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Show FOOD 'FAMINE REMOTE WORLD'S RESOURCES ARE FAR IN ADVANCE OF POPULATION. United States Alone Could Increase Food Supply From One-Sixth to Two-Thirds. Forecasting a condition in the future in which there will be too many people peo-ple in the world for the grain fields and stock ranges to feed, the question of a possible general shortage in humanity's hu-manity's market basket supplies has received more than 100 years of voluminous vo-luminous consideration. Since the outbreak out-break of the world war, probabilities of food shortages have been discussed more than ever before, but in respect to definite and narrow geographical limitations. Mr. William Joseph Showalter, in a careful study of the world's food supply, considering the bulk production, its distribution, and the potentialities for increased production, pro-duction, discounts present-day fears of ultimate universal famine. Of the bugaboo theory that a general under-supply under-supply of foodstuffs is the menace of the future, he has the following to say in a study prepared for the National Nation-al Geographic society at Washington: "Many men 'are inclined to sound a pessimistic note as to the adequacy of the" world's food supply for future generations, and, like Malthus a hundred hun-dred years ago, are inclined to predict that the day has at last come when the human race mast cease to expand its numbers, or else face inevitable hunger. "And when we consider how many mouths there are in this world to feed, and how much food it takes to satisfy thsm, little room is there to wonder at this pessimism. "The earth's population today reaches a grand total of about 1,700,-000,000 1,700,-000,000 souls. If they were all set down at a banquet it would require sixteen six-teen tables reaching ground the globe to seat them. For every ounce of food they ate, the Anner-giver would have to provide 53,000 tons of provisions, provi-sions, and if the dlnner were no more than a democratic dollar-a-plate affair, it would cost, iu the aggregate, as much as it costs to run the United States government a year and a hilf. "Expressed in terms of annual consumption, con-sumption, the world's market basket is one that defies portrayal in weight and size. One is forced to cast around for new units of measurement to give a proper idea of its proportions. ' Assuming As-suming that the average inhabitant of the earth uses two pounds ot provi- sions a day, the total for the year would amount to a billion and a quarter quar-ter tons. It would require a string of cars, carrying thirty tons to the car, and reaching eight times around the earth, to haul this material. "The fact, however, is that the average av-erage inhabitant of the earth probably prob-ably uses more than two pounds of provisions a day. The steerage passengers pas-sengers on English ships are allowed 2 1.1 pounds each day. Even the prisoner in the average jail gets more than two pounds; the Russian conscript con-script four pounds, and the Austrian common soldier 2 pounds a day. "Still another way to get an idea of" the size of the world's food problem is to assume that the average individual individ-ual consumes ten cents' worth of food daily. On this basis it would require-the require-the entire national wealth of the United States, the richest nation ot all history, to pay the world's food bill for twenty-six months. For every cent per day per capita that the cost of living liv-ing increases, more than $6,000,000,-000 $6,000,000,-000 is added to the world's annual market-basket expense.. "But when one considers the possibilities pos-sibilities of future food production, it is difficult to have much faith in the prophecies of pessimism of these-twentieth these-twentieth century successors of Mat-thus. Mat-thus. For instance, in the United States we have 935,000,000 acres ot arable land, 400,000,000 of which are under cultivation. Yet, with less than half of our available land utilized, the United States produces one-sixth of the world's wheat, seven-ninths of its corn, one-fourth of its oats, one-eighth of its cattle, one-third of its hogs, and one-twelfth of its sheep. "Even with the land now under cultivation, cul-tivation, if we produced as much vvheat per acre as England and Germany, Ger-many, we could supply the world with twj-thirds of its flour. If we produced pro-duced as much corn to the acre as thy do, we could double the world's supply of that product. "Today the United States has a total cereal crop of 5,000,000,000 bushels. bush-els. Were all of our arable land under un-der cultivation and producing only according to our present standard, which is less than half as high a3 that of western Europe, we could add enough cereals to take care of an additional ad-ditional population the size of that of Europe. "When one has lived on land, as the writer has done, which, at the end ot the Civil war, did not produce more than eight bushels of wheat and 20 bushels of corn to the acre, and hrui seen this land produce as high as 45 bushels of wheat and a 100 bushels corn, it is difficult to take any cthei than an optimistic view of 'tin; p,;as;. bilities of American agricultu. e." I |
