moved all income barriers to the receipt of one pint of milk daily by each pre-school child, thus making a notable advance toward the improved nutrition of this group.

Carefully planned midday meals providing at least one third the daily food needs of the school child should be recognized as one of the greatest single steps to improve the health of the community. Special attention should be given to the inclusion in school meals of those nutrients which are lacking in the dietary and, so far as possible, local foods should be used. There is a trend throughout the world toward making school meals an integral part of free education. For example, Egypt has now introduced school feeding projects on a free and wide-spread basis by national legislation.

The requirements of adolescents for protective foods are greater than those of adults. Adequate nutrition helps to prevent the development of tuberculosis, to which adolescents are particularly susceptible. The special needs of adolescents should be recognized in school and college feeding and in workers' canteens.

Persons in receipt of pensions or other forms of public assistance should receive enough foods of the proper kinds to maintain health. In some countries orders for the buying of nutritionally suitable foods or cash allowances are preferred to direct food distribution. Nutrition workers should always be consulted when such measures are planned.

War experience has shown the great advantages of government assistance in the establishment of some types of large-scale food preparation and service. Collective-feeding arrangements are an economical contribution to the improvement of the diets of vulnerable groups, to industrial output and morale, and to general health. Such arrangements may be made in institutions in or near industrial plants, docks, mines, and building sites, and in commercial or public restaurants. Several countries have reported improved health and a decrease in accidents as a result of collective feeding. Advice and assistance on diet should be given to all residential institutions: colleges, orphanages, prisons, hospitals, etc.

In all collective-feeding arrangements it should be remembered that large-scale preparation without proper supervision can bring greater losses of nutrients than any other treatment that food may receive. Standards of supervision should be set up to cover all largescale feeding arrangements. Special arrangements may be needed to provide the foods required in certain types of communal feeding.

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF FOODS

A substantial contribution to improved nutrition can be made by the adoption of measures to improve the quality of foods. Such measures are wide in scope and may be applied at various stages, from the stage of production through the stages of storage, processing, and distribution, to that of preparation for final consumption.

Examples of methods of improving quality at the production stage may be found in the selection of milch cows and their proper feeding; the selection of varieties of certain vegetables and fruits, e.g., tomatoes, which have high contents of given nutrients; and the treatment of soils deficient in certain minerals. Further research is needed to extend our present limited knowledge in these fields.

Sanitary measures are necessary to prevent the contamination of certain foods with pathogenic micro-organisms or toxic substances. Such measures are particularly important in the case of certain protective foods of high nutritional value, the wide-spread consumption of which is desired on nutritional grounds, for example, milk and green leaves which are consumed in a raw state.

There is considerable scope in many areas for bringing the production of perishable vegetable products closer to the point of consumption, thus avoiding substantial losses of certain nutrients through oxidation and other causes. This may be achieved through encouragement by public authorities of the use of small gardens or plots of land for cultivation by householders for their own uses.

Processing should be carried out by methods which avoid or minimize losses in nutrients.

This is of the utmost importance in relation to wheat, rice, and maize. Recently processes for milling wheat have been introduced in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States of America which have the effect of producing a flour acceptable to the consumer, retaining a high proportion of the vitamins and other nutrients present in the original grain. In canning, dehydration, and preservation in brine, methods should be used which minimize losses of vitamins, both in commercial and household practice.

Since in marketing and distribution considerable deterioration in quality may take place, delay should be minimized in placing perishable products (for example, vegetables and fruits) in the hands of the consumer. Care should be taken to preserve the quality of milk during distribution, by the use of suitable containers, by maintaining it at appropriate temperatures, and by avoiding undue exposure to light.

Cooking and other preparation of foods for the table may be of great importance in relation to the preservation and assimilation of nutrients and palatability. Attention should be given to the length of time of cooking, the temperature, the amount of water and subsequent uses of it, the interval between cooking or other preparation and consumption, and the conditions under which the food is kept after cooking.

While it would seem preferable to retain nutrients in food rather than to remove them in processing and add them later, the latter may be necessary or desirable where obstacles exist to the adoption of the former, i.e., the use of enriched white flour and bread and restored cereals in the United States of America. Fortification of foods with additional nutrients is desirable to meet deficiency conditions; for example, iodine may be added to salt in areas where goiter would otherwise prevail. Again fortification may take the form of adding nutrients to foods devoid of or deficient in them where it otherwise may be difficult to secure

an adequate supply of such nutrients. The fortification of margarine with vitamins A and D is a case in point.

The indiscriminate distribution of synthetic vitamins is not to be recommended as a publichealth procedure. However, synthetic vitamins are of great value in the medical treatment of deficiency diseases and may be useful for prophylaxis in certain special circumstances. Such products as yeast, wheat germ, and rice polishings may be regarded as foods as well as rich sources of certain vitamins. The possibility of producing dried yeast on a large scale in countries in which abundant supplies of sugarcane molasses, or other cheap sources of fermentable carbohydrates, are available should receive careful consideration. Cheap preparations of fish-liver oil, e. g., shark-liver oil, could be produced in various parts of the world and widely used to improve the health of children and of others who may need vitamins A and D.

Finally, it is the responsibility of governments to insure that the consumer is not misled as to the content of foods, vitamin products, food extracts and other preparations derived from foodstuffs. Regulations should be adopted to provide for correct labeling and to insure that numerical statements should not be such as to convey the impression that what are really negligible quantities of a nutrient make a significant contribution to human requirements.

PART II. ESSENTIAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OTHER THAN FOOD

Section I was charged with the duty of examining the levels of consumption of agricultural products other than food in the past, and with the consideration of reasonable goals for increased consumption in the future. For this purpose the Section has subdivided the field into the following groups:

Clothing and household fibers
Bagging and cordage fibers
Inedible oils
Tobacco

Beverage materials

Hides, skins, and other animal by-products Other agricultural products used for industrial purposes

The Section observes that the problems of consumption levels for these products are more complex than for food products. The quantity and quality of food needed for maintaining health and strength has been made the subject of scientific study by experts, and there is reasonable agreement about the required levels of consumption. But the other agricultural products serve a wide range of dissimilar uses. Some of them, such as the clothing materials and the oils, are so associated with human health and dignity as to deserve consideration on a plane with food. Others constitute more the means to a full life, while still others, such as the hard fibers, seldom enter into human consumption at all but are consumed rather as production goods in such fields as shipping, mining, building, and agriculture. The consumption needs of the populations of the world for these groups of materials and for the particular products within them vary with climate, with custom or personal taste, and with the direction which the resources and genius of different peoples will give to their material development.

In respect to the past levels of consumption, the Section finds:

1. That, generally, though not universally, consumption of the non-food agricultural products has shown a rising trend. This rise in consumption has been particularly marked in respect to such commodities as tobacco, certain industrial oils, and some of the clothing fibers.

2. That with certain exceptions the consumption of products in this group is strongly influenced by general economic conditions. In periods of prosperity consumption tends to rise sharply, and in periods of depression the decline in consumption is equally marked. This is particularly true with respect to those agricultural products which are in themselves raw materials for the production of semi-durable or durable goods.

3. That the annual consumption of these

from region to region. For instance, consumption of cotton varies from less than 2 pounds per capita to about 24 pounds. The consumption of soap appears to vary from less than 1 pound per capita to about 25 pounds. The consumption of coffee, though this is more affected by substitutes, varies from a negligible quantity to about 16 pounds per capita. With a few noteworthy exceptions, the larger consumption is to be found in the more fully developed industrial countries, although in those countries the consumption varies greatly between different income groups within the population.

4. That there is a strong tendency for interchangeability between products in different categories of this general group. For example, in the case of vegetable, animal, and marine oils, not only are many of the products interchangeable for inedible uses, such as in the manufacture of soap or paints, but also most of the fats and oils can be used for edible purposes.

5. That there has been in recent years a tendency, which has been accentuated by developments during the war, toward the increase and cheapening of industrial products, which compete directly, and in some cases sharply, with many of the agricultural products in this general category. Outstanding examples of such products are the synthetic fibers, paper, plastics, and some of the metals.

6. That the expansion in consumption of these products has been impeded in differing degrees in different countries by barriers to trade including tariffs, quotas, and exchange control, by lack of facilities for economical transportation, by excessive costs of distribution, by sharply fluctuating prices, and by inadequate exchange and financing facilities.

In view of the complexity of the factors affecting the consumption of the non-food agricultural products, it was obviously not possible for the Section within the time and with the material at its disposal, to come to any specific conclusions, commodity by commodity, as to consumption potentialities in the years ahead. The Section looks forward, however, to the nearterm period following the war as one likely to

be characterized by great noods in many lines.

in a disrupted world. But given an adequate and economical mechanism of distribution, these needs could supply the motivation of great economic activity.

For the longer term the outlook is less clear. Nevertheless, the Section, on the basis of the discussions and of the examples brought to its attention, feels prepared to suggest the following general conclusions:

1. That notwithstanding the competition of substitutes the consumption of virtually all of these products might be substantially increased if it were possible to maintain economic activity in the world as a whole at a relatively high level.

2. That even greater expansion in the consumption of many of the non-food products of agriculture could be achieved by narrowing the gap between consumption levels that have existed on the one hand in the highly industrialized sections of North America and of western Europe, and on the other, in vast regions elsewhere in the world, the populations of which are not only predominantly agricultural but also much larger. It would not be unreasonable, given a period of relatively high prosperity in the world at large and of increasing prosperity in the agricultural producing countries in particular, to anticipate an increase in consumption in some countries as much as twofold or threefold. Increases in many cases could result from improvement of the facilities of transportation and methods of distribution, and from the development of new enterprises within the countries themselves, which would bring about a more effective utilization of local resources, increase employment and the productivity of labor, and accomplish a wider diffusion of purchasing power. Larger individual consumption of some important agricultural products could be encouraged in every country,

with advantage to both consumers and producers, by greater educational emphasis not only on the material but also on the esthetic and cultural rewards of greater attention to clothing and home surroundings.

3. That there remain significant opportunities for raising the levels of consumption, even in the more highly industrialized countries, by finding means for improving the purchasingpower of lower-income groups.

There is a further aspect of this problem of the consumption of non-food agricultural products which must not be overlooked. In many countries the production of these products provides a major source of income through their disposal on domestic and foreign markets. They are grown in many cases in regions and under conditions where food crops do not do well. Consequently, the ability of producers to dispose of their production at reasonable prices has a very great bearing on their ability to secure adequate quantities of the right kinds of food. This applies both within individual countries and between countries. Consequently, it appears necessary to give special consideration to the products of such regions in order that they may share in the improvement of purchasing-power, which will help to further the first high purpose of this Conference-the realization of adequate human nutrition throughout the world.

Finally, the Section believes that from the standpoint of producing countries and the orientation of their agricultural enterprises to effective world demand, it is of the highest importance that some arrangement be effected, and without delay, by which competent research may be directed to the problem of ascertaining as definitely as possible what the effective capacity of the world to consume specific products is likely to be in the years ahead.

Appendix 2

Section II was directed to deal with that phase of the Conference agenda concerning expansion of production and its adaptation to consumption needs. Starting with the assumption that a marked expansion in agricultural production will be required if the peoples of the world are to be provided with the food products necessary for adequate nutrition, the Section has sought to ascertain the prospects for so organizing world agricultural production as to make possible the satisfaction of those needs and to explore the measures, both national and international, by which production can be increased and better directed in terms of consumption.

In the discussion of the problem it early became apparent that the circumstances prevailing in the years immediately following the end of hostilities are likely to be so dissimilar from those when more settled conditions have been reached that the action required both nationally and internationally in this earlier period will differ from that in the latter, not only in degree but in kind. It was decided accordingly to distinguish between the short-term period in the immediate post-war years and the long-term period in which the agriculture of the world may be expected to have returned to normal productivity.

The short-term period will be one of shortage. There are likely to be not only severe shortages of the principal foodstuffs but shortages of transport, including shipping, and of the means of production, including fertilizers, seeds, machinery, farming implements, gasoline, etc. These various shortages, furthermore, will be interrelated. The limiting factor on production will not always be the same. In some countries possibilities of production will

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exceed possibilities of export; in many countries, however, the limiting factor will be means of production.

The magnitude of the food shortages after the war will depend upon the course of the war and the size of harvests and cannot therefore be estimated precisely; but, taking the world as a whole, it seems probable that there will be a shortage of livestock and livestock products, of oils and fats, and even of such high-calorie foods as rice and bread grains, in some cases, due to shortage of transport from those countries which may have surplus stocks of grain.

The dominant problem in this short-term period in the light of the shortages in prospect will be that of securing the most rapid alleviation of famine and hunger in the countries which have been devastated or in countries whose rural economy has been seriously dislocated by the war and of planning the production program on a realistic basis, which puts the elimination of hunger first and the nutritional improvement of diet second.

This, in general, will call, so far as the conditions of individual countries require or permit, for increasing the acreage under crops for direct human consumption and actually holding back the rebuilding of depleted livestock herds-essential though this rebuilding ultimately will be-and also for the production of other crops which compete for acreage with essential foods. This pattern of production will result in the most effective use of resources under the circumstances expected to prevail, since it will yield the largest amount of needed food nutrients a unit of resources used.

As agriculture is rehabilitated in devastated areas, it will be possible to devote more acreage in the world as a whole to the production of