‘N.Z. Protein Factory Of South-East Asia’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31206, 2 November 1966, Page 2

‘N.Z. Protein Factory Of South-East Asia’

New Zealand could be most successful helping the world’s less fortunate people if her efforts were channelled into the preventive field, Dr. N. G. Begg, director of medical sendees for the Plunket Society, told the society’s conference in Dunedin last evening.

New Zealand had a potential beyond her size to produce foods for her overseas neighbours. These foods, high in protein, were particularly needed by the cereal-eating nations.

“Destiny seems to have designed New Zealand to be the protein factory of South-east Asia,” said Dr. Begg.

“We are so small in area and population that no-one could suspect us of having colonial aspirations. We have ■ good record with regard to racial relations. We are not perfect, but at least all have equal rights in law and education,” he said. New Zealand was not so wealthy that her efforts were looked on as condescension or a charity—needed, but not wanted and often resented. "Geography has made us interdependent with South-east Asian nations. Both our future safety and our markets depend on the friendship of the peoples of this hemisphere. Free Trade Flow "South-east Asians have as much to offer us as we have to offer them, and a free flow of trade in both directions would be the best insurance for happy and fruitful relationships and associations of the future. “We in New Zealand have developed a method of motivating people towards better health. The “do-it-yourself” philosophy of the Plunket Society, where responsibility for action is placed squarely

on the shoulders of the citizens of a local conununity, provides at once a means of spreading health education and a motive for applying this knowledge,” said Dr. Begg. Malnutrition was now recognised as a main cause of many of the factors that hampered the progress of less developed nations. If that barrier could be broken, progress in all the other forms of human endeavour would follow. “One of the pressing problems is to find an ethical and acceptable solution to the pressing requirements of population control. Equally important is the problem of

increasing food production and arranging distribution to all people so that the present population can be fed,” said Dr. Begg. As a producer of food. New Zealand had an obligation to find the most effective way of helping those who most required its food. In many countries, adults, living and working on a low protein intake, rarely gave clinical evidence of protein deficiency. There was no physiological evidence to support the belief that a high nrotein intake was needed for physical work or as insurance against infection. Infant Mortality

“The position of children Is very different. In almost every developing country more than half the population dies before reaching the age of 15. In many areas, half or more of the Infants die before they are five—a direct result of a combination of inadequate nutrition and widespread infectious diseases,” said Dr. Begg. The breast-fed infant was comparatively well-off, compared with his older brother. After weaning the infant became vulnerable to protein deficiency. The mortality rate in older children was 30 to 60 times more than that in New Zealand children of similar age. “It is clear that the high quality and the considerable amount of dairy produce and meat produced in New Zealand are precisely tailored for the immediate and urgent needs of the children, aged between one and six, of the cereal-eating nations,” said Dr. Begg.