The press WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1949. Food Surpluses

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25932, 12 October 1949, Page 4

The press WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1949. Food Surpluses

A world plagued for a decade by desperate food shortages caused by war has returned to the pre-war problem of food surpluses for which markets cannot be found. Attention was directed to this by the Deputy-Director of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (Sir Herbert Broadley) when addressing a food distribution conference at Bos-’ ton. U.S.A., this week. In remarks printed on Tuesday, Sir Herbert Broadley said that a breakdown in the distribution of food, not a shortage of it, was responsible for hunger in many parts of the world. This is far from meaning that the world food shortage has been overtaken. The world supply of foodstuffs is estimated to be about 5 per cent, above the average output before the war: it is at least 10 per cent, above that of last year. But the present production would be far from sufficient to provide adequately for the population of 1939; and in the interval there has been an enormous population increase—2o,ooo.ooo in

each post-war year. Startling figures produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation four years ago have not been disturbed: to give almost everyone an adequate diet in 1960 there will be required: G 0.000.000 more tons of cereal, 30.000.000 more tons of meat, 250,000.000 tons of fruits and vegetables; and no less than 3,500.000.000 more gallons of milk. But, Sir Herbert Broadley asked, what is the use of even dreaming of these figures when the wheat acreage in the United States will have to be cut 15 per cent, in 1950. and when similar measures are being planned for other foods? The question whether the world is destined to outgrow its food need not be considered now. The urgent problem is how to feed the people of the world at something better than 1939 standards. How is the economic system to adjust itself to the world’s food needs? The question of inconvertibility of currencies, which pervades all world economics, has hardened the food distribution problem. The remedy promising above all others is President Truman’s programme of technical assistance for the economic development of backward countries; but the Food and Agriculture Organisation has produced an imaginative interim plan for an international ciearing house to facilitate the disposal of surplus foods. The clearing house would permit producing countries to maintain a high level of agricultural commodity production and would render unnecessary such restrictive measures as the destruction of crops. Importing countries which, for lack of foreign exchange, are unable to buy as much as they require, would be able to buy from the clearing house at full prices in their own currency or at reduced prices in the currency of the supplying country. Capital for the clearing house would be provided by member countries in their national currencies. There are many difficulties in the way of the scheme; but in principle, at least, it answers the riddle of overproduction and underconsumption. It is a worthwhile attempt to clear some of the ground which must be cleared before the main problem of feeding the world can be approached with prospects of success.