ON ENGLAND'S KITCHEN FRONT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 67, 4 October 1940, Page 10

ON ENGLAND'S KITCHEN FRONT

"we Shall Stull Feed. And Feed Well"

In an arresting address broadcast the other day from London, Robert Boothby, M.P., of the British Ministry of Food, explained what is being done in Britain to keep soldiers and civilians safely and liberally fed. This is a report, slightly abridged, of his remarks.

HE Ministry of Food began before the war broke out as the Food Defence Planning Department, and I must confess it was at first rather a sickly infant. It grew by a process of trial and error, but after September of last year it grew very fast indeed. To-day it is an immense undertaking. Its ramifications affect the prosperity of farmers and producers not only here but all over the world, and touch in one way or another the homes and the lives of everyone in this country. Let me tell you as briefly as I can what it is we have to do. "We Buy Everything " First of all, we buy practically everything the British farmer produces. This gives us some say in regard to what he shall produce. We are asking for considerable changes in the methods and practice of British farming to meet the requirements of war conditions, and we are getting them. How are we getting them? First of all, through the patriotism and good-will of the farmers themselves, and then by fixing prices in such a way as to encourage them to produce what we want. What do we want? Milk, and milk products such as cheese, are of fundamental importance. They come at the top of the list. Then potatoes. After that cereals, wheat, oats, barley. Then and only then, "beef-cattle and sheep. And last of all pigs and poultry. We need to plan ‘our home production policy with very great care because there is only a certain amount of shipping available to import foods, and because the supply of feeding stuffs will be strictly limited. With the exception of milk, which has gone to the top of the list because of its exceptionally high nutritive value, we are following largely the lines of food production laid down by Lord Rhondda in the last war, and since adopted by practically every country desiring to make itself more self-sup-porting and to cut down imports. We have had regard also for the public taste. Let me give you one example of this. Brown, or wholemeal bread contains the valuable Vitamin B 1 which strengthens the body, protects it from certain diseases, and aids the digestion. But the great majority of people in this country don’t like brown bread. They infinitely prefer white. So while we have arranged to put wholemeal bread on the market at a comparatively cheap price, for those who like it, we have also arranged to put synthetic Vitamin

B1 into the whole of our white flour. From a scientific point of view this is certainly the most revolutionary advance ever carried out, and on the largest scale. Enormous Turnover So much for home _ production. What else do we do? Well, we’re one of the biggest businesses in the world. We have an annual turnover of over six hundred million pounds. We buy over 90 per cent. of this country’s imports of food, which makes us by far the largest international purchaser of things such as sugar, dairy produce, oil seeds, cocoa, fruit, not to mention cereals for human and animal consumption. Only the other day we bought a hundred million bushels of Canadian wheat, easily a record for a single purchaser. This position of being the world’s largest buyer of foodstuffs carries with it very special responsibilities. We have not only to make sure that our own fighting services and our civilian population are fed, we have also to consider how our purchases will affect the Dominions, the Colonies and the many friendly countries both in the Old World and in the New for whom we provide the main, if not the only export market to-day. We have to make sure that our purchases

do not upset our relations with our producer friends overseas, or unduly disturb the structure of world trade. Cupboard Not Bare Having secured the food by growing it at home and buying it abroad, what else does the Ministry of Food have to do? Well, we have to store it, and while

I cannot give any detailed figures for obvious reasons, I can tell you that the position here is really very satisfactory. The Nazis keep on telling the world that our store cupboard is empty. That is far from being the case. As a matter of fact, our shelves are more heavily laden with food than they have ever been, and during recent months, we have managed to get a quite good distribution of- stores throughout the country. The recent air raids on London have done some damage, have destroyed some stocks, but not enough to cause any anxiety. If every man and woman in this country were to give up one meal, the total loss incurred would be made good. And I may perhaps mention that in addition to the stores which we have been steadily accumulating since the war began, we have had one of the best hervests for years, and despite the efforts of the Nazi machine-gunners, the crops have been gathered in good order, The Public gets the Goods Last, but not least, we come to the vital question of distribution. It is no good growing food or buying food or storing food, unless you can get it into the hands and mouths of the people who require it. Here the policy of the Ministry is quite simple. We are determined that come what may, there shall be an adequate supply of essential foodstuffs for the poorest classes of the community. At the present moment we are spending over a million pounds a week-a week, remember-in order to make sure that the public can get their bread, their meat, and the bacon at prices they can afford. With milk we have gone even further, A few weeks ago we put through a scheme under which every nursing or expectant mother, and every child under five in this country, can have a pint of milk a day at a cost of twopence, or free if the household income is below a certain level. This scheme is going to

cost the best part of fourteen million pounds a year, but it is worth it because it is going to lay the foundations of a healthier generation than we have ever known. I personally regard it as one of the most comprehensive and beneficial measures of. social reform ever passed by Parliament, and I am glad to be able to tell you that already two-and-a-half million people are taking advantage of it. This policy of providing essential foods at reasonable prices for the benefit of the masses, will be developed and expanded as the war goes on. "Central Eating " ‘ During the recent severe bombing of East London no serious shortage of food occurred. Let me give one example of the kind of thing that happens, Last week we found that after one raid in certain parts the gas by which the people

cook was cut off. We realised that this would mean that there would be no cooked meat in those areas. But we had no preparations for this eventuality. What did we do? We told the butchers: "Hold your meat in cold store and we will give you bully beef instead." And they did. For those whose homes have been hit, we have made special arrangements. The people are eating cen-trally-central eating the wags call itand we hope this communal feeding idea will catch on apart altogether from air raids, and become an integral part of the social life of this country. It is almost incredible how much expense and how much fuel can be saved by cooking a thousand meals in one kitchen instead of in a thousand kitchens, We’re planning a campaign to develop communal feeding facilities in our industrial cities and in our factories this winter, with the assistance of the local authorities and of the Minister of Labour. Underlying all the activities of the Ministry of Food is our educational work on what we call the kitchen front. The people of this country have never been very interested in food, and to be quite frank they’ve never been very good at cooking. We’re now trying to make them food conscious, and I think I may say we are succeeding. Revolution in Progress So I say to you in conclusion, come what may, we shall still feed in this coum try and feed well, and it is my hope that through the work of the food education we are doing in this war we shall bring about a revolution not only in the feeding habits, but also in the diet of this country-a revolution the effects of which will last long after the war is over.