WHY FOOD IS SAFE.

North Otago Times, Volume C, Issue 13180, 8 October 1914, Page 7

WHY FOOD IS SAFE.

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD'S HARVESTS. . , ; [By' L. G.-OHIOZZAMONEY, M.P.] , The ;early scare as ,to the security (of our food ! supplies' in war '■ has' mainly' 'subsided, , but sufficient, trace* of it linger to. make'jt 'highly: desirable to point out in the plainest terms that ihero is not the;slightest deed for ; the people of. this country, although engaged i\ra great war, to about their supplies, or ,to bring about trouble for and others, by. making silly and anti-sccialprivate stores. . The broad facts of the case are.that, our sen communications being secure, and the. Government• having. provided State insurauce against .the.small war risks on shipping, there will continue to pour alolig the. trade routes into the ports of this country .ample supplies of nearly' all,• if not quite all, our accustomed fo'odstuffs. The'only food which came to us in big quantities from, the two enemy countries is sugar. , It is also well to point out in this connection the little known,fact that, of those kinds of food which can be grown iiythis country, taken as a whole, the United Kingdom itself produces considerably more .than one-half. Because we import the greater part of the wheat we consume the public has the general false impression that we import the greater part of all our food, The facts of . the. case, happily, are as I have staled them,

Wliy Bread ia Safe, First iet us ileal with bread. The following statement shows where our imported wheat supplies came from last yeariOUR''IMPORTED WHEAT SUPPLIES IN 1913. , Wheat, AVheaten flour, From ■, cwts. ewts. British Empira .. ' 50,700,000 4.500,000 Uifi.A 84,100,000 6,200,000 Argentina .. ~ 141800,000 200,000 Russia. .. ~ 5,000,000 Rest of world ~ 1,300,000 1,100,000 Total .. .. 105,900,000 12,000,000 Tt will 1)0 seen that the European wheat supply was negligible. It is miri.oils how little Ibis fact is known. One, of our editors the other morning published a letter from a correspondent who assured tho public that our Wheat cninc --chiefly from the United States and' iJtissia. It will be seen that to lose the .Russian. siijiply altogether makes scarcely any difference to the aggregate. The bulk of the supply is raised by extra-European nations, and it will continue to reach us in war very much as in peace. Our Supplies of Meat.

More than one-half of our supplies of meat are raised in the United Kingdom. Turning' to the imported supplies, we have fortunately to record thaUilmost the whole of it comes from sources outside Europe, As to mutton, the imports in I Oil! were as follow: OUR IMPORTS OF FltO/KX MUTTON IN 1913. From. cwts. British Kuipirn .. ~ 3,900,000 Argentina 1,000,01)0 Other countries ~ .. 300,000 Total 5,200,000 AVe see that the British Empire (chiefly, of course, Australasia) and Argentina supply for practical'purposes the whole of the imports.. There i> really no reflsolrwhy tli(i price of mut-j ton should rise a halfpenny. As to beef, the whole of our imports of chilled beef last Year, amounting to; f), 2(10,00(1 cwts, came from Argentina,! As to frozen beef, the imports amounted last year to nearly 4,000,000 cwts, and of these 1,00(1,000 cwts came from Australasia and !2,:I00,0(I0 from the Argentine and Uruguay. The war, therefore, can hardly affect the price of beef. With regard to bacon, the case is different, as will be seen from the following statement:— OUR IMPORTED BACON SUPPLIES, 1913 j From. rwts. j British Umpire .. .. 200,000 I Denmark 2,300,000 J U.S.A. .. 1,800,000 | Russia 200,000 ! Other places ~ 400,000 j Total 4,900,000 j Here we see Denmark and Bussia I supplying 2,500,000 cwts, or more than 1 one-half of our total imports of bar on j last year. We have already felt the' stoppage of European supplies, but we j have every reason to believe that thei check is only temporary; the command | of the sea should soon again put Danish i bacon at our disposal. Imported Dairy Produce, Turning to butter and cheese, the fol-' lowing is the import account for 1913:! IMPORTED SUPPLIES OF BUTTER AND, CHEESE, 1913, I

As in the ease of bacon, we draw a considerable proportion of our butter from Europe; Denmark, fiussia, and Sweden being the chief suppliers, Therefore there is interruption in these early days of thewwagr g bi|t it will only be a temporary check. With regard to cheese, the greater part of our imports come from extra-huropeau suppliers, and war should not. add very much to the great rise of price which has occurred iu this article in peace in recent years, '

With regard to eggs, Russia, our ally, is our chief supplier. We imported nearly £10,000,000 worth, of eggs last year, and to this total Russia contributed £4,700,000 and Denmark £2,;i00,000, Wlmt I have said with regard to, bacon aud butter is equally true of eggs, As to margarine, we get a big supply from Holland, aud iu addition we have a considerable home productiou. As to the former, the .supply will soon be secure,"and as to the latter there is no reason to believe that the imports of materials for the making of margarine will suffer, Thus, running over the heads of most of the chief imported food supplies, aud .remembering how large a proportion" of our food is grown at home, we can have every conlidencethat, owing to the wise precautions we have taken in peace, our food is sat'e in war.

llutter, Chfeje, From, ewts, cwlc. British Empire . 800,000 1,800,000 Denmark ., , 1,700,000 _ ttussiu 700,000 _ Sweden 300,000 _ Holland ,, , 100,000 300,000 France ,, , 200,000 _ • Other pluce# •100,000 200,000 Totul ,, , 4,200,000 2,300,000