OCR Text |
Show CROPLAND CONSERVATION Misuse of Cropland Endangers Nation's Future Food Production er America is to. continue strong and able, or whether it will start down that long trail from which no people no civilization has ever returned." re-turned." The world at large is in even worse shape than the United States, for there are only about four billion bil-lion acres of land available for a total population of more than two billion or slightly less than two acres per capita. This means that a considerable portion of the earth's population already is undernourished, un-dernourished, and this as much as anything probably is at the bottom bot-tom of the world's current unrest. Plant breeding, reforestation, and improved utilization of soil and fertilizers were among the methods by which Dr. Camp proposed to meet the imminent challenge to America's economy. econ-omy. New hybrid varieties of con. which have increased production by 25 per cent, and new species of grass which "have raised the forage yield by more than 100 per cent were cited by the speaker, who said tree breeders also have developed hybrids promising quality qual-ity lumber in one-third to one-half the usual time. These more efficient plants, however, how-ever, impose new demands on the grower, who must supply them with enough mineral nutrients through the more efficient use of fertilizers. Proper administration of miners may make it possible to restore to production some of the acreage which has been despoiled. American civilization will reach a disastrous turning-point within 20 years unless "immediate and heroic measures" are taken to save its remaining cropland and to guarantee guar-antee a continuing food supply or its growing population, the president presi-dent of the American Horticultural Council warned recently in an address ad-dress at the American Chemical Society's 119th national meeting. Already, erosion and misuse have robbed the nation of 100 million acres of cropland out of the 560 million acres acquired by the early settlers, Dr. Wendell H. Camp, curator of experimental botany and Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, declared. If adequate steps are not taken immediately, he asserted, another 100 million acres will have been discarded by 1960. Yet the population "now exceeds ex-ceeds 150 million and is rising at the rate of 2,200,000 a year," Dr. Camp pointed out. Since nutritionists estimate that it takes two and a half acres of cropland to provide a properly balanced diet for a single person, per-son, the United States seems destined to arrive at the critical crit-ical point at which it has just enough cropland "in the next fifteen or twenty years. Being the best fed, best clothed and most adequately housed people in the world, we somehow have the feeling that nothing can happen to change the situation." "Actually, we are potentially very close to the brink of disaster, and it is very likely that our actions in the next decade will decide wheth- Yeast, Seaweed May Feed Civilization Even if all the available measures meas-ures for protecting cropland, increasing in-creasing yields, reforestation and the like are taken, the world's population seems likely to continue to increase to the point where ultimately ulti-mately it cannot be fed by crops of the type used today, Dr. Camp believes. When that time comes the yeast plant and the seaweed will hold man's best hope for survival sur-vival for they can provide the basic food protein from yeast and fats and starches from algae. "At present, these vat-cultured carbohydrates, fats and proteins may not be easily translatable into our notions of bread and butter, ham and eggs, or steak and potatoes, pota-toes, but they are basic food substances, sub-stances, and because of them I do not as yet see ahead on any distant horizon the darkening shadow of Malthusian twilight and the stagnation stag-nation and end of the race," Dr. Camp said. |