WORLD’S WHEAT

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 January 1928, Page 11

WORLD’S WHEAT

HOW CONSUMPTION VARIES. According to “Wheat Studies” of the Food Research Institute in California, the .wheat consumption in the United States amounts to less than a barrel of flour per capital annually. The best estimate is 90.4 per cent, of one barrel, or 1771 b. This quantity g< flour contains 290,000 calories, around one-fourth of the annual requirement of an average adult. The average annual consumption of maize, rye, barley and rice is small. Consumption of wheat flour in Canada, Australia and Argentina is somewhat higher. It is doubtful, however, if the weighted average per "capita consumption of cereals in Europe is much higher—not far below 4001 b per person yer year.

Before the war, the average consumption of cereal prepartions, mostly wheat-flour, in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy was in the neighbourhood of 3001 b annually for each person. Consumption was higher in Scandinavia, Central Europe and the Balkan States. Since the war, the diet of Europe is more vegetarian than before the war, and part of the increase has fallen on cereals. If the average consumption of cereals in Europe, outside of Russia, is about 3601 b for each person yearly, this would correspond to something like 1600 calories for each person daily, fully half of the calories in the diet. The consumption naturally varies from country to country. The United Kingdom, Holland and Belgium have probably gone farther than other countries in Europe toward the return to the pre-war diet. In Italy the Government has instituted propaganda in favour of wheat and against maize; in Germany the war-induced reaction 'against rye lias continued in favour of wheat.