Food Guide for War Service at Home: Prepared under the direction of the United States Food Administration in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Education, with a preface by Herbert HooverUnited States Food Administration
History
Food Guide for War Service at Home: Prepared under the direction of the United States Food Administration in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Education, with a preface by Herbert Hoover
United States Food Administration
World War, 1914-1918 -- Food supply -- United States
In spite of their crowded territory, the majority of European
countries have raised most of their meat themselves, though usually
they have had to import fodder to keep up their herds. They have been
less dependent on import for meat than for wheat. Great Britain is the
only country which has imported much meat--almost one-half her supply.
Her imports, and to a lesser extent those of other European countries,
have come chiefly from Denmark and Russia in Europe, and from six
countries outside--the United States, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay,
Australia, and New Zealand.
THE WAR AND THE EUROPEAN MEAT-SUPPLY
Imports of both animals and fodder are interrupted. With meat as with
wheat, the great shortage is due to lack of ships. Australia and New
Zealand, and to a lesser extent South America, are cut off. Fodder
such as cottonseed press-cake cannot be shipped in large amounts as
it takes three times as much shipping to transport feed as it does the
meat made by the animals from it. Denmark's supply of animals to Great
Britain has practically stopped, because of her own shortage, and
because much of what she has goes to Germany.
The European herds have been cut down. Every one of the warring
countries has fewer meat animals now than before the war. There were
roughly 100,000,000 animals less in Europe at the end of 1917 than
in 1914. Many of those left are in very poor condition, so that the
shortage is even more serious than is indicated by the falling off in
numbers.
Belgium, Serbia, and Roumania are in the worst condition. Practically
all the animals in those countries have been killed or confiscated by
the invading German and Austrian armies. This is one cause of their
terrible famine conditions.
The United Kingdom, France, and Italy have also lost seriously. France
is the greatest loser of the three, with more than one-fifth of her
herds gone. The enemy has driven off large numbers of her cattle. She,
like the others, is in difficulty not only for meat, but for milk.
Her situation is complicated by the fact that she has no great
cold-storage plants like ours, and so must get meat-supplies at
frequent intervals.
Before the war Germany was much better prepared than the Allies in
that she had many more animals in proportion to her population than
they. But she was more dependent upon imports of feed, and as her
commerce has been cut off, she has had to kill her animals faster.
Counting up all her animals in terms of cattle according to the amount
of meat they would yield, shows a loss of over one-third. For Austria,
there are no available figures, but her decrease has probably been
larger than Germany's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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