BRITAIN’S NEW FOOD POLICY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 290, 11 December 1935, Page 6

BRITAIN’S NEW FOOD POLICY

. TO CO-OPERATE WITH DOMINIONS MORE home BUTTER FACTORIES. ' *L'.V ZEALAND ■■DRIVE" |\ THE NORTH. LONDON, Nov. 22. | i .IV Bm.sil Government, which i. i I’-. ‘' g increased attention to the quoI, °!L lood supplies and other matjtei, affecting national nutrition ha. ['•»». >t is reported, engaged four id >.s departments in an exhaustive offi-J-ial enquiry into tthe whole problem. ! the departments concerned are the Ministry of Health, the Ministrv ..f I Agriculture, the Home Office, and" the Board O f Trade, while the Dominions olih.e is particularly occupied as re p-ui'l- supplies of dairy produce from I New Zealand, Canada and Australia. ■ he grocery trade has, meanwhile, I been advised by Lord Linlithgow ‘ ‘to prepare itself io r changes which ma, be inevitable,” and it is expected tha't Kith the forthcoming introduction ol the Ministry of Health s Bill on matters or public health and nutrition, wc , ail have a Government food police v.a lc h will so aim to balance suppl'v and demand as to seetiie sufficient food lor eieryone, at prices within the reach . ' Crass Ignorance" of Food Values. I Ihe instruction of the people in a knowledge ot food values should be a task f.. r educational authorities lather taan for the -Ministries of Health and Agriculture er for marketing boards, states Laid Bledisloe in a letter to " e limes. "In no civilised country that I know,” he says. “i s there sued eras- ignorance concerning food values Us in Great Britain, not only among tire poor but also among the well tuI du and well-educated. I ""e spend millions on feeding the I minus of the youth of the nation. Is Hl not time that we spent a little (as an essential part of all school curricula; on showing those young people | now rationally and sensibly to feed | t'veir bodies, and those of their respeeti* e progeny !” National Chain of Creameries. I file Milk Marketing Beard is. meanJ while, going ahead with its plans to ' ’st up a ciiain <d butter laetories in 1 .mg.and and Wale.-. One factory is j being ereeled in Cornwall, and other | ites are being considered. This, even.'.ijlv, will give the board control of I the milk industry, f, r it i s an old and tree maxim that "whoever controls surplus milk controls the milk Indus.try.’’ Ihv scheme is nut only io provide an outlet, if iiei.essary, jo r the pru- • lueer.^ , milk at liuics of crisis, but. is hlmj a constructive effort to build up iii hunie butter industry,” status Air. r i. i Baxter, chairniau of the board. “After j catctul consideration, we have decided j n«>t to ruvuiuinend the sepaiation of milk and the vullcvtion of cream for • f'.ctvries on the farm. Instead, v.e ■ 'hail have a reutral butter fautorv surrounded by a circle of small separating -'i.'.iioiis. l’he factories we ary building will have an initial output of 40 tons of butter weekly, but this rate of production may be doubled later on.” A leading firm uf milk distributors is nov. constructing at Chard, Somerset, what will be the largest butter factory in the United Kingdom. Its output will Im 200 tons weekly, and it will | commence production next Alay. These developments, at first blush, may appear to be anything but reassuring to Dominion producers, who naturally view with anxiety the creation of new sources of competition. But. remembering that the foreigner I -till suppies Britain with 40 per cent. 1 ci' her butter requirements, and taking •he long view that a closer community of Empire interests may lead to better understanding cf each other’s problems, an established British butter-mak-ing industry may not prove inimical to New Zealand interests. Indeed, it may lead io a policy of close co-operation between the United Kingdom and the Dominion-, in order to secure an in-crea-ingly greater share of the British dairy market for Home and I'.moire producers, and to bring about a larger na.ional consumption of dairy foods.

Allaying the “Butter Scare.” AVilh the slight fall in the price of imported butter lo round about 103 s per cwt., less has Ireen heard in the Press about the “high price” and “shortage scare,” and several newspapers have followed Air. J. G. Stapleton’s lead in pointing out that butter supplies are as pleniful as e'er, and that average prices are still well below the normal before the depression. Miss Nelle Scanlan, the New Zealand novelist. has also addressed a timely appeal to housewives in a letter to, the Press, in which she reiterates, these, facts. “There is ample butter.” she concludes. “New Zealand and the rest of the Empire can, at the shortest notice, supply all the butter we can eat, over and above the output of the Home dairy farmer.” New Zealand “Drive” on the Tyne. The New Zealand Dairy Board nvul next week open a sales campaign at Ncwcastle-on-Tyne. and it is a fortunate coincidence that the Commonwealth and Dominion Lin-e yesterday placed a contract for a 9000 tons foodship with Tyne shipbuilders —the third recently ordered by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line from the NorthEast. This contract, with several other substantial Dominion orders that have lately gone to manufacturers on tb‘J Tyne, will provide the board with an effective argument t for a reciprocal trade appeal in an area which has hitherto been a stronghold the Danes