FOOD SUPPLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1941, Page 5

FOOD SUPPLY

THE POSITION IN BRITAIN NEED OF FURTHER INCREASE IN HOME PRODUCTION. NOTE OF WARNING SOUNDED BY LLOYD GEORGE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 3. The Minister of Agriculture. Mr Hudson, said in the House of Commons that since 1914 the amount of arable land under crops had actually decreased by 4,500.000 acres. For every thousand acres of cultivated land in the last war there were 1195 human beings to be fed. The figure was now 1524. Moreover, there had been a general decline in the fertility of British soil, taking the country as a whole. Between the outbreak of the last war and this, production of fodder and root crops for live stock had fallen by no less than one-third. In the last war 2.300,000 acres had been ploughed up. By next spring it was expected that 3,750.000 acres would be ploughed. He did not think anyone could legitimately say the farming community had not made a remarkable contribution. At the beginning of the war, he said. 28 per cent of Britain’s cultivated land was under crop, and that figure had now been increased to 42 per cent. The aim in agriculture was an increase in the output of goods that mattered, such as potatoes, milk, and vegetables. Milk production was maintained and the consumption of milk in January was higher than ever before. As regards labour, the Secretary for War had last week lent him 5000 members of the Pioneer Corps. There were a certain number of conscientious objectors and aliens on the job, and they still had hopes that they might get some German prisoners. But when they got these there would still be need for further labour. Concerning the use of parks, golf courses and derelict land, he said, he had come to the conclusion that it was better to use available labour, machinery and fertilisers for increasing the production of existing arable land, rather than to bring new land under cultivation. In the last seven months, agricultural committees had done nearly as much in reclaiming land as the Italian Government had done in 13 years in reclaiming the Pontine marshes. A new body was to be created which would devise methods of incorporating into farming practice all promising results of scientific research. With regard to future policy, Mr Hudson said there was bound to be a meat shortage. Imported meat would continue for several months, and British agriculture would have to step into the breach to make good the shortage and to maintain the meat ration of the people. They would have to keep up their dairy herds, getting rid of poor yielders. There would have to be a reduction of meat cattle. Numbers of sheep would have to be kept up, and there would have to be a good deal more ploughing of grass land, an intensified drainage campaign and better cultivation.

Mr Lloyd George, speaking in the debate, said that in this grave hour the life of the nation depended on agriculture. They were rejoicing in a series of the most brilliant victories on land, sea and in the air that had ever illuminated the military annals of the country. "They dazzle our eyes but we must take care that they do not blind them,’ he said. “Germany was beaten despite her great victories in the last war because she had no food. She neglected her agriculture, partly before and almost entirely during the war. She flung her men into the battlefield as if the only field that mattered was that of battle and not the fields behind the battle-front.’’ Referring to the recent statement of the Prime Minister that in a few months the battle of the Atlantic would turn in Britain’s favour he said they should be reckless trustees of the destiny of a great Empire if they did not continue to ensure victory by increasing food production in their own country. He ended his speech by saying that whatever happened in the Atlantic could be retrieved by the soil of Britain if the produce of the land was doubled. The people, with rationing and a rational diet, would have sufficient to eat. and if they doubled the food produced in the country this year they could increase it by another 50 per cent in the following year. AMERICA AS GRANARY ASSURANCE OF AMPLE SUPPLIES. WASHHINGTON, April 3. The Secretary for Agriculture. Mr Wickard. announced the expansion of the Administration’s granary programme to assure ample supplies of foodstuffs for the United States. Britain and “other nations resisting aggression." He said the department would purchase pork, dairy products, eggs and poultry in the open market to stabilise prices through the period to June 30, 1943.