BRITISH FOOD PRODUCTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 241, 13 October 1942, Page 4

BRITISH FOOD PRODUCTION.

It is announced that the British harvesting returns constitute a notable record. Anticipations have been fully realised. The record is a triumph of food production. When the war broke out England was importing two-thirds of her total food supplies, including 80 per cent. of her flour, 50 per cent. of her meat, and over 90 per cent. of her fats. She had some reserves of food, stored since 1938 ; but for the most part she had to depend upon current home-production and shipments from abroad. The struggle has been an (Uphill one ; and it is well known that, when the shipping losses attained their peak last year, the ' Government for a short period was forced to choose between essential food cargoes and raw materials for war industries. The worst days of the last war were recalled, when early in 1917, only a few weeks lay between Britain and starvation. If an answer had nqt been found to the U-boat, Britain would have been defeated, not by a military collapse or any shortage of arms, but simply from a lack of food. The statement made a few weeks ago by the Minister for Agriculture that Britain was producing nearly . two-thirds of her food supplies reflected one of the United Kingdom's greatest war achievements. The successful drive for home production, which has already resulted in practically a doubling of Britair/s output of foodstuffs, is a military factor of the flrst magnitude. Each progressive step towards self-suffici-ency in food enhances the country 's own security ; but it also reacts directly on the general war effort by relieving the strain on shipping. Since any new front will enormously increase demands on the already overburdened shipping pool, such a diversion is particularly valuable. A contrast with the last war is informative. In 1913 Britain imported 64 per cent. of her foodstuffs, but she continuedi to rely upon seaborne supplies until the Food Production Department was set up early in 1917 to organise a drive for home-production. But the mastering of the submarine menace and the entry of America into the war still caused the primary emphasis to be plaeed upon overseas supplies, especially from North America. In the event, the area under cultivation increased by only three million acres, that under wheat, for example, going up by a little over a third. The flocks and herds positively declined during the war. In all, the amount of imported foodstuffs declined by only nine per cent. in the last two years of the war, although that was the period of the greatest effort towards agricultural improvement. Even taking into account the greater shortage of rural labour in the last war as' a result of heavier army casualties, the achievernent now is much. greater. It might almost be described as an agricultural revolution. v