The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 32, 1943. IS A FOOD CRISIS AHEAD?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 276, 22 November 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 32, 1943. IS A FOOD CRISIS AHEAD?

TO New Zealanders, who in spite of grumbling have taken tea, sugar and butter rationing in their stride, the prospect of a world shortage of food appears so remote that the prospect may be held to be not worth discussing. Yet there are portents that must be ignored, and a food crisis in other parts of the world cannot but have repercussions in this Dominion. The situation should not be allowed to develop to the acute stage before an attempt is made, here as w r ell as elsewhere, to find a way out of the tangle brought about by various factors. Attention has been directed by the Dominion executive, of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union to a recent statement by Lord Woolton, Food Controller in Great Britain, who expressed the opinion that indications clearly pointed to a general world shortage of foodstuffs within a measurable distance of time. Pending scarcities in meat, eggs, dried fruits and some vegetables have been forecast in Australia, where warning of additional rationing in the new year has been given by the chairman of the Rationing Commission. Au official statement has it that meat rationing, to begin in January will be only part of the restrictions to be imposed, and other food items may be included. As to the rationing of meat in New Zealand, hints have already been given, and the recentlyannounced grading of meat is accepted as one of the straws indicating the direction of the wind. But it is disturbing to a public not easily moved to learn from the Farmers’ Union executive that the production of foodstuffs in New Zealand is definitely on the down grade. The reasons are stated to be “partly climatic, partly material, and partly psychological.” Unfavourable climatic conditions over the past couple of years have been aggravated by shortage of of other farm requirements, and (probably the most important) shortage of adequate, efficient and permanent labour. The psychological factor in bringing about the decline in production is the sense of frustration which has damped the enthusiasm with which the farming community answered the call of patriotism. The efforts of the farmer and his family have been, it is claimed, nullified by inefficient administration, by vacillation, and by inability to appreciate the essential requirements for food production.

It may not be much solace to the New Zealand farmer that he is not alone in suffering from the inefficiency of administration and its inability or unwillingness to appreciate his problems, but the problem of production in the United States also appears to have suffered from the blight of officialdom. One authority on agriculture, with wide personal experience,' related that a man prominent in the meat industry said to him: “If Goebbels had come to America with the express purpose of making a complete mess of food production, he could not have possibly done as good a job as has been done by Washington.” Rationed as Americans are with regard to many staples of diet, they are nowhere near the peak of the food crisis, he avers. The situation is expected to grow worse, and probably its most desperate stage will be reached from February on. By that time it is expected that most Americans will be living on a diet well below the nutrition level. The food situation is likely to be extremely difficult for many years to come, as it is maintained that it will take a considerable time for the farming industry to recover from the. inroads made by causes similar to those operating in New Zealand. In quick succession Food Administrators have been deposed, even as Minis- ’ ters of Agriculture have gone by the board in this country. Hasty and ill-considered moves were made in an effort to cheek disaster, with nothing done to correct the fundamental evil—confused and ill-managed administration. The parallel in New Zealand cannot be very satisfying to the farmer here. Lack of farm machinery and a shortage of farm labour are the two main items that, have aggravated the food production problems in the United States, even as has been found in New Zealand.

“No improvement of any kind can be expected.” states the critic of the American food problem, “until the administration is taken completely out of the hands of theorists, college professors and routine bureaucrats apd placed, as war production was placed, in the hands of experienced men—farmers, meat producers, distributors. dairymen.” That statement would probably be applauded by the. New Zealand Farmers’ Union, and with good reason. Food production is as important as the military forces and armament production. It is as it always lias been, since the beginning of time, the basis of victory and of peace.