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11. INTRODUCTION 6. It is unnecessary to the purposes of this report to include in it any general statement of the important considerations supporting the proposals and policies embodied in the Final Act of the Hot Springs Conference. It is appropriate, however, to state briefly here the general considerations of which the Commission has been mindful in formulating its recommendations, so far as they relate to the circumstances under which the recommendations are made, the conditions under which effect will be given to them, and the general purposes they are designed to achieve. 7. In the struggle for food, mankind has been indifferently successful. If millions have enough, more millions have too little, and many starve. This had been thought to be inevitable, but we now know that it is not. Recent discoveries and developments have made it possible under certain conditions for all men and all nations to achieve freedom from hunger, which is the first step toward freedom from want. Indeed, we can now expect to do much more than be free from hunger. The way is open to move toward new levels of well-being which men have hitherto thought unattainable. 8. First among the developments that have made these things possible is progress in scientific production. The natural sciences have shown us how to increase the productiveness of the land. The nature of the soil has been explored, and methods of management have been developed to maintain and increase its fertility. Great progress has been made in the breeding of both crops and live-stock, and strains have been created that are far more productive than their predecessors. At the same time scientists have found new and surer ways of combating disease and insect and other pests that constantly menace the food supply. 9. Along with progress in these fields, immense strides have been made in the development of tools and machines to do work formerly done by hand labour, so that it is now possible for one man to till enough land and produce enough food to feed many more people than before. Equally important have been developments in handling, processing, storing, and transporting foods which make it possible to overcome many of the former handicaps of season and distance. 10. The result has been to open the way for greatly increased production from the same primary resources, a more even distribution of the supply of food both geographically and over periods of time, and, finally, a release of large numbers of people from the production of food. These people could produce other things and perform other services needed by their fellow-men. ]1. While these developments have been in the making the physical nature and needs of human beings have also been explored. The advances in the science of nutrition within recent years have been comparable in importance to the earlier discoveries in bacteriology, which opened the way to control many deadly or handicapping diseases. Chemistry and physiology have given us a vast amount of new knowledge regarding the relation of food to human well-being. We now know that certain diseases, which affect immense numbers of people, are caused solely by failure to get enough of the right kind of food. We know what foods the human body needs not only to prevent these diseases, but to build resistance to many others, lengthen the span of life, favour the birth of healthy children, and raise the power of many individuals to do physical and mental work formerly thought to be beyond their innate capacity. 12. Moreover, the frontiers of scientific discovery are constantly expanding and opening opportunities for further progress. 13. Thus mankind is equipped with new knowledge, the heritage of all men. A new mastery over the forces that determine human well-being is possible, which men and nations can exercise, if tliey will, to better the lot of the vast majority of people. But to put this knowledge to full use requires forethought and action adequate to the ends desired. 14. The modern knowledge of nutrition must be shared, in simple practical terms, among increasing numbers of people until it finally reaches all. The modern knowledge of production must be shared among the world's farmers. Producers must be enabled to get the materials and tools, and to apply the methods, necessary to increase the world's production to the point where all can have enough food. Those released from agriculture by its increased efficiency must be enabled to find useful work in other pursuits. Workers in cities and towns must be enabled to get the products they need from an expanding agricultural production —that is to say, industry and other forms of production, as well as the domestic and foreign trade of all countries, must likewise expand. Each nation must give earnest consideration to the adoption of policies designed to ensure sufficient food to those who, for one or another reason, are at so great a disadvantage in the economic system that they cannot obtain the means for reasonable nutrition. Finally, research, which has already accomplished so much, must be stimulated and made even more responsive to the need of discovering ways of reconciling the changing numbers of the world's peoples and the quantity of things produced and "distributed to meet their requirements. 15. Scientific developments have shortened the distances between countries until all are now near neighbours. Thus the discontent or the overweening ambition of one profoundly affects all others, strife at one place can quickly become world-wide, and co-operation is thrust upon us if the .world is to avoid being brought ultimately to the verge of ruin. 16. But these same scientific developments will enable us to achieve many things through co-operation that were thought impossible before, and among them is freedom from want of food. No nation can hope to achieve this by depending solely on its own effort, for none can any longer insulate itself from the disastrous effects of things that may be done by other nations. But in a world in which distance has shrunk and the pace of events has quickened, each nation can reinforce what others do far more readily and effectively than in the past. The possibilities for good have increased as greatly as the possibilities for evil. We can now reasonably expect to solve the problem of freedom from want if all will act together. 17. Progress will necessarily be gradual. Men do not readily adjust traditional ways to new conditions, and there arc many obstacles to be overcome. But a start can be made at once. Changes in the economic and social arrangements of nations will be needed. The redirection would not be wholly new; it is in line with an evolution that has been hastened in our time.

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