FIRST VICTORY–THEN FOOD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 220, 10 September 1943, Page 6

FIRST VICTORY–THEN FOOD

How Europe's Agriculture Will Be Restored

WHILE Britain is exerting every @ffort to provide as much of her wartime food as she can from her own land in order to free shipping for carrying war materials, a committee is sitting in London to plan the reconstruction of the agriculture and farming of the tortured and devastated. countries of Europe. Men and women from all the lands of Occupied Europe are working side by side with experts of the United Nations in an organisation called the Allied Post-War Requirements Bureau, which was set up as a result of a conference held in London two years ago. Sir John Russell, Chairman of the Committee; Laurence Easterbrook, Agricultural Correspondent of the London "News Chronicle;" and Frank Alexander, a young European, recently came together in a BBC studio to discuss post-war agricultural relief plans for South-east Europe. Here is their discussion, broadcast in the North American and Pacific Services, on what is certainly one of the greatest problems of modern times.

LEXANDER: For over three years the German war machine has trampled down the fields of Europe, The long columns of German lorries have been robbing the farms, stealing the greatly reduced amount of food they grew to fill German bellies. Not only is it crops they steal. They plunder the livestock and eat them. By the middle of last year no less than eleven million head of cattle alone, or a quarter of Europe’s total, had been lost, Europe is hungry; so food, ready to eat, must be the first thing when the fighting stops, But that couldn’t go on indefinitely. Europe’s agriculure must be restarted at the earliest possible moment, For about two years now a special committee of an organisation with the

rather imposing title of the Allied PostWer Requirements Bureau has been at work on this problem. The other day I met Laurence Easterbrook just after he’d been attending one of this committee’s meetings, and he told me that he had been deeply impressed. . . . Easterbrook: Yes, I was very deeply impressed, It was only a sub-committee meeting, dealing with feeding stuffs for livestock. But there was a very fine atmosphere about it, A long table stretched the whole length of a rather dingy room in London. An American sat at the top, One side of him was a Frenchman, the other side was a Czech. There were Poles, Greeks, Yugoslavs, Norwegians, Dutchmen — every nation in Europe. Opposite me was Dr, John Hammond, an Englishman, who is one

of the greatest authorities on animal breeding in the world, The greatest goodwill prevailed Now, these proceedings, so dull in detail, so magnificent in their full scope, have been going on in London day after day for two solid years. Sir John Russell; I have the honour to be chairman of the agricultural committee of the Bureau, and I can confirm what Mr, Easterbrook says, But let me try to explain just what we are doing. Let us take crops to begin with, It seems fairly certain that the most serious shortage will be in calories-that is, in the foods that give sustenance, energy and warmth, Until those can be supplied, there is not much point in supplying the vitamins, those food substanges essential to positive health, In

fact, we are told that vitamins without calories might do more harm than good. So crops must first be sown that yield a high return of calories to the acre, and that means cereals and potatoes. Pulses will be wanted, too, to make up the protein; for the meat that gives us protein is bound to be scarce. All these things we must take into account. There will certainly. be terrible destruction, especially where the fighting actually is. So a list of seed requirements from outside Occupied Europe has been drawn up. They include half a million tons of grain seed, nearly half a million tons of seed potatoes, as well as seeds for fodder crops and yegetables, The minimum requirements total up to over a million tons. The land could be quickly cultivated by tractors, shipped across by the United Nations. The great thing is to have the seed ready, for it cannot be produced quickly, Alexander: You know, it is an enormous undertaking-the biggest rush job of farming the world has ever attempted, But different countries will have different requirements, Greece, for instance, will probably be short of every kind of seed, so will Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, Poland will lack rye and wheat seed, but not seed potatoes, perhaps. I hope, by the way, you haven’t forgotten a little seed of beetroot for Poland. It is important for their cookery, (Continued on next page)

EUROPE IS HUNGRY

(Continued from previous page) Russell: We have thought of the beetroot seed for Poland. And other things, too, The seed, for example, must be suited to the particular climate where it is going to be,sown. The same variety wouldn’t do everywhere in Europe. Something can, let us hope, be requisitioned from the countries that have caused the trouble, from Germany, Italy and Hungary for instance. Potato seed is likely to be the most difficult. The only countries with any to spare may be Britain, perhaps the Netherlands, and possibly Poland, unless hunger in that tortured country is too great. But probably we'll have to go farther afield: Canada and the U.S.A., for example. Easterbrook: That means ships. It will be an enormous problem in transport alone — a million tons of seed to meet Sir John’s minimum requirements, quite apart from carrying the tractors and farm machinery to grow them. And on top of all that, millions of tons of food to feed the people while the crops are growing. But what a lifting of the heart there will be the day we start sending tractors and food to Europe instead of guns and tanks! But you've only told us half the story, Sir John. Your committee has not been spending two years on just this little question of supplying seed for a whole continent and growing crops to feed a few hundred million people at short notice? What about livestock? I should think that must be even more difficult? Russell: Much more difficult. We mustn’t make the mistake we made after the last war when cattle were sent before the food was ready for them, so that they had to be slaughtered. Re-establishment must come mainly from natural increase. It is no good sending the livestock that happens to be available, or what the rest of the world thinks South-eastern Europe ought to have. They must be the types that thrive there, and the breeds that have been evolved in the different regions through generations of trial and error. All the Best Cattle Gone Alexander: I was going to say a word about that. European cattle breeds fall into two main groups, the peasant types and the good estate types The peasant types must be hardy, healthy, and used to living on rough food. They are used for many things, including milk, work, breeding, meat and leather. They are very localised. The Polish red cattle are hardly to be found outside Poland. And in South-eastern Europe, sheep are important, and are used for several purposes, including milk. When you said earlier that up to the middle of last year, a quarter of the pre-war population of Europe’s cattle had gone, that isn’t all, is it? We know the position has deteriorated further since then. and will continue to get worse as the Nazis grow more desperate. ‘ Russell; That is perfectly true. Greece and Yugoslavia have suffered worse with sheep, whose losses are probably as great as those of cattle. Half Europe’s pigs have gone, and a third of its horses have been requisitioned for the German Army. Poultry has suffered worst of all -less than a quarter remain. We must face this problem, and we are facing it, but I don’t want to hold out rosy hopes. Restoration of the livestock position is bound to be slow and laborious, for you

can’t hurry Nature. Something can be done by supplying more and better food to the animals that survive. Germany can be made to disgorge some of the pedigree and utility animals she has plundered. Hungary may supply some of the peasant breeds used both in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and some may be forthcoming from Switzerland. Some of the Italian breeds, too, would be useful in Greece. Non-peasant breeds such as Holsteins are also used in this part of Europe — and Britain, Canada and the U.S.A. could supply some useful stock in this respect. Artificial Mating Easterbrook: Here, again, transport is a major difficulty. A five to eight thousand ton ‘cargo boat would have to make 1500 journeys if as many as a million cattle from outside Europe were imported as foundation stock. But what about this new idea of artificial mating, of keeping the bull possibly in Britain, and dispatching the semen by air in test tubes? Russell: The bulls would be better kept in the different countries, at strategical centres, as you might say. Courses of instruction have been arranged in this country for veterinary officers selécted by the different Governments, so that when they get home again they can at once put the method into operation. It seems unlikely that the cattle population of Europe can be restored in less than six years. Horses will take even longer. Little addition can be expected for the first five years after the war, and full restoration may take 15 years. For the first period much of the cultivation will have. to be done by tractor. Under good conditions, the sheep population should recover more rapidly than the cattle, but in poor and hard conditions it will be slower. Pigs and poultry, on the other hand, can recover very quickly indeed. The trouble with pigs is that they eat so much of the same food as ourselvesgrain, potatoes, skim milk, fish and meat. The same is true of poultry. =" "People Will Be Very Hungry" Easterbrook: Plans for a_ certain amount of administrative action have been made, I suppose? I mean, people will be very hungry. It would be understandable enough if some began eating the seeds or the livestock that did remain. But this, in the end, would only mean prolonging the suffering and make things far worse, : . Russell; That is so. Immediately the Germans are expelled from any region there will have to be a strict control of the slaughter of animals, especially females suitable for breeding and milking, and some of the working bullocks, Distribution of feeding stuffs will have to be regulated. Governments of European countries will have to.take immediate action to restore soil fertility when they regain possession of their lands. These and other measures have all been thought of on our committee, which represents all the nations concerned _ Alexander: Yes. You-and they-are certainly laying the foundation of a magnificent job. What appeals to me’ about it.is that you’re not just doing what 1 might call "soup-kitchen" work. It is not just relief and dishing out a little food to hungry people that you're thinking about. On the contrary, "relief" has been interpreted by your committee in terms of restoration-of rebuilding. (A very full account of the problem presended: to the Committee appears in Nature, April 17, 1943. It is written by Sir John Russell himself),