Show FOOD FAMINE REMOTE WORLDS RESOURCES ARE FAR IN ADVANCE OP OF population united states alone could 1 I increase food supply from one sixth to two thirds forecasting a condition in the future in which there will be too many people in thai world for the grain fields and stock ranges to fe edthe question of a possible general shortage in hu man itys market basket supplies has received more than years of voluminous consideration since the outbreak of the world war probabilities of food shortages havo 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 worlds food supply considering the bulk production its distribution and the potentialities tor for increased production discounts present day tears fears of ultimate universal famine of the bugaboo theory that a general under supply of foodstuffs to is the menace of the future he be has the following to say I 1 la a study prepared for the national geographic society at washington many men are inclined tos to sound bund a pessimistic note noie as to the adequacy odthe of the worlds food supply for future generations and like malthus a hundred years ago are ar inclined to predict that the day has at last come when the human race most mast cease to expand its numbers or else face inevitable 1 hunger and when we consider how many mouths there are I 1 in a this world to io feed andhor much food it takes to satisfy them little room is there to wonder at this pessimism the earths population today reaches a grand total of about 0 souls it their were all set down at a banquet it would require sixteen tables reaching around the globis globe to seat them for every ounce ot of food they ate the tanner alver ivor would have to provide tops tons of provisions and it if the enner were no moro more than a democratic dollar 1 a plato plate affair i it would cost lu the aggregate KB I 1 much an aa it costs to rim the united states government a year and a hlf bull expressed in terms of annual consumption the worlds 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 As suming that the average inhabitant of the tha earth uses two pounds of provi proal i tons slona a day the total for the year would amount to a billion and a quarter ter e tons it w would world require a string of cars carrying thirty tons to the car and reaching eight times around the earth to haul this toils material the tact fact however Is that the average inhabitant of the earth probably uses more than two pounds of pro provisions v irions a day theste the steerage passengers on english ships are allowed 2 11 pounds each day even the prisoner in the average jail gets more than two pounds the russian c conscript on I 1 four pounds and th the e austrian common soldier 2 pounds a day still another way w aeto to get an idea of 0 the size of the worlds food problem is to assume that the average individual consumes ten cents worth of food dally daily on this basis it would require the entire national wealth of the united states the richest nation or oc all history to pay the worlds food bill for twenty six months F for or every cent per day per capita that the cost of living increases more than is added to the worlds annual I 1 market basket expense but when dae one considers the lids possibilities ties of future food production it i is difficult to have much faith in the prophecies of pessimism of these twentieth century successors of malthus for instance in the united states we have acres of arable land of which sire are under cultivation yet with less than halt half of our available land utilized the te united states produces one sixth of the worlds wheat seven ninths nintha of ita 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 no now under cultivation li ti it if we produced as much wheat per acre as england and germany we we could supply the world with tw of its flour if we produced as an much corn to theatre the acre as they dore darwe could double the worlds supply of that product today the united states has a tat total a 1 cereal crop of bushels were all olour of our arable land under cultivation and aad producing only according to our present standard which Is ia less than haft haff as high as an that of western europe we could add enough cereals to take care of an additional dit ional population the size of that of europe when one has lived on land as the writer has done which at af the he end of the civil war did not produce more than eight bushels of wheat and 20 bushels of corn to the the acre and bas bai seen tats tbs land produce as high A as 45 bushels of wheat and a bushels corn it is difficult to take an any othel than an optimistic view of the poast bil ittes of american e |