WHY FOOD IS SAFE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 203, 1 October 1914, Page 6

WHY FOOD IS SAFE.

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD'S HARVESTS. [By L. G. CHIOZZA MONEY, M.P.] The early scare as to the security of our food supplies, in war has mainly subsided, but sufficient traces of it linger to make it-highly desirable to point out in. the plainest terms that there is not the slightest need for the people of this country, although engaged.in -a .great war, to- worry .about their supplies, or to bring about trouble for themselves and others by making silly and anti-sccial private stores. The broad facts of the case arc that, our sea communications being secure, and the. Government having provided State' insurance against the small war risks on shipping, there will continue to pour along the trade: routes into the ports of this country ample supplies of nearly all, if not quite all, our accus : lci)i<'d foodstuffs. 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 i in this 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 stated them. Why Bread is Safe. ■ First let -us -deal with bread. The following statement shows ywhe're 'our imported wheat supplies-came fromdast year:— OUR IMPORTED WHEAT 'SUPPLIES IN 1913. Wheat. \Vh eaten flour. From . cwts. cwts. British Empire .. 50,700,000 4.500,000 I U.S.A. .■.,' .. 34,100,000 6,200,000 Argentina .. ... 14,800,000 200,000 Russia ' .-. .. 5,000,000 Rest of world .. 1,300,000 1,100,000 Total . . . . 105.900,000 12,000,000 It will be seen that the European wheat supply was negligible. N lt is curious how little this fact is known. One of our editors the other morning published a letter from a correspondent who assured the public that our wheat came-chiefly from the United States and Eussia. It will be seen that to lose the Russian supply 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 oi* meat are raised in the United Kingdom. Turning to the imported'supplies, wc have fortunately to record that almost the whole of it comes from sources outside Europe. As to mutton, the imports in 1913 were as follow: — OUR IMPORTS OF FROZEN .MUTTON IN li)i:i. From. ' cwts. British Empire ". . . . 3.000,000 Argentina . . . . -. . 1,000,000 Other countries .. .. 300,000 /\ J • Total ..'■■ .... 5,200,000 We see that, the British Empire (chiefly, of course, Australasia) and Argentina supply for practical pirrposos the whole of the imports. There is really no reason why the price of mut-. ton should rise a halfpenny. As to beef, the whole of our imports of chilled beef last year, amounting to 5,200,000 cwts, came from Argentina.. As to frozen beef, the imports amounted last year to nearly 4,000,000 cwts, and of those 1,000,000 cwts came from Australasia and L'jS'OOjOOO from the Argentine and Uruguay. The war, therefore, can hardly affect the price of beef. With regard to -bacon, the case is di% ferent, as will be'seen from the following statement: — OUR IMPORTED BACON SUPPLIES, IDW . From. cwts. British Emi-ire .. .. 200,000 Denmark 2,300,000 U.S.A '1,«0©,«00 ' Rwhsia .. ' -200,000 -Other places .." .. 400,000 Total . . . . . . 4,900,000 - - Here . -we *ee Denmark and /Russia '.supplying 2,300,000-. <»wt*»,,or more than -one-half of > our total imports of bacon :last -year. We . have-.already felt the stopptfg.fi of European supplies, but we have every reason to believe that the check is only temporary; the command of the sea should-soon again put Danish bacon at our'disposal. Imported Dairy Produce. Turning to butter and cheese, the following is the import account for 11)13: IMPORTED SUPPLIES OF BUTTER AND CHEESE, 1013. Butter. Cheese. -From. " "e'wts. cwts. British Empire . . 800,000 1.d00.000 Denmark .. .. 1.700,000 Russia .... . . 700.000 Sweden .. .. 300,000 . Holland . . . • 100,000 300,000' France . . .• 200,000 Other places ' ; . 400,000 200,000 Total . . .•' 4,200,000 2,300,000 As in the case of bacon, avc draw a considerable proportion of our butter from Denmark, Russia, and Sweden being the chief suppliers. Therefore there is interruption in these •early days of th.e war, but it will only be a --temporary/ check. With regard to cheese, the greater-part of our imports come from extra-European suppliers, and war should not add very much to the great rise of price which has occurred In this article in peace in recent years. With regard to eggs, Russia, our ally, is our-'chief supplier. We imported nearly £10,000,0.00 worth of eggs last year,"and to this total.Russia contributed ■ £4,700,000 and Denmark '£2,300,000, What 1 have said with regard to bacon and butter is equally true of eggs. . , As to margarine, we get a big supply from Holland, and in addition we have a considerable-home production. As to the former, the supply will soon be secure, and as to the, J-atter 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, and large a proportion of onr food is grown at home, we can have every confidence that, owing to the wise precautions we have taken in peace, our food is safe in war. -