Food Supply and Increase of Population

Abstract

The statement, that in many countries there is a large excess of food-production and food-supply, while in other parts of the world the great masses of the people suffer from an almost permanent scarcity of food, periodically leading to starvation, looks like carrying coals to Newcastle, or like we in this country say, like carrying water to the sea. There is no doubt whatever that a regular and sufficient supply of food is one of the primary conditions of life, not to say the most fundamental one. There is no doubt whatever that starvation is one of the most cruel and merciless processes, by which life is menaced, that death by starvation is the hardest fate human beings can meet. Those of us who live in one of the privileged countries, look upon a good breakfast, a loaded table at lunch or dinner as phenomena of the same regularity as sunrise or sunset, they not only consider a quantitatively and qualitatively good feeding one of the claims to which every-one is entitled, but they accept a well stocked pantry as a matter of course. In quite exceptional cases, our Western populations are put up against a serious food-shortage, or even against starvation: the last months of World War II have taught the urban population in the Western part of this country the gravity of a situation in which foodsupply has been decreased to the extremely low level of 600 calories a day. But we all know that this situation in other parts of the world is not an exception at all, we all know it and we all shall be conscious of the fact that in many other countries a large majority of people do not receive the amount of food, which is taken for the minimum necessary for a worthy living of human beings. And for those who are not yet fully aware of this extremely alarming fact, a study of books like that of the Woytinski’s and that of Sir John Russell may serve as an eye-opener.