HEALTH DECLINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22338, 24 May 1947, Page 6

HEALTH DECLINE

SOIL SICKNESS SCIENTIST’S WARNING NEW METHODS NECESSARY • p.A.) WELLINGTON. May 23. A warning that, the health of the English-speaking world would further decline unless there were a return to the traditional form of farming, was given by Professor Sir Stanton Hicks in an address to the medical section of the science congress yesterday afternoon "Progress, prosperity and the security slogans wore false; only an outlook based or, self-support and maintenance ran give us back purpose, real physical and mental health, and an appreciation of those values without which human happiness is impossible." Medical statistics of recruits for the defence services continued to show increasing grounds for misgiving, and with 'he outbreak of the 1914-18 war the rejections both in England and USA Vxeitcd concern, while recruitment for the 1939-4.) war disclosed a much worse position. The GovernorGeneral of New Zealand had more than once spoken publicly of tne evidence of this he had met as a fighting soldier. .No thoughtful citizen could, if he -examined the. evidence, be satisfied with the present situation, when ppopie were preoccupied with diseases of plants .animals a-d men, almost to the exclusion of health. Paramount Cause There never hr.ci been such a sale for medicines, insecticides, and the like, and it was certain that a paramount cause was disease of the soil itself. There were very extensive areas of rich land in U.S.A’. which were today a problem in restoration following poisoning from sprays used to keep the plant crops free from disease, so far bad disease gone. Australia had a nationwide fitness campaign, a Government-sponsored activity which aimed at making youth fit by physical exercise, while, on the other hand, it was becoming a matter for surprise to find anybody with their natural teeth after the age of 35 years, the majority having lost them in their ’teens. “Our very attitude towards food is changing," continued Sir Stanton, "the main consideration being price and convenience of preparation. The war disclosed the disconcerting fact that the food pattern had been so altered by commercial and urban influences in Australia and U.S.A. that it required a colossal cfTort to achieve any change if only in the interests of health and of military strategy. This can be possible only because we are so largely out of touch with the very foundation of our vital energy, namely, the soil. "We scientists,” said Sir Stanton Hicks, “must pay more attention to the fact that even our scientific thinking is subject to influence by the prevailing social outlook, and. insofar as we may be engaged on investigations in relation to human nutrition and food production, which are inseparable, we should realise that quality of life whether plant or animals not capable of measurement by commercial standards of value. In this way we will come to appreciate the truth of the statement that a healthy soil produces healthy plants and animals. Insofar as these form the basis of human nutrition, healthy humans will result.”