ 35
on the assumption that foreign feeding operations for some years
to come will be a continuous outlet for our low-cost, high-protein
foods.
(3) It should also set up short-range goals in terms of specific
quantities, such as doubling the present volume of food donations,
or doubling the number of recipients, or doubling the rate of
feeding in 1962 or 1963.
(4) It should present these short- and long-range goals to the
voluntary relief agencies, on the assumption that they will carry
out the enlarged programs, for estimates of the additional per-
sonnel costs and other problems that would be involved.
(5) Similarly, processors should be asked to submit proposals
as to new low-cost products to be included in the expanded and
regularized program.
(6) Consideration should be given to the proposal that these
foreign relief activities be made part of foreign policy operations
rather than part of the agricultural production adjustment and
price support programs.
A quantitative goal of this kind would make it possible for the re-
sponsible agencies to bring together the latest usable knowledge in
food techno]ogy, in available foods, and in nutrition, now nowhere
centralized. It wou]d also make it possible for food processors who
have developed products that could be used in the Food for Peace
Program to plan their capacities and figure their costs more realis-
tically. It would make it possible for Government agencies and the
voluntary relief agencies to plan their activities more effectively.
This would be true not only in planning feeding programs, but in
developing the supply and uses of indigenous products and in estab-
lishing small-scale vegetable beverage plants and other food-processing
enterprises. Thus, our food programs could accomplish a great deal
more to meet the world's needs in aid and, ultimately, its needs in
trade.
PAGENO="0042"
PAGENO="0043"
II. CURRENT AND PROSPECTIVE TRENDS IN WORLD
POPULATION AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
U.S. foreign policies of the past decade have had the twofold
objective of helping the less developed countries improve their
economic well-being and of laying the basis for expanding our world
trade in agricultural products. For the future, these objectives will
need to be pursued with even greater intensity. The gap between food
production and consumption of the less developed countries and of the
western industrialized countries is basic. There is little evidence in
the current and prospective trends in agricultural production that the
gap will be materially reduced during the next decade without a
greater sense of urgency both in the industrialized countries and in the
less developed countries.
The much publicized population eruption is progressing at an
annual rate 50 percent greater in the less developed countries and in the
Sino-Soviet bloc than in the industrialized Western countries. While
food production in the less developed countries has increased since
World War II, it has not been sufficient to materially overcome the
persistently rising requirements. If the experience of the past 10
years is taken as a guide the per capita production of grains, pulses,
roots, and tubers of the less developed countries 10 years hence will
still be only 40 to 45 percent of the per capita production of the
industrialized West. It has been about 41 percent in recent years.
The population trends in the less developed countries may be taken
as a reasonable guide as to what to expect during the decade of the
1960's. This does not mean that the population growth must con-
tinue its pace unchecked, but it is extremely doubtful that material
progress can be achieved in changing the social and economic factors
involved in the next few years. But agricultural production and con-
sumption trends can be tilted upward by the foreign aid programs and
Food for Peace activities if they can capitalize on the experience of the
past decade and on the more recent developments in agricultural pro-
duction technology and food processing.
The population trends that we will have to live with during the
1960's are shown in chart I. For the countries included in the group,
industrialized Western countries, the yearly rate of population increase
is 1.3 percent. At this rate, the total of 541 million persons in these
countries will rise to about 635 million 10 years hence. During the
12-year span, 1959 to 1971, the increase here will probably be nearly
100 million. For the countries in the Sino-Soviet bloc the current
annual rate of increase is 2.1 percent or about 50 percent greater than
that of the Western countries. The bloc's population increase from
1959 to 1971 may be about 300 million, from 1,004 million to 1,300
million, or about three times as great as the increase for the Western
area. For all the other countries, the annual rate of increase is also
about 2.1 percent and at this pace we may see an increase here from
1,334 million in 1959 to about 1,750 million, or about 420 million. This
37
PAGENO="0044"
38 FOOD ~t~D PEOPLE
CHABT I
World Population For Three I4ajor Areas
1935-1939, 1950-1959 and Projection
for 1971
PAGENO="0045"
FOOD AND PEOPLE~ 39
would mean an increase in the world population of over 800 million
(from 2,878 million in 1959 to 3,685 million in 1972). The prospect is
that the Sino-Soviet bloc will have about twice as many people as the
industrialized West and the less developed countries close to three
times as many. Both the Sino-Soviet bloc and the less developed
countries will gain in population relative to the industrialized West.
The agricultural production trends show even greater contrasts for
these three world areas. It may be said that the agricultural picture
is the population picture turned upside down. The countries in the
Western area, with the smallest number of people and the slower rate
of annual increase, has the highest per capita agricultural production
and the fastest annual rate of increase. The less developed coun-
tries as a group, with the largest share of the world's population,
shows the slowest rate of annual increase. The Sino-Soviet bloc is
in the middle. These per capita production trends are shown in chart
II.
Before World War II (1935-39), the industrialized West and Japan
produced about 475 kilograms per capita of grains, pulses, root, and
tuber crops. By 1959, this had increased by about 30 percent to 620
kilograms. At this rate of expansion, per capita production of these
products would go to about 665 kilograms, an increase of 9 percent
between 1959 and 1971.
Both the Sino-Soviet bloc as a group and the underdeveloped
countries as a group suffered setbacks in agricultural production
during the war years. In the Sino-Soviet bloc, per capita production
of grains, pulses, tubers, and roots dropped from 420 kilograms in
1935-39. By 1950, it was still down to 340 kilograms but subse-
quently recovered to the prewar per capita level by 1956. The lower
figure shown here for 1959 reflects adverse growing conditions,
particularly in Russia and China. Recovery in grain production did
not begin in Russia until 1961 but the poor crops in China in 1960
and 1961 suggest that the total per capita production for the Sino-
Soviet bloc is at present (1961) probably no greater than in 1956 or
in the prewar years, but still substantially greater than in 1950.
This irregular record makes it difficult to point to the probable
increase in Sino-Soviet production by 1971. Perhaps as good a
guess as any, based on the 1950-59 figures, is that the bloc may
experience an increase of 10 to 12 percent per capita. Its production
would then be about 470 kilograms per capita and about 30 percent
below that of the industrialized `West.
Similarly the per capita production of these selected crops in the
less developed countries fell from 270 kilograms in 1935-39 to less
than 210 kilograms in 1950. Recovery to the prewar level has been
slow, held down in part by the increase in population. Here, too, the
1950-59 record is not adequate for judging the probable 1971 produc-
tion level, but as good a guess as one may make would point to about
285 kilograms per capita or about a 5-percent increase over the prewar
figure.
If these trends materialize, the world will still face the great issues
generated by the food gap, 285 kilograms per capita in the under-
developed countries, 670 in the industrialized West, and in between,
but advancing faster, the Sino-Soviet group with 470.
A more comprehensive analysis of world agricultural production
trends in relation to population changes is presented by the U.S.
PAGENO="0046"
40
350
300
250
FOOD AND PEOPLE
CHART II
World Production of all Grains, Pulses, Roots and
Tubers, Per Capita, 5..1937, ~ ~ 1956, 1959
For Three Major Areas
Kilograms
650
6oo
500
1j50
1100
200
19351939
Average
PAGENO="0047"
FOOD AND PEOPLD 41
Department of Agriculture in its October 1961 report on "The World
Food Budget, 1962 and 1966." Whereas the foregoing trends in
agricultural production are based on selected items of grains, pulses,
roots, and tubers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture report presents
indexes of total agricultural production. Table I summarizes the
annual average changes in total and per capita production for the
23-year span from 1935-39 to 1960-6 1 and for the 7-year period 1952-
54 to 1960-6 1.
TABLE 1.-Annual percent change in total and per capita world agricultural produc-
tion by major regions, 1935-60
Regions or country
Total production
Per capita
production
1935-39
to
1960-61
1952-54
to
1960-61
1935-39
to
1960-61
1952-54
to
1960-61
Latin America
3. 1
2. 5
1. 5
1.0
.9
1. 8
3.0
3.3
2. 7
1.8
3. 4
3. 0
2. 7
2.4
4. 4
2. 1
2. 4
6.4
3.4
3.0
0. 04
. 2
-.3
-.4
.5
. 8
.9
1.3
.3
.3
0. 6
. 7
.7
.3
2. 7
L 3
. 6
4.9
1.0
1.0
Africa and west Asia
Far East (excluding Japan)
Communist Asia
East Europe (including Soviet Union)
Western Europe
United States and Canada
Japan
Australia and New Zealand
World
Source: Appendix table 6.
The outstanding facts in table 1 are the production increases now
taking place in Japan and in eastern Europe, including the Soviet
Union. Compared with a world annual average increase in total
production of 3 percent, Japan has been experiencing a 6.4 percent
increase and east Europe, 4.4 percent. For Japan, this represents
a per capita increase of 4.9 percent annually, and for east Europe,
2.7 percent compared with a worldwide increase of only 1 percent.
The less developed countries (Latin America, Africa, west Asia, and
the Far East (excluding Japan) have rates of increase per capita of
0.6 to 0.7 percent and Communist Asia only 1 percent.
There is little evidence in these increases in per capita production
of less than 1 percent per year in the less developed countries that
their food consumption levels can approach adequacy in the next
decade. The gap between potential production and adequacy is so
wide that the world's food budget will remain unbalanced for many
years to come. The obligation and effort to help close the food gap
will continue to play a major role in our foreign economic policies.
1 Foreign Agricultural Economic Report No. 4 (Washington).
PAGENO="0048"
PAGENO="0049"
III. THE NUTRITIONAL GAP
It is possible to obtain an impression of what the world food situation
may be as a result of current trends in world agriculture, including the
influence of foreign agricultural programs and policies of the United
States and of other countries. These facts recently made available
by the USDA report on "The World Food Budget, 1962 and 1966"
may also point to changes required in our agricultural production
programs, to new programs in the distribution of our food products
abroad, and to improvements in food processing technology so as to
speed up progress toward balancing the food budgets of under-
developed countries.
To understand the nature of the world's food deficiencies, it will be
helpful to note the differences between the major areas of the world
in the composition of the daily average consumption in 1958 given in
table 2. The areas of deficit diets are clearly identified as those where
calories consumed per day fell below 2,700.
TABLE 2.-Food consumption: Daily average per capita levels, by regions, 1958
Country or region
Coun-
tries in
region
Cab-
ries
Protein
Animal Pulse Other Total
Fat
Canada
Latin America
Mediterranean Europe
Other Western Europe
Soviet Union
Other Eastern Europe
West Asia
Africa
Far East
Communist Asia
Oceania
United States
Number
20
4
12
~
7
21
11
4
2
Number
3,080
2,640
2,660
3,040
2,985
2,925
2,365
2,454
2, 100
2,200
3,210
3,220
Grams
62
24
25
48
26
28
13
11
8
6
67
66
Grams
2
9
6
1
3
3
5
10
12
15
5
5
Grams
30
33
44
32
63
47
55
43
36
44
31
26
Grams
94
66
75
81
92
78
73
63
56
65
103
97
Grams
138
60
74
120
70
83
40
44
32
32
136
149
Source: Appendix table 5.
From the USDA study, five regions emerge with countries that are
labeled diet deficient. The deficiencies, of course, vary by country
and by commodities. The diet-deficit regions are found to be Latin
America, Africa, west Asia, the Far East, and Communist Asia. For
these diet-deficit countries as a group, estimates of production and
consumption, as well as estimated requirements to meet nutritional
standards, are given in table 3. These are all expressed in terms of
four commodity groups: wheat, pulses, dry skim milk, and vegetabie
oils.
43
PAGENO="0050"
44 FOOD AND PEOPLE
TABLE 3.-Production, consumption, and import needs for diet-deficit countries
Food
1958
1962
1966
lYheat (million metric tons):
Production
69. 4
72. 8
79. 7
Consumption
Import needs:
For projected consumption
To meet nutritional needs
81. 1
11. 7
41. 4
93. 6
20. 8
50. 2
105. 0
25. 3
54. 5
Dry beans and peas (million metric tons):
Production
33. 5
39. 8
44. 0
Consumption
Import needs:
For projected consumption
To meet nutritional standard
35. 0
1. 5
1.8
39. 8
. 0
. 2
44. 1
. 1
.3
Nonfat dry milk (thousand metric tons):
Production
21.0
29. 0
36. 0
Consumption
208.0
330. 0
479. 0
Import needs:
For projected consumption
To meet nutritional standard
Vegetable oils (million metric tons):
Production
187.0
1, 696.0
9.9
301. 0
1, 819. 0
11. 2
443. 0
1, 995. 0
12. 3
Consumption
Import needs:
For projected consumption
To meet nutritional standard
8.2
-1.7
1. 8
9. 7
-1. 5
1.9
10. 9
-1. 4
1. 8
Source: Appendix tables 2 and 3.
The unbalanced food budgets are here revealed in protein shortages
expressed in terms of wheat and nonfat dry milk and in fats expressed
in terms of vegetable oils. It is surprising that the situation in 1966
in these diet-deficit regions is likely to show so little improvement
by 1966.
In the case of proteins and calories that could be derived from wheat,
production is expected to increase by 10 million metric tons by 1966
over 1958, consumption is expected to increase by 24 million tons
(from 81 to 105 million tons). To meet this consumption deficit,
imports will need to exceed twice what they were in 1958. But
measured against the nutritional standard, the deficit will continue
to mount from 41.4 million tons in 1958 to 50.2 million tons in 1962,
to 54.5 million tons in 1966.
In the case of proteins which can be obtained from pulses, produc-
tion will just about balance requirements both in 1962 and 1966.
In the case of animal proteins that can be derived from nonfat dry
milk, the estimated deficits are most striking. Production in these
diet-deficit countries is practically negligible. Consumption is ex-
pected to increase noticeably, through imports, chiefly from the
United States. But consumption in 1966 is not expected to equal
more than a fourth of the requirements to meet nutritional standards.
The foregoing comparisons deal with all diet-deficit regions as a
group. Marked contrasts show up in the several regions and even
greater ones by countries. Some of these contrasts appear in the
following summary of diet deficiencies by regions not satisfied by the
projected consumption for 1962 and 1966.
PAGENO="0051"
FOOD AND PJ~)OPL~
45
TABLE 4.-Dietary deficiencies of diet-deficit regions not satisfied by projected
consumption for 1962 and 1966
~In thousands of metric tons]
Area
Animal protein
in terms of
nonfat dry milk
Pulse protein
in terms of
beans and peas
Other protein
and calories in
terms of wheat
Fat in terms
of vegetable
oil
1962
1966
1962
1966
1962
1966
1962
1966
Latin America
Africa
West Asia
Far East
Communist Asia
Total
0
89
0
714
715
0
64
0
698
790
0
69
0
81
0
0
75
0
90
0
2, 714
2,365
1,283
20,285
2,710
2, 665
2,361
1,297
19, 735
3,250
49
20
48
1, 568
1,660
38
20
15
1,299
1, 860
1,518
1,552
150
165
29,357
29,308
3,345
3,232
Source: Appendix tables 2 and 3.
The shortage in animal protein in terms of nonfat dry milk is chiefly
in the Far East and in Communist Asia, with some in Africa. In the
case of pulse protein, the deficiencies are almost entirely in Africa and
the Far East. In the case of other protein and calories in terms of
wheat, the deficit is predominantly in the Far East with some in each
of the other four diet-deficit regions. The shortages of fat in terms of
vegetable oil are chiefly in the Far East and Communist Asia.
Why are the prospects for closing these nutritional gaps in the near
future so disappointing? Some of the reasons and problems are
suggested in the U.S. Department of Agriculture comments on the four
items of shortages. The following are excerpts from the report on
"The World Food Budget."'
Animal protein.-The reference standard for animal protein is 7
grams per day per person, or about 12 percent of the total protein.
This is a minimum. Where a deficiency occurs it may be critical for
it affects lower income persons and, most adversely, preschool children
and pregnant and lactating mothers-the most in need of this food
nutrient.
The deficiency ranges from about 1 grain in Nigeria, India, and Com-
munist Asia to 3 grams in Indonesia and 4 grams in Liberia. Because
of inadequate purchasing power of lower income groups and faulty
distribution of foodstuffs within countries, deficits may be more
serious than indicated by the foregoing figures.
World production of nonfat dry milk only slightly exceeds consump-
tion. Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand ac-
count for all excess production by region over domestic consumption.
If larger shipments from surplus to diet-deficit regions are to occur,
production in surplus regions will have to be increased proportionally.
Such an increase would probably be used primarily in expanding school
lunch programs. Such programs do not reach the persons most in
need of animal protein.
Countries with animal protein shortages would be exceedingly re-
luctant to establish and operate countrywide free food distribution
programs. If the required animal protein is to be consumed by those
most in need, purchasing power of consumers must be increased.
This can come about only through further economic development.
As such development occurs every attempt should be made to increase
the efficiency of milk production and to expand the fisheries industry.
1 Op. cit., pp. 24-27.
PAGENO="0052"
46 FOOD PEOPLE
Much can be done on both approaches in all animal protein shortage
areas, particularly milk in India and fisheries in Indonesia.
Pulse protein.-The reference standard for pulse protein is an
amount which, when added to available animal protein, equals 17
grams. This protein supplements cereal protein and is especially im-
portant in the diet when animal protein is less than 17 grams.
A deficiency in pulse protein in 1962 appears only in Ceylon at 5
grams, in Malaya and Thailand, each at about 1 gram, and in scat-
tered areas of central and western Africa, ranging from about 1 gram
in Nigeria to 7 grams in Liberia. The pulse protein deficit in 1962,
expressed in terms of dry beans and peas, is 69,000 tons for Africa
and 81,000 tons for the Far East. Somewhat larger tonnages are in-
dicated for 1966.
Pulse protein shortages could perhaps best be met by increasing
production in the deficit regions. This does not appear to pose any
formidable problems. It may be noted that Thailand is a substantial
exporter of pulses and Nigeria of peanuts. In both countries the
shortage in consumption appears to relate more to low personal in-
come, faulty internal distribution, and Government export policy
than to a shortage of supply.
"Other" protein and calories.-The reference standard for total pro-
tein is 60 grams. The standard for calories varies from 2,300 for the
Far East and Communist Asia to 2,710 for Canada and the Soviet
Union. Deficiencies in "other" protein (protein other than animal
and pulse) and in calories are expressed in terms of wheat.
In the projected 1962 and 1966 food budgets, calorie shortages
occur in 36, and "other" protein shortages in 31 of the 60 less
developed countries and areas included in this study. The two short-
ages generally occur together in the same country. Principal excep-
tions are the nine countries and areas of central and western Africa
where no calorie shortage occurs, but where animal and pulse protein
and fat shortages are widespread. The reason for this is that in this
tropical area cassava, other root crops, bananas, and plantains are
generally plentiful so that food energy sources are readily at hand.
Calorie and "other" protein shortages, expressed in terms of wheat,
total over 29 mfflion tons for both 1962 and 1966. The 1962 food
budget for the five diet-deficit regions includes 93.6 million tons of
wheat from domestic production and 20.8 mfflion from imports, in-
cluding accelerated concessional purchases and grants. This is 9.1
mfflion tons more wheat than the regions imported in 1958. The
1956 food budget provides for imports of 25.3 million tons. These
tonnages are about as much as these regions can and are willing to
receive and move into consumption. The remaining deficit there-
fore of over 29 million tons for each of the 2 years cannot be further
reduced by imports. Even if it could, it would seem unwise to create
dependence on outside sources for a larger share of the food supply.
The diet-deficit regions should therefore be encouraged and assisted
to increase their own wheat and other cereal production, first to erase
the nutritional shortage, and then to reduce imports. It is only by
such means that the diet-deficit nations can assure the food supply
essential for their survival, and establish the conditions necessary for
economic growth and advancement of their material well-being.
In the densely populated Far East, where land resources are limited,
population is expanding rapidly, and the nutritional deficit in "other"
PAGENO="0053"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 47
protein and calories in terms of wheat is 20 million tons. Ever-
increasing availabilities of plant nutrients and larger and larger
expenditures for irrigation will be necessary to increase cereal produc-
tion sufficiently to erase this deficit. Over the next 15 years, this
means the expenditure of some $3 billion for construction of fertilizer
plants and a similar expenditure for irrigation works.
Fat.-The reference standard for fat is the amount that will provide
15 percent of standard calories. This is regarded as a nutritional floor
rather than a desirable standard. For the diet-deficit area, the stand-
ard ranges from 38 grams per person per day for the Far East and
Communist Asia to 42 grams for Latin America.
This nutritional shortage occurs in 27 of the 60 countries studied in
the diet-deficit area. The total deficit expressed in terms of vegetable
oil is 3.3 million tons in 1962 and 3.2 million in 1966. The shortage is
primarily in the Far East and Communist Asia.
The Far East, which shows a shortage in consumption of 1.6 million
tons in 1962 and 1.3 million in 1966, is the world's third largest net
exporter of vegetable oil and oil-bearing seeds and materials, exceeded
only by the United States and Africa. The major Far East exporting
countries-Malaya, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Ceylon-do not
show shortages in consumption. In the remaining countries, there-
fore, the problem appears to be lack of foreign exchange for imports
and lack of consumer purchasing power.
In countries where effective demand for vegetable oil is weak,
because of a relatively high price compared to other food and living
necessities, imports of vegetable oil under concessional terms would
only increase the oil consumption of those whose present intake is
probably well above the fat standard. This would leave persons with
a fat shortage generally unaffected.
Since fat-deficit countries are unlikely to engage in countrywide
free food distribution programs, the problem can only be resolved by
increases in personal income through economic development. Such
increases will tend to spur production of vegetable oil within the
countries and may also encourage further imports.
It may be generally concluded from this analysis that nutritional
shortages are closely related to low per capita production of food and
goods that can be traded for food. These shortages can only be
erased by substantial and sustained increases in agricultural produc-
tion that make for balanced economic development in the diet-deficit
regions themselves.
ILLIJSTRATION AND FEEDING PROGRAMS GO TOGETHER
There is a common theme in all of the foregoing USDA comments
bearing on these nutritional gaps in the various regions and countries,
namely, the lack of purchasing power. Insofar as this is one of the
basic reasons why both urban and rural populations in the less devel-
oped countries are undernourished in terms of proteins, calories, and
fats, closing the nutritional gaps is bound to be a very slow process.
What is involved here is the slow rate of speed with which predomi-
nantly rural countries can industrialize. For example, pre-World War
II experience all over the world indicates that per capita purchasing
power of a country tends to double when the complex and usually
slow processes of industrialization succeed in producing a 20-point
reduction in the proportion of the labor force engaged in agriculture.
PAGENO="0054"
48 FOOD ~D PEOPLE
Thus a country may expect its per capita national income to
double gradually when it succeeds-through advances in industrial
and agricultural production, and distribution, and through the
general spread of technicai and scientific education-in bringing the
agricultural share of the labor force down from 80 to 60 percent or
from 70 to 50 percent or from 60 to 40 percent.2 There is reason to
think that this formula still holds.
Unfortunately, even under the favorable condition which promoted
the industrialization of the United States, it required at least two
decades to attain a 20-point gain in industrialization. Consequently
the closing of nutritional gaps in a matter of only a few years cannot
wait on the industrialization of a country.
The real question, bearing on greater and speedier progress in
closing nutritional gaps, is how soon can the economies of under-
developed countries show a 20-point gain in industrialization without
help. Further, how much sooner can this be brought about by help
from the industrialized countries by means of capital, industrial and
agricultural technology, concurrently with direct aid to the under-
nourished, especially the young, who are the future entrants into the
labor force and the vital element in greater productivity.
2 See paper on "International Industrialization and Per Capita Income" by Louis H. Bean, in vol. 8
on "Income and Wealth," National Bureau of Economic Research.
PAGENO="0055"
IV. LONG-RANGE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN
FEEDING PROGRAMS
Many projects have been, and are being, launched to help close the
nutritional gap among the less developed countries. United States
agricultural production is being made to play an increasingly greater
role. There are projects aimed at making our surplus wheat, cotton,
and other crops available under concessional arrangements, at prices
below domestic supports and for foreign currencies where dollars are
not available. There are technical assistance projects that aim at
helping the less developed agricultural countries improve their agri-
cultural productivity. There are economic development proj ects for
countries that are willing to accept and make use of our surplus wheat
to supplement wage payments. There are projects in which we stand
willing to donate some of our surplus feeds to assist persons to enter
into feed processing operations and the production of livestock in order
to help build up their own sources of animal protein. There are the
additional food relief programs both to meet emergencies and to pro-
vide food to undernourished persons carried out by private voluntary
relief agencies. These agencies in many countries are distributing
food obtained from the CCC through schools and institutions and
directly to families and individuals. Details of these activities will
be available in the President's next report to Congress on Public Law
480 operations for July-December 1961.
The Outlook for closing the nutritional gap
In spite of all of these current and prospective efforts on our part
and the agricultural programs planned by the recipient countries
themselves, the USDA appraisal of the world's food balance are no
real outlook for closing of the nutritional gap in the next 5 years. The
dietary deficiencies of the diet-deficit countries not satisfied by pro-
jected production and consumption for 1966 appear to be practically
the same as those estimated for 1962. For the five diet-deficit areas
of Latin America, Africa, west Asia, Far East and Communist Asia,
the estimates are as follows:
TABLE 5.-Food deficits, in thousands of metric tons, in diet-deficit countries
Food
Total
Excluding Corn-
mimist Asia
1962 1966
1962 1966
Protein, in terms of nonfat dry milk
Protein, in terms of beans and peas
Other protein and calories in terms of wheat
Fat, in terms of vegetable oil
1, 518 1, 552
150 165
29,357 29, 308
3,345 3,232
803 762
150 165
26, 647 26,058
1, 685 1,372
Source: Appendix tables 2 and 3.
49
PAGENO="0056"
50 FOOD AND PEOPLE
The only noticeable shrinkage in these deficits appears in the pro-
jections for fat in terms of vegetable oil in the non-Communist
countries. For the Far East where nearly half of the total vegetable
oil shortage in diet-deficit countries prevails, the 1962 deficit of
1,568,000 tons is expected to be reduced to 1,299,000, probably as a
result of stepped-up relief exports from the United States. For
Communist Asia, the vegetable oil deficit for 1962 of 1,660,000 tons
increases to 1,860,000 tons.
The view fairly commonly held that the world's malnutritional
problems will be righted once higher living standards and purchasing
power are attained has recently been stated by a respected nutri-
tionist in these words:
I can see no long-range advantage either to us or to people concerned in trying
to meet the world's shortage in protein foods for man by supplying foods from
the United States. The people who are suffering most severely from protein mal-
nutrition are in lowest economic groups in the most underdeveloped countries.
There is very little hope in the foreseeable future that they will have money
enough to buy imported products. The solution seems to me to be to improve
their protein supply within their own resources with U.S. technical assistance,
make them stronger~ and healthier so that they can become more productive,
and thus raise their economic level so that we can do business together to mutual
advantage.1
This view seems to imply a neglect of millions of children destined
to die of malnutrition in 1962, 1963, and far into the future, certainly
during all the years that will be required "to improve their protein
supply within their own resources." No realistic view of what U.S.
technical assistance can accomplish in 1, 2, 5, or 10 years can see
enough progress in the protein-deficit countries of Asia and Africa
and Latin America to cause us to cease our concern for relating our
agricultural production capacity to prevailing poverty and mal-
nutrition.
Most of our foreign aid aimed at closing nutritional gaps is going
to be chiefly and increasingly through economic development projects,
while direct food relief operations may suffer from diminished interest
since they are often mistakenly looked upon as not contributing to
economic development. Many of these economic development proj-
ects ore bound to be of the pilot-project type, which means that
several years must elapse before demonstrated feasibility emerges into
countrywide acceptance. This holds true for desired advances in
agricultural practices to raise productivity as well as for the intro-
duction of new foods and new food processes. The long-run benefits
of many economic development projects do not meet the needs of
starving and underfed children and adults today.
As a guide to what economic progress may normally be expected
in underdeveloped countries two simple facts may be helpful. One
is that it requires an annual increase of 3.5 percent per year in per
capita real income to obtain a doubling in per capita income in 20
years. The other is that this rate of advance is most unusual. Even
in the United States when it was predominantly an agricultural
country, the rate of change in the economic balance between agricul-
ture and industry was not as speedy as the impatient, less devel-
oped countries require today. Prior to 1900, when more than 40
percent of the United States work force was engaged in agriculture,
1 "World Aspects of Protein Malnutrition" by Dr. W. H. Sebrell, Jr., M.D., director of the Institute of
Nutrition Science. Columbia University--in proceedings of Conference on Soybean Products for Protein in
Human Foods, Sept. 13-15, 1961. U.S.D.A. Agricultural Research Service.
PAGENO="0057"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 51
the growth of industrialization showed up as an increase of 6 to 7
percentage points per decade in the proportion engaged in nonagri-
cultural occupations.2 And under these changing conditions, favor-
able to both agriculture and industry, our national income per capita
did not double every 20 years.
Any country today that is 60 to 80 percent agricultural may have
good reason to expect a rise in its per capita income during the present
decade as it makes use of modern know-how and can make full use of
the assistance the industrialized West is making available. But it is
not likely that any such country, which typically has a per capita
income of only $100 or $200, can expect to see in the next 5 or 10 years
a doubling of even such low per capita incomes. Therefore no great
immediate improvement in the nutritional gaps can be expected from
economic projects alone.
Since it is the next few years that are crucial to countries sub-
jected to Communist pressures, it is necessary to examine the nutri-
tional gaps for more effective, more direct, more immediate ways of
meeting the essential food requirements of undernourished people in
the more immediate future, while the slower programs and processes
of economic development lay the basis for greater improvement in
living standards later on.
The need for additional sources of protein
When we examine the world's nutritional gap closely we find that the
basic shortage is in protein food, that the shortage is concentrated
very largely among infants and children of preschool age. The
voluntary relief agencies, primarily responsible for carrying out our
foreign feeding programs reach millions of needy persons, but these
represent a very small part of the total needing nutritional help.
Furthermore, the supply of protein foods that can be made available
to the relief agencies actually is not in the abundance generally
supposed. The hard fact is that if the relief agencies were to arrange
with the governments of the recipient countries to distribute twice as
much protein food as they are now distributing under title III of
Public Law 480, we would not be able to supply the needed foods.
The main item of food for the young among the needy is milk and we
are not in a position today, and are not likely to be in the next 5 years,
to materially expand the donations of dry skim milk. Here are some
of the facts:
All responsible agencies and nutrition experts engaged in the
problems of feeding the world's undernourished agree that the great
need is in protein food. This is the view of the United Nations or-
ganizations dealing with food and agriculture, child feeding and
world health, and of many nutritionists in the United States and all
over the world. Speaking recently on the subject, Dr. W. H. Sebrell,
Jr., M.D. and director of the Institute of Nutrition Science, Columbia
University, said:
There seems little doubt protein malnutrition is the most widespread form of
deficiency disease today. Although nutritional anemia, goiter, and the various
vitamin deficiencies continue to be major problems for certain segments of the
population, from a world standpoint, protein malnutrition far exceeds these in
importance.
There is increasing evidence that protein malnutrition accounts for a major
part of the deaths of children between weaning and school age in many parts of
2 (See chapter on "Agricultural Capacity," by L. H. Bean in "America's Needs and Resources." (New
York, 1955), p. 806.
PAGENO="0058"
52 FOOD AND PEOPLE
the world. This situation has been recognized only in recent years because the
effects of the deficiency have been complicated and hidden by the occurrence of
infectious diseases.2
In spite of our farfiung relief activities our food resources reach
a relatively small proportion of needy persons. It is estimated that
22 million persons abroad receive our food distributed by the voluntary
agencies through schools, about 20 millions more through families, and
about 14 million more through institutions and maternal health cen-
ters. But these are only rough figures. They do not represent full-
time feeding. On the basis of feeding an adequate daily ration every
day of the year, these estimates would shrink considerably. While we
do not have any adequate statistics on the number of children and
older persons suffering from malnutrition, it is safe to assume that they
run into several hundred millions.
Milk, in terms of costs to the Commodity Credit Corporation, is
at present the largest item in our foreig~~i relief program. During the
first half of 1961, the CCC cost of foreign relief through the voluntary
and intergovernmental organizations amounted to $113 millions, or
$226 millions on an annual basis. Milk represented about 45 percent
of the total; flour, about 30 percent; cornmeal about 9 percent; rice
about 6 percent; wheat, 4 percent; shortening, 4 percent; and cotton-
seed oil and corn about 2 percent.
Cost of commodities shipped for foreign relief, January-June, 1961 (at annual rate)
Millions
Milk $102
Flour 68
Cornmeal 20
Rice 14
Wheat 9
Shortening 9
Cottonseed oil 3
Corn 1
Total $226
For the current fiscal year 196 1-62 much larger donations of
vegetable oil, chiefly soybean oil, are being made.
We do not know how many children and adults are reached by the
relief milk programs or any of the other programs intended to alleviate
the protein shortage. But assume that a rate of feeding of about
30 pounds per person per year and that the total amount of dry skim
milk now being made available though title II and title III of Public
Law 480 operations is approximately 600 million pounds. Then, it
would appear that we are supplying milk to about 20 million children-
a very small proportion of the several hundred million needy children
over the world.
Since nonfat dry milk is the main high-protein item made avail-
able to our voluntary relief agencies, plans for a more effective Food
for Peace program must recognize that there are basic economic
factors which limit the availability of U.S. nonfat dry milk.
2 See "Proceedings of Conference on Soybean Products for Protein in Human Foods," Sept. 13-15, 1961,
Peoria, Ill., from USDA Agricultural Research Service.
PAGENO="0059"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 53
TABLE 6.-Foreign donations and noncommercial sales of nonfat dry milk, 1959-60
[Mifilon pounds]
Calendar year
Dona-
tions
Noncom-
mercial
export
sales
Total
Calendar year
Dona-
tions
Noncom-
mercial
export
sales
Total
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955 -
71
55
80
186
365
141
187
83
20
99
143
75
141
258
139
20
179
329
440
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961 (estimated)
1962 (estimated)
401
521
540
332
399
49
63
45
53
83
450
584
594
385
482
(500)
(600)
Source: Department of Agriculture.
* The prospect of a limited expansion of donations of nonfat dry
milk does not trace to the lack of opportunity for the voluntary
agencies or to their inability to expand their operations. Rather, it is
because of the prospect of limited production of nonfat dry milk and
the creation of surpluses of butterfat if production of dry skim milk
were additionally expanded. Total milk production is increasing at
a very slow pace, the increase in production per cow being practically
offset by the continuing decline in the number of cows. The USDA
estimates that "at the present rate, the shift from marketing cream to
marketing whole milk should about have run its course by 1965.
Thus, the rate of increase in marketings of nonfat solids will slow
approximately to that of total milk production."
By 1966, the rising domestic demand for nonfat dry milk is likely
to amount to about 9 pounds per capita compared with 7 pounds in
1961, to 4.1 in 1951, and to 2.5 in 1941. With total population
increasing, total domestic demand in 1966 will probably be 35 to 40
percent greater than it is today. This would call for an increase of,
say, 400 million pounds. Estimates of production over the next 5
years will not be sufficient to meet this increasing domestic demand.
Consequently it is not possible to visualize greater foreign relief dona-
tions except at the expense of domestic consumers and probably higher
costs per pound than the 16 to 18.5 cents now being paid by the CCC.
Thus, there is little prospect of doubling the present volume of nonfat
dry milk under the Food for Peace program, either in 1962 or by 1966.
We must therefore turn our attention to other possible sources of
high-protein foods in both beverage and solid form for infants, pre-
school children, and older persons. The interest in nutrition problems
on the part of many Government and non-Government agencies,
private food processing corporations, and nutrition experts has brought
to the fore a number of new high-protein products and product mixes
which can now be utilized to make immediate progress in greatly
diminishing the nutrition gap. Protein inadequacy of staple foods
for children and adults can now be corrected if special attention is
given to the very recent developments in the production of high-
protein crops, in the processing of high-protein foods, and in the results
of nutrition experiments here and abroad.
3 See "Farm Production Trends, Prospects and Programs," USDA Bulletin 239, Agricultural Research
Service, May 1961, p. 75.
PAGENO="0060"
PAGENO="0061"
V. HOW TO BALANCE THE WORLD'S FOOD BUDGET
From the standpoint of world politics as well as humanitarian
considerations, it would be most unfortunate if in the next 2, 3, or 4
years we make no more progress in meeting the world's nutritional de-
ficits than we have done in the past few years. Yet, this is the pros-
pect if we wait on the essential but slow-moving economic development
programs to increase living standards enough to do away with mal-
nutrition. We have already noted that creating job opportunities,
raising industrial and agricultural productivity, and promoting trade
must, of course, be the great preoccupation. But there must also
be a concurrent preoccupation with the masses of underfed people
who, for a long while, will not achieve adequate economic or nutri-
tional benefits from the inevitably slow-spreading processes and prog-
ress that flow from economic development programs.
Reviewing the plant protein sources of the world, one must come
to the oilseeds for help in closing the protein gap. The great food
staples, wheat, rice, and corn, contain only 7.5 to 13 percent of protein;
legumes, 26 percent; cottonseed and sunflower seed, 20 percent;
peanuts and sesame, 25 percent; but soybeans, 38 percent.
Soybeans dominate the world supply of protein from oil seeds.
Excluding the U.S.S.R., soybean production provides twice as much
protein as peanuts, cottonseed, sesame, and sunflower seed combined.
Two additional facts are important here. One is that the United
States accounts for more than half of the world's soybean production.
The other is that in the United States soy protein is used predomi-
nantly in livestock feeding, whereas in the Orient it is used in many
ways as human food. Cottonseed, both in the United States and
elsewhere, is also used chiefly as livestock feed.
In the United States, soybeans hold an even more dominant position
among the oilseeds. The 1961 production of peanuts and cottonseed
together represent less than 1 metric ton of protein, whereas the 700
mfflion bushel soybean crop represents about 7 million metric tons.
Our soybean crop now exceeds probable uses in 1961-62, and a
continued rise in production will make it possible to supply additional
quantities of soybean oil and soy flour for humans as well as meal for
livestock in the Food for Peace Program. Thus, soybeans dominate
the following review of current developments in new protein foods and
processes, since they present the great potential means for balancing
the world's food budget.
New protein foods
What are these new food products and food processes that promise
so much?
Let us turn to a most timely and authoritative report just off the
USDA press entitled, "Proceedings of Conference on Soybean Proucts
for Protein in Human Foods." ` The sponsors of this conference were
1 Op. cit.
55
PAGENO="0062"
56 FOOD AND PEOPLE
three agencies of the USDA-the Northern Utilization Research and
Development Division, the Agricultural Research Service, the Foreign
Agricultural Service-and the United Nations Children's Fund and
the Soybean Council of America. This document deals authorita-
tively with these topics:
(1) "Nutritional Deficiency Problems in Developing Areas of
the World."
(2) "World Marketing of Soybeans and Soybean Products."
(3) "Research and Development on Soybean Foods."
(4) "Nutritional and Biological Studies."
(5) "Processing and Feeding Value of Fluid and Dry Soy
Milks."
(6) "Problems Involved in Increasing Worldwide Use of
Soybean Products as Foods."
While the report is devoted mainly to soybean products in human
foods, it deals also with other high-protein foods. It brings to date
the latest findings with regard to processes and nutritional values.
The prospective world supply of important protein foods may be
put, according to Dr. Sebrell, of Columbia University, into five classes
of products: (1) animal, (2) marine, (3) cereal grains, (4) oilseed press
cakes, and (5) legumes.
The following comments on current developments relating to
animal products, marine products, and cereal grains are taken from
Dr. Sebrell's paper on "World Aspects of Protein Malnutrition."
"Animal versus vegetable protein.-For many years, nutritionists tried
to meet the intricacies of the problem by specifying not only a total
amount of protein for an individual but also by saying that a certain
proportion should be from animal sources. However, it is well known
that a completely adequate protein supply can be obtained solely from
vegetable sources if the supply of essential amino acids is carefully
looked after.
"Marine products, fish fiour.-The greatest possibility in this area
lies in the production of a suitable fish flour which could be stored
without refrigeration and with little odor and taste so that it would be
suitable for mixing with other foods. The natural tendency of the
industry is to try to convert the present fish fertilizers or animal food
products to human use with a minimum change. Preliminary results
in this direction have not been very successful in that the final product
is of variable quality and may be of low biological value. The
problems here appear to be largely economic and technical.
"A suitable product can be made, and has been made, that will meet
the requirements for biological value, taste, color, and odor. Whether
it can be produced at a price which will make it economically feasible
is the question that remains to be solved. The chances appear to be
good.
"Cereal grains, incaparina and other low-cost, high-protein mixtures.-
The three cereal grains, rice, wheat, and corn, really constitute the
foundation of the food supply of most of the world. Unfortunately
the protein of these three cereal grains is deficient in one or more of
the essential amino acids. Animal and marine protein foods cannot
be made available in amounts sufficient to meet the need and at suit-
able prices. The most logical solution is a mixture of foods of vege-
table sources or a mixture with a small amount of added animal pro-
tein. A large group of foodstuffs of relatively high protein value now
largely wasted as human food immediately comes to mind. The
PAGENO="0063"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 57
products of greatest importance are soybeans, peanuts, and cotton-
seed.
"These usually contain 40 percent protein products and therefore
represent a wasted resource for human protein food which could be
immediately utilized. There are no technical problems in the use of
soybeans, cottonseed, and peanuts.
"The best known food mixtures that are now under study and de-
velopment in various parts of the world are the following:
"Incaparina mixture #9, which consists of:
Percent
Corn mesa 28
Sorghum 28
Cottonseed flour 38
Dehydrated leaf meal 3
Torula yeast 3
Calcium 1
with vitamin A added.
"This mixture developed for the Institute of Nutrition of Central
America and Panama, primarily for use in Central America (as a
beverage for children and as a food additive), has been thoroughly
tested both for its biological value and acceptability. The mixture
is now licensed by INCAP for commercial production. It illustrates
a successful low-cost protein mixture of good biological value.
"Another product that has received extensive testing is known as
Indian multipurpose food and consists of:
Percent
Peanut flour 75
Bengal grain 25
with certain vitamins and calcium phosphate added. This is now
being produced and given to schoolchildren in some parts of India.
"A third type of mixture has been used by Dr. Dean in Uganda as a
biscuit for schoolchildren and contains:
Percent
Dry skim milk 15
Sucrose 12
Cottonseed oil 6
Maize flour 26
Peanuts 41
"Dr. Bradford in Peru has developed a mixture made of:
Percent
Cottonseed flour 30
Quinuia 10
Habas 10
Achita 10
Alfalfa leaf meal 2
Torula yeast 2
Wheat flour 35
"Dr. Wei in Taiwan has been experimenting with a mixture of:
Percent
Soybean 60
Rice 20
Wheat 20
He is also trying:
Percent
Soybean 40
Peanuts 20
Rice 20
Wheat 20
PAGENO="0064"
58 FOOD ~D PEOPLE
"American multipurpose food has been made in a variety of formulas
based on soybean meal. The results of controlled experiments with
these products are not yet available.
"Soybeans appear to offer one of the most attractive possibilities for
making a suitable food mixture of high-protein value at low cost.
Mixtures of various other products, such as corn, peanut flour with
fish flour, meat powder, fish flour, dry skim milk, and the use of a
variety of legumes would appear to offer the most attractive possi-
bilities.
"We have on hand the knowledge and the resources to improve the
health of millions of people in the world today. I do not see any
practical problem in the world's supply that cannot be solved by
education, research, and by good planning."
Nutritional studies relating to the development and uses of soy-contain-
ing foods.-The U.S. Department of Agriculture conference report
contains considerable information on this subj ect. Two summary
statements will suffice.
H. P. Sarett of the Mead Johnson Research Center has reported
studies showing that soybean meals provide protein of good nutritional
value for use in infant formula products, in precooked cereal products
for the infant, and as an important constituent of nutritional specialty
foods.
Commercial soybean milks have been tested on infants by Dr.
Paul Georgy, chairman of pediatrics, Philadelphia General Hospital,
under the sponsorship of the National Research Council, the Inter-
national Nutrition Research Foundation, and Mead Johnson Co.
His report concludes that commercially available soy products, and,
in particular, soy milk, may be used as a satisfactory source of protein
for feeding young infants, even prematures.
Processing of soy liquid and powdered soy milk in Asia.-Under this
topic, Harry W. Miller, M.D., director emeritus, International Nu-
trition Research Foundation, and the first to establish a soy-milk
plant in the United States, reported:
The first commercial development was a soy-milk dairy establishment in
Shanghai in 1935. The process used was in bottle sterilized milk formulated to
the standard of cow's milk; also a chocolate milk, and a soy-acidophilus milk,
which was extensively marketed all over the city of Shanghai up until the plant
was destroyed in 1937 by the bombing of Shanghai.
Using the formula of animal milk, from 1 pound of soybeans we can obtain
sufficient protein extracted to formulate a gallon of milk. This pound of soy-
beans yields all needed protein, half of the required oil, and some of the edible
carbohydrate. The B vitamins, together with some minerals are present, and
other vitamins can be added at low cost. At the market value of the sum total
of constituents needed to constitute a gallon of formulated vitamized soy milk
less than 15 cents is required, and these figures answer quite well for most parts
of the world. Low-cost small pilot plants operated by cheap labor in countries
of low economic resources seem very practical. These figures and statements
are verified through the operation of several small pilot plants in south Asia
countries.
Soybeans incorporated in the national diets as a milk and cheese and its many
other recipes, if supplied in adequate quantities, insures balanced nutrition. It
is a bodybuilder from infancy to the age limit. It is unique compared with other
agriculture products in that it is available as a liquid, curd, or solid, as whole
beans and flour.
Dr. Miller advises that his soy-milk plants operating in the Orient
and in Honduras represent an average investment of about $2,000.
An additional investment of $1,000 would convert the plant into a
tofu, or soy-cheese, as well as a milk plant.
PAGENO="0065"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 59
Pilot-plant studies on soy milk in the United States.-Research on
soy-milk processing plants to determine the feasibility of small-scale
plants for processing whole soybeans by eliminating costly steps now
in use has been sponsored by UNICEF in its search for low-cost soy
milk. Dr. H. B. Hand, of the department of food science and tech-
nology, New York* State Agricultural Experiment Station, reported
his findings:
Dry soy milk of superior quality can be made directly from whole soybeans.
without including a water-extraction step. The yield is better, and the powder
and labor costs are reduced. In the direct manufacture of dry milk from whole
soybeans a homogenizer is added to the processing line but the evaporator and
filter press are eliminated.
Storage life of soy ftour.-The storability of foods in foreign countries.
is a major problem. Mr. Fred H. Haffner, of General Mills, accord-
ing to the conference report, indicated that:
Storage life of soy flour is unusually long, far more stable than milk products,
even at 1400 F. if kept sealed. In polyethylene bags there has been no deteriora-
tion up to 5 years if kept' dry and free from rodents and insects.
In India after 7 weeks' storage at 90° to 104° F. at a relative humidity well
over 75 percent there was a slight softening and loss of crispness of samples stored
in open bowls protected only by refrigerator covers at night, but no deteriora-
tion. This applied to both extracted and full-fat flours if the lipase had been.
destroyed. Until a few months ago no stable full-fat flour was being sold. Now
we have stable products.
The special role of soybeans in the Food for Peace Program
The foregoing excerpts from the latest research findings on the place
of soy protein in human foods, both as additives to cereals and as a
beverage for child feeding, gives soybeans the outstanding position
among the various new sources of protein. It is providential that this.
trend of development on the human nutrition fronts has been accom-
panied by a persistent rise in soybean production in the United States.
The latest estimate places the 196 1~crop at 700 million bushels, com-
pared with less than 500 million bushels only 3 years ago, and 300
million bushels 10 years ago. This is now in dollar value our fourth
largest cash crop and, if one may judge by the trends of the past 15
years in acreage and production, it is not inconceivable that we will
be harvesting a billion-bushel soybean crop about 1966.
With this increase in production, we have experienced a comparable
increase in demand, both domestic and foreign, and so far have not
been faced with any serious carryove'r jiroblems. There is, however,.
considerable doubt that total disappearance in domestic uses and
exports will take up the entire new supply as they have been doing
so far. Total disappearance in 1960-61 reached a record of 570
million bushels, and it could, in line with the recent trend, amount to
640 million bushels in 1961-62. This would leave a carryover of
about 60 million bushels.
While a carryover of this magnitude presents no major surplus
problem at present, since it would represent only about 1 month's
requirements, it has an important bearing for the Food for Peace
operations concerned with malnutrition.
It has already been noted that the protein deficit for 1962 in the
diet-deficient countries has been estimated in terms of dry skim milk,
wheat, and vegetable oil. The annual protein shortage, setting aside
Communist Asia, is estimated to be about 800,000 metric tons, or
about 1.7 billion pounds. Now, a bushel of soybeans yields about 40
PAGENO="0066"
60 FOOD ~p PEOPLE
pounds of soy flour which can be used either as additive to other foods
or as a beverage nutritionally equivalent to nonfat dry milk. Thus,
the entire protein deficit of the diet-deficit areas, other than Commu-
nist Asia, is the equivalent of about 42 million bushels of soybeans.
This fact takes on even greater meaning in view of the difficulties
that we would face if the present donations of nonfat dry milk were
to be expanded in line with the world's needs. As a rough example,
let us assume that, in line with the President's promise to expand our
Food for Peace efforts with major concern for the malnutritioned, we
attempt to double the present volume of dry milk donations, from
600 million pounds to 1,200 million. If this could be done, without
having to pay more per pound, it would mean an additional CCC cost
of about $100 million and in addition there would be a very large
surplus of butter and the attendant price-support costs.
Relative costs of nonfat dry milk and soy milk in the Food for Peace
Program-By way of contrast, what would it cost if, instead of
doubling the volume of nonfat dry milk, the relief agencies were asked
to distribute the additional 600 million pounds in the form of an
equivalent volume of soy flour to be reconstituted as a beverage?
Does the soybean processing industry have the necessary capacity?
What would a pound of soy flour cost compared with the current price
the CCC pay~, about 16 cents per pound in 100-pound bags, and about
18~ cents in 4-pound containers?
Representatives of the industry have recently indicated to the
Food for Peace Program that the industry has a present capacity to
convert about 10 million bushels of soybeans into flour or grits. This
capacity could be doubled in about 6 months, to process about 20
million bushels of soybeans for flour and grits. Since a bushel of
soybeans yields about 40 pounds of soy flour which may be considered
as nutritionally equivalent to 40 pounds of nonfat dry milk, this
capacity would be ample to provide 600 million pounds of soy flour
which, if distributed for beverage purposes, could in effect double the
present volume of milk in the relief programs.
What would this cost? Industry spokesmen indicated that, with
present capacity, soy flour and soy grits would probably cost the CCC
about 5 to 5.5 cents per pound, but if processed for beverage use in
substantial quantity. the cost per pound would be less than 10 cents.
This suggests that the Food for Peace Program could reach as many
more undernourished children as it is now doing, but that the addi-
tional number could be serviced at say $50 million compared with the
present cost of $100 million for the same number.
Perhaps it should be added that there are in fact three possible
ways of doubling the volume of the milk relief programs: (1) we might,
regardless of difficulties with domestic consumers and butter surpluses,
double the donations of dry skim milk; (2) we might keep milk distri-
bution at the 600-million-pound figure and add as much more by 1966
in the form of soy flour; or (3) we might cut down dry milk to zero by
19.66 and step up the donations of soy flour to 1.2 billion pounds by
1966. The first assumntion would involve an accumulated cost of
$816 million, the second $654 million, and the third, $492 million.
Relative costs of wheat flour and soy flour additives in the Food for
Peace Program-There are other cost-saving opportunities afforded by
the prospect of soybean crops of 700 million bushels or more and by
the recent advances in soybean processing technology. As additives,
PAGENO="0067"
FOOD AND PEOPLE 61
soy flour can now be embraced in flour distribution programs and in
school lunch programs with considerable nutritional benefit and with
considerable reduction in the cost of supplying protein.
This example will suffice to indicate the nature of these opportuni-
ties. In Japan, the school lunch program gives a child a 100-gram loaf
of white bread so as to provide a certain quantity of amino acids. But
the same protein requirement can be met by a combination of only
40 grams of wheat flour and 5 grams of high protein soybean flour,
with a saving of about 55 percent in terms of protein. On an annual
basis, feeding 10 million children 250 days per year would cut down the
protein cost by about $27 million. This saving would need to be offset
in part by the addition of some other low-cost product such as rice
(in the Orient) to substitute for the carbohydrates in the 60 grams of
wheat flour replaced by the smaller quantity of soy flour.
This is only one illustration of the use of soy flour as a protein
supplement in cereal foods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and
the soybean industry are now engaged in an extended field survey in a
number of countries to introduce soy flour as a new source of protein
usable as an additive, tailored to the world's varied tastes and diets.
The foregoing facts and views, a mere sampling of the subject,
should suffice to indicate that our foreign feeding programs should be
reappraised and enlarged. They should take into account not only
these new~ food developments'in ~the United~States, but a1so:~the ~com-
parable developments abroad sponsored by foreign governments, by
United Nations agencies, and by our own technical assistance and
trade promotion activities abroad.
PAGENO="0068"
PAGENO="0069"
VI. THE NEED FOR QUANTITATIVE GOALS FOR OUR
FOREIGN RELIEF FEEDING PROGRAMS
It is probably no exaggeration to say that we are now in a better
position than ever before to plan `our foreign feeding operations on a
stepped-up, stable, continuing basis. Once the nutritional require-
ments are spelled out in terms of the basic elements of proteins,
calories, and fats the range of our supplies is no longer limited to
stocks of wheat and corn and uncertain quantities of rice and nonfat
dry skim milk. As we have seen, the list of food protein sources that
can now be drawn upon includes these and more:
soybeans
cottonseed
peanuts
sorghums
wheat
corn
rice
Where the feeding' programs must meet'~protein needs and low costs
per unit of protein, these availabilities make it'possible to devise low
cost high protein food combinations in place of merely high cost low
protein cereal foods.
But in order to make full use of this wider range of available foods
in a more effective expanded foreign food aid program, a greater
degree of central direction will be needed than is now given to our
feeding programs. That direction could be obtained in large measure
by the following action:
1. The Food for Peace Office should request the responsible agencies
to draw up a balance sheet of food needs for the less developed coun-
tries and match them with current and potential supplies of animal
and vegetable proteins, pulses, cereals and vegetable oils, with special
attention to the new sources of low cost vegetable proteins.
2. It should request these agencies to prepare a long-range 5- or
10-year program of feeding operations, on the assumption that these
operations will for some years to come be a continuous outlet for our
low-cost high-protein foods.
3. It should also set up short-range specific quantity goals, such
as doubling the present volume of food donations, or doubling the
number of recipients, or doubling the rate of feeding in 1962 or 1963.
4. It should present these short- and long-range goals to the
voluntary relief agencies on the assumption that they will make the
necessary arrangements abroad for carrying out the enlarged programs.
5. Similarly, processors should be asked to submit proposals as to
new low-cost products to be included in the expanded and regularized
program.
6. Consideration should also be given to making foreign food aid a
part of foreign policy operations rather than part of the agricultural
production adjustment and price-support programs.
63
PAGENO="0070"
64 FOOD ~D PEOPLE
A quantitative goal of this kind would make it possible for the
responsible agencies to bring together the latest usable knowledge in
food technology, in available foods and in nutrition, now nowhere
centralized. It would also make it possible for food processors who
have developed products that could be used in the food-for-peace
programsto plan their capacities and figure their costs more realistic-
ally. It would make it possible for our Government agencies and the
voluntary relief agencies to plan their activities more effectively not
only in feeding programs but in assisting in developing the supply
and uses of indigenous products and in establishing small-scale vege-
table beverage plants and other food processing enterprises. Thus
our donation programs could accomplish a great deal more to meet
the world's needs in aid and ultimately also its needs in trade.
PAGENO="0071"
VI. APPENDIX
TABLE 1.-Agricultural production: Total output and comparison with populatiois
arable land, and per capita income, world by regions, 1958
Region
Production
Population 2
Distri-
Total bution
Arabic land 3
Distri-
Total bution
Income
per
capita'
Total
value 1
Distri-
bution
Produc-
tion per
capita
Southern area:
Latin America
Africa and west Asia
Far East, less Japan 5
Communist Asia
Total
Northern area:
Western Europe
Eastern Europe I
United States
Canada
Japan
Australia and New Zealand
Total
World total
Million
dollars
15, 275
15, 450
23,925
26,910
Per-
cent
9. 1
9.2
14. 2
16. 0
Del-
lars
79
49
31
40
lviii-
lions
193. 1
314.7
766. 0
675. 0
Per-
cent
6. 7
11.0
26. 7
23. 5
Million
hectares
102
290
257
112
Per-
cent
7. 3
20.8
18. 3
8. 0
Dol-
lars
238
137
73
62
81,560
48.5
42
1,948.8
67.9
761
54.4
95
26,275
23,900
26,475
2, 550
3,575
3, 775
15. 7
14.2
15. 8
1. 5
2.1
2. 2
86
74
152
150
39
307
303. 8
322.8
174. 2
17.0
91.7
12. 3
10. 6
11.2
6. 1
. 6
3.2
.4
97
277
188
41
6
28
6.9
19.9
13. 5
2.9
.4
2. 0
657
474
2,070
1,430
230
1, 078
86, 550
51. 5
94
921.8
32. 1
637
45.6
843
168, 110
100. 0
59
2,870.6
100. 0
1,398
100.0
352
1 From "Table 3: World Agricultural Situation, 1961," U.S. Department of Agriculture. World market
prices were taken to be average 1958 wholesale or export prices in major exporting countries (e.g., Canada for
wheat, Thailand for rice, the United States for soybeans, Brazil for coffee, Australia for wool, and Mexico
for cotton).
2 Economic Research Service estimates based upon United Nations and other sources.
3 From FAO Production Yearbook, 1960, vol. 14. Arabic land and land under tree crops. This does not
Include permanent meadows or pastures.
4 Average~ 1955757. Estimatesderived from official population and national income data of respective
countries, as reported to the United Nations.
`Includes Pacific Islands.
6 Includes Soviet Union.
65
PAGENO="0072"
FOOD AND PEOPLE
c c~ C C) C)
0
~)
;~!!
-
; ;
~
E
0 O~ ~
*,~
66
C)
C)
C)
C)
C)
C)
C)~Z0
C)
C)
C)
C')
C)
C)
01
C)
C)
C)
C)
C)
I
!~4
C)
o C
E
.~
- C) C) ~ C)
- - - ~ C)
`C),
C) C) C) - t- C)
C)
0~
`0 0
0~
p~
C)
~
~ COO
~
.~ ~
~
C') C) C) - C) C) C) C) C) C) C)
~ c~ dc~'C~c
,-) - C') *C - C') C)
C) C)
d
t~- -
C) C) C) C) C) C) C'- C') C- C)
C))C'C)~C)C)
-
C)
- C')
C
0
CC
C)
C)
C)
0
E
0
0
~
C
0
C)
0
PAGENO="0073"
~Jo*L~j~ ~UI
,~o1 ~ ~ ~ ,
o~0c00 E~ ~
~1~O ~O~~wOO
- 00
00
AND PEOPLE
0000
©l* *©I*~
6.
~:~~;;
:~:~
0000 ~ 00
CCCC~
CC 00000000 00
00 t~- CC 00
0000 CO ~
00
00
0000
~
Co
~0
00
* 00
00 00 00
* ~I*
CC
:~;~
=~
©00,~
000000 CC
~
00 00
00 0000 00
E
C~
00
~
0000,Ot-00
CO 0000 00
00
0000 CO 0001
00~C0000CC
00 000000000 CC
00
0000
0000 CO 0001
0000000000
CC 00CC 0000 00
00
0000 CO 00
CC `~ ~° 00
00 0000 0000 01
00 0000 00
00
00
FOOD
00
C
`C
- Cl)
PAGENO="0074"
FOOD
AND PEOPLE
COCOCOCO CO
C~CT ~_?~
COCO O~-~~O
COo
CO CO CO CO © t-
0
0
E
CO
0
CO
0
0
~0
E~
68
00
CO
CO
CO
~CO
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO ~0
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO
CO CO CO CO CO
CO CO
CO CO CO CO CO CO
CO -
I I
CO
I
CO CO CO CO CO
CO*
CO CO CO CO CO
COCOCO
CO CO
COCCO
`
CO
COCOCO~
CO
CO CO
g~
~C~COCO~
CO CO CO CO CO CC
COC~-CO
CO CO CO CO CO ~C
ICI
CO CO
I~f~
~©
CO CO
COCCDCCCCOCO~
CO
CO CO
CO CO CO CO CC
CO CO
CO CO CO CO CO CO
CO CO CO CO
~-COCO
CO CO
CO CO
COCOCO
COCCCOCOCO CO
CO COC- CO
COCOCOCOCOCO
COCO
C- CO
CO CC
COCOCO©CO CO
CO
COCOCOCOCO~
COCO
CO CO
©CO
CO CO CO CO CO CO
CO CO CO CO CO C-
CO CO
COCO~COCOCO~
CC
0
0
CO
0
CO
CO
E
E
0
0
0
CO
0
0
0
0
~
~
~ ~
~ E-4 ~C)~9~
CO~1~0 ~
CO0
0
0
z
PAGENO="0075"
0
0
0)
E
0
CC
00
0)
0
C
C
CO
C
00
C00
0)0
C00
C
0
r
0)0)0/)
00 000000 CC
©
FOOD AND
00000000'~ CC -
-~
PEOPLE 69
-000/) 00
100
~
00CC 0000 CC
0000 -
E~
I
CC ~C ~ 00 ~
CC 00,-C 000000
`
00CC 00-0
00'-~ 00
0/) 0000CC
0/) 00000000 ~ 0/)
-00 0000
0/) ~ 0/) 00
00 ~`
00
~C 0/) 00)00 ~
CO 00000000CC 00
©
00 `C
© 00 ~ 00 00
00
00
0/) 0000(0 0-
CO 00 `CCC CC 00
0-
00
00CC
CC
C
0
-~
~
~
000000
00
~
00 0000 `0)00CC CC
- 0/) CC ,-C
I I
CC
C
0
~
~
~
- 000/C ~ ~
CC 00-C
0/) `C ~ 0/) 000/) 0- CO
0/- 00
00C0)'-)
00 000/C
00 ~ 0/0)0000 00
CC 00 ~ CO
~
CC
00
00
00000//CC ~
~
0- 00 ~ 0/00000 00
CO 00 ~ CO
00
CO
0000000/- ~
CO CCCCCCCC 00
CO CC 0-
CO
00
,C0000000 CO
00/00
0- 0000000-0- 00
00 ~ 00
00/
~
00
0
~
~ 0
`~ ~ ,-~
PAGENO="0076"
CO
O~
~
~
CO
CD
CD
~c1C~
CD ~C)~CD ~ ~
~ ~~iI~1i~ ~ ~
g ~ ~D*~~CDCD ~. ~ ~ ~ ~
C ~
~ H
~ -~ ~:
o
-~ ~ CD
CD CC ~
C' C CDCO C~
- C C'
`C
4
~
oH
CD 0100 CD 00CC - C-'
CD CD -I CD CD CDCDCD CD ~0- -I CD CD ~ CD CD ~ CD
0000 CD CD CD ~0- CD CD 10-CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD
a
CDCDC-CD CDC-'
000000 CD CD-lCD -I
0000 CD CD CD 000000
CD
CD
CD CD CD~ 0-
CD CD'CCDOOCDCDCD CD CD ~ ~ CD-I
0-00000-CD 000000 CD CD CD -lCD ~ CO CD
CD
CDCDCDCDCDCDC-C-~CDCDCDCDCD~00CDCDO0-C' CD
CDCDI0-CDCDCDI0-'CDC~0-CDCDICD
CD
CDCDCDCDCD-IoC-CD
0000CDCDCDCDCDC-'
CD
CD CDCDCD~CDCDCCDCDCDCO~C0-I0-CD4
CD C-ICDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCCDCD
CD
CDCD~0
0-0000
CDICDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC0-CDC0-CD4CDCDCDCDCD~
CDCDCDCDCDCDCDCD4CDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCD~
CDCDC-'CDC-'C-'ICDCD00CDCD00CD~CD
CD CD CD 0000 ~0- 0- ~0- CD CD ~ C-'CDCDCD-I CD CCCI
000)00 CD CO 0000-4 ~ 000000 ~- CD CD CD-I ~ CD
00-4000000-400-1-400 CD CD CD l~ CD 10-CD ~ CD
CD CO CD CD CDC~
10-CD CD CDCDCDC-'CDCD 00CC CD ~ CD CD CD CD-lCD CD CD
00000-I CD 4 CD 0-000010-000 CD 0000000000-40 CD 0~
CD CO CD CD CD CO ~ CD
-I ~0- CD CDCD-ICD ~
-100 ~CD CD-ICDCD
CD CDCDI CD CDCD CD00 CD CD CD-I ~ ~ CD-I
0000000000CC 1 C~ CD CD CD CD CD -ICDCDCD
CD CD CDCDCCCDCO -4 CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD ~ CDCD
CD ~0- 10-CD ~0- CD -1--lCD 0000 CD CD CD CD 00000000
CD CD CD
CD CD 0-
z
C
C'
00000000 CD CDCDCDCDCDCOCD CD CD CO CD -I
CDCDCD 000000 CD ~ 0000 -~CD CD CD
0000000000 CD 001000 CD CDC-' CD CDCD0--I1 CD 0000 o~
-ICDCD CD CO CD CO-I
QO CD çoDCDCD CO CD CD
001400 CD CIco 0000 00-CD-I -I 0000000-00
CDCD00CD~CD
0~CD CD
~lCD-ICD-1CDCDCDCDSICD4~CDCDCDCDCDCDCDC00-I
CDCDO0-CDICOCDCDCD CD CD CD ~ CD CD-ICD CD CDCDCC
CDCDCDCDCDICCD(S10CDCDtICDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCD~
0-'CDçxoppl9o~
CIDCDCDCDCDCDOOCO'4CDCD0000
CO
CD
c-i
C'
C
00
PAGENO="0077"
-CD
Z ~ 0 ~rj ~i ~ 0000 ~
CD CD CD -. 0 CD ~ ~ ~ Q 0~~1 0 ~
~
~ ~ F.~
0
CD
0
CD
0
CD
0
00
~d i~ ~I~IfOF~! ~
~CD CD CD -~
CD~ ~: CD
~ :~
CD
0
~L2 ~
~CD 00
~ CD
0)
CDCD CD
CD~
~ 0
CD
CD
z
CD
0
CD
CD
0
CD
0
CD
w
L0J
CD
CD
CD
CD
CD
CD.
CD
h
00
0~
CD
CD
CD
CD
CD
CD
CD
CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD
0
CD
~
~
C))
0~
~
CDCD00CDCDCDCD~CD)-~
CD
0
~
~)-3
~
CD CD CD CD C) CD CD CD CD CD CD C) CD CD CD C) CD CD
0
~.
t~)
tCi
CD
CD
CD
~CD CD~
c~2 ~
~0
CD
CD
CD
CD
*0
I
C)
~D
CD CD CD CD
CD CD
CD CD CD CD C) CD 00 CD CD CD CD CD
CD CD CD C) C) C) CD C) CD
CD CD CD CD
z
~
CD
~
?
**~0
CDCD~
) CDCDOO
CDCD
CD
0~ CD0~CDCD
CD-~CDCD~
C) CDCDCDCDCDOCDCDCD 0
~CDCD~
~CDCD~
CD
~
SCD
~
CD
C)
CD
CD CD CD CD
CD C)CDC)
C) CD
CDC)
CDCDCDCD~ CDCD~CDCD
CD CD CD CD CD 00 CD CD CD CD CD CD
CDCDCDCDCCDCDCDCDCDCD)CDCD
CD CDCD CD
CD CD CD CD CD CC CD CD CD
CD CDC)CDCDCDCCDCDCD CD
CDCD CD
CD CD CD CD
CD
CO
C)
0
0
0
CD
CD~
CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD CD 0000 CD CD
CD CD CD CD C) CD CD CD CD
0
CD
CD
CD
CD
PAGENO="0078"
w
CO
~
~00 0
._0_~~O 0
00(0
H ;
~3 0
L~i
C
0+
(~0
C
~0
~0
C
(I) -
Cz
~:1C
CO 00 00-10000
00000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000
COC00000
0000000000 ©
00
0000 oC CO oC 0000 ~ CO 0000
0000 00000000 Co 00 000000 0000 0000
-100--I 0000 C-I, 0000 COCo ~ 00-1(0000000 000000
000000 © Co © 0000 ©©COCOCO© Co Co 0000 Co 0000000000
CO -~ 00 COCO ~ COCO -I CO -~ CO0000CO
(000(0 tO 00 00 00 Co ~C
0000000000(0(000 CO 000000 CO 000000
00
CoCoo000000Co000000C0~0-I
COoO000000-IoC
CO
(00-0040000
000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000
000000-10000000000000000000000
C
~
0000IC00C
000-00 CO 00000000000-000-0-
00000000000000
00000-00 00
Co 0-00000000000000000000000000
CC CO 00C000COCO
00000000000000000000000000000000
C
C
0d
`C
0
b~
C
C
0-0000000000
000000000000 0-000000000000 0- 0- 0- CO000000 00000000004- 4-0000000000000000 0- 0-0000 0- tO CO-I Co 0000000000
CO0000001000000000000-0000 Co©00-ICO-C000 000000000000 00(000000000000000000000004-00 (0000000000000
PAGENO="0079"
FOOD AND PEOPLE
73
TABLE 6.-Indexes of world agricultural production: Total and per capita, by region,
average 1935-39 and annual 1958-59 to 1960-61 1
[Average 1952-53 to 1954-55=100]
TABLE 7.-Protein content of selected foodstuffs (dry basis)
Animal origin
Percent
protein
(NX6.25)
Plant origin
Percent
protein
(NX6.25)
Milk:
Whole, dried
Skimmed, dried
Beef:
Dried
Roasted
Egg:
Whole, dried
Whole, dried, defatted
Herring
Salmon
22-25
34-38
81-90
72
35
77
81
69
Rice, whole
Rice, polished
Wheat, flour
Corn, meal
Chick pea
Soybean
Peanut (groundnut)
Walnut
Potato
Tapioca
Alfalfa
Chiorella
Torula yeast
7. 5-9
5.2-7.6
9.8-13. 5
7-9. 4
22-28
33-42
25-28
15-21
10-13
1. 3
18-23
23-44
38-55
Total production
Per capita production
Average
Average
annual
annual
percent
percent
Region or country
.
Aver-
age
1935-
39
1958-
59
1959-
60 2
1960-
61
change
~
1935- 1952-
39 to 54 to
1960- 1960-
61 61
Aver-
age
1935-
39
1958-
59
1959-
60 2
1969-
61
change
1935- 1952-
39 to 54 to
1960- 1960-
61 61
72
77
89
96
121
117
114
120
123
118
119
115
124
121
119
117
3. 1
2. 5
1. 5
1.0
3.4
3. 0
2. 7
2. 4
Southern area:
Latin America
Africa and west Asia~
Far East,less Japan ~
Communist Asia
Total
Northern area:
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
United States and Can-
ada
Japan
Australia and New Zea-
land
Total
World total
103
100
111
112
107
106
104
109
106
105
106
102
104
105
105
102
0.04
.2
0. 6
.7
.7
.3
85
118
118
120
1.7
2.9
106
106
105
104
-.09
.6
81
108
69
83
76
110
132
113
132
120
112
130
114
140
121
115
131
117
145
124
1.8
.9
3.0
3. 3
2.7
2.1
4.4
2.4
6. 4
3.4
92
106
87
102
100
106
123
104
125
107
107
120
103.
131
106
109
119
104
134
107
.8
.5
-.9
1. 3
.3
1.3
2.7
.6
4. 9
1.0
84
~
118
119
122
~
1.9
~
3.1
~
93
~
111
n~
110
~
.8
1.6
85
118
119
121
1.8 3.0
~-i47~1Q~ ~
~1.0
1 Value of production at constant prices. Revised. Crops included in the indii aieh~i~ested mainly
between July 1 of the first year shown and June of the following year. For a few crops and most livestock
production, estimates are for the calendar year of the 1st year shown.
2 Preliminary.
3 Estimated.
4 Includes Pacific islands.
6 Includes Soviet Union.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Source: Dr. Aaron M. Altschul, Southern Regional Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, New
Orleans, La.
PAGENO="0080"
74 FOOD AND PEOPLE
TABLE 8.-Oil and protein content of oilseeds and oilseed protein concentrates
[Percent)
Material
Oil
Protein
(NX6.25)
Hulls
Fiber
Soybean
Soybean flour (low fat)
Soybean protein:
Concentrate
Isolate
Tofu (soybean curd)
Cottonseed
Cottonseed flour
Peanut (groundnut)
Peanut flour
Peanut protein (isolated)
Peanut "lipo-protein" (isolated from whole kemels)~_
Peanut protein (isolated from whole kernels)
Sesame
Sesame meal
20.0
1.0
1. 0
1.0
29.0
16. 5
2. 0-6. 0
45.0-52.0
. 5-10.0
1.0
33. 0
9.0
50. 0
7. 0
43.0
50. 0-54. 0
72. 0-74. 0
93.0
50. 0
16. 5
55. 0-58. 0
25.0-30.0
50. 0-66. 0
95. 0
65. 0
85.0
25. 0
46. 0
8.0
44. 5
2.0-3.0
2. 0-3.0
3. 0
.7
1. 0-2. 0
3.0
2.0-3. 0
4. 0
5. 3
Source: Dr. Aaron M. Altschul, Southern Regional Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, New
Orleans, La.
C