ENGLAND'S FOOD SUPPLY

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 26, 1 April 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

ENGLAND'S FOOD SUPPLY

IF IMPORTS WERE STOPPED. -i •' Food Supplies in War Times" is the title ot one of a series of " Oxford Pamphlets" issued by Mr. Humphrey Milford, of the Oxford University Press. It is by Mr. R. H. Rew, C.8., Assistant Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. He writes : The notion that the British Isles can be beleagured by any conceivable nav.d force so that no supplies can run tlu blockade is fantastic. I believe it is true to say that the annals of sea warfare contain no record of the blockade of any port so absolute that no ship got through. At any rate it is inconceivable that the long coast line of the British Isles, with (its countless harbours and creeks, could be guarded so that many enterprising ships, stimulated by the certainty of big guns, would not succeed in landing supplies. Let li. be assumed, however that an absolute blockade were possible, and that the British Isles could be as closely invested as was Paris in 1870-1, and for the same period, viz., about four and a half months. Let it be assumed also that the investment took place so suddenly and simultaneously that there was no chance to rush in supplies, and that even ships on passage to the United Kingdom were all prevented from reaching our ports. Under theso circumstances, what would be our position, for how long could we live on the suplilies of food in the country? THE SUPPLY OF BREAD. So far as bread is concerned, there >s at the present time sufficient wheat and Hour in the country to supply the whole population, at its normal rate of consumption, for about four and a half months. It is true that at the end ot that period we should have practically exhausted all the wheat in stock, except that reserved as seed for the next crop, which would only be drawn upon at the very last extremity. But if we had to live on our stocks in this way, we should of course at once adopt measures to economise them. One simple and obvious expedient would be to make only "standard" bread, i.e., bread made from flour which contains about 80 per cent, of the wheat-grain, instead of only 68 or 70 per cent., as is the proportion in the flour ordinarily used. This would at once add about 10 per cent, to our wheat supplies, and the bread would be, from a nutriment point of view, more rather than less valuable.

SAFE FOR A YEAR. Bread, however, can be made of other cereals than wheat. We have not in this country the alternative of rye, which furnishes the staple food of many millions of Europeans, but we have in stock at any given time nearly as much barley and mere than as much oats as we have wheat. Barley bannocks and oatmeal cakes are not unknown in some parts of the country now, and they would go far, if the occasion required, to provide cereal food for the people. At least they would enable the supplies of wheat to be economised, and it may fairly be said that breadstuffs in one form or another could, if necessary, be found to supply the people for a twelvemonth. The total crops of the three chief cereals —wheat, barley, and oats —grown in this country supply a larger quantity of cereal food per head than is now eaten. AVe have taken no account of maize, which again is the staple breadstuff of millions of people, or of rice, of both of which there is always some stock in the country. If is therefore a very conservative statement to say that for a year there would be, if supplies were properly distributed, no reason why anyone should go short of daily bread, even if nothing reached our shores. Of course, if barley and oats were used for bread, live stock would go short and beer and whisky would be scarce, but the problem of live stock would to a large extent be solved by killing them and a deficiency of alcoholic beverages would have to be endured. It may be noted that we are self-supporting as regards potatoes. The average crop grown in the United Kingdom is sufficient for our normal consumption, and although we import a certain quantity, largely from the Channel and Canary Islands, to enable us to forestall our own crop of '•early potatoes, the quantity is comparatively insignificant, and would be foregone without any serious deprivation.