The Race against Hunger tell us that mankind is on a reproduction binge, H the to years amounting for an increase in the world’s popnlation of 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 people. I ~ R I A N S
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Economists ae8nre us that hungry nations are a root cause for wac. What promise does today’s scientilic culture hold for solving the world’s food problem? Does the scieutific a p proach suggest more than a stopgap solution until, a relatively few years hence. population control through starvation might once more prevail? The substantial program of activities promptly undertaken by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows that the crucial importance of an adequate food supply for international harmony is not underestimated. Howard R Tolley, of that organization, Lists an impressive number of specificprojects aimed at increasing world food s u p plies. At the recent meeting of the AMERICANCEEMICALSoCIETY in Chicago, Dr. Tolley told a luncheon audience of the Division of Industrial and Engideering Chemistry of F A 0 8 plans. They include measurea for educating backward populations to improve conservation techniques in storing, handling,and proceasing foods, to improve crop practices and fertilirer utilisation, to increase exploitation of marine mources through Iiaheries development, and to open up new agricultursldomainsinAlricaand&uthAmerica. Hedescribed plans for enhancing the biological utilization of the food through ita fortification with vitamins. Although he did not mention it 8pecifically,conservation also could be advanced by improvement of some of our distribution methods. Enough stale bread is returned daily to our bakeries and fed to livestock to make a substantial dent in Europe’s grain deficiency. The burden of human life an acre of land will bear when scientilic farming practices are used is forcefully brought out by GamesShylerinthe Industrial Research Institute 1948medal addreas, presented February 5. Using hL, home county, Licking County, in Ohio, as an example, he contrasted ita present capacity to feed 70,000 people with the 176 who could be s u p ported in the same area in a hunter’s economy, and with the estimated 175,000 people it could support if all agricultural Btiorta in the county wem as productive as those of ita 10 best farmers. Another illustration of increased e5ciency in food growth is the expanuse of the soybean. Henry Bornook, California Institute of Technology, has developed a low-eost food product, Multi-PurwFood, b d on the soybean, which can be bought for the equivalent of 4.5 centa a meal. Greater e5ciency in our established food production methods &em substantial pro& for alleviating immediate short ages. But in the long-range view, is this enough? We were disappointed that Dr. Tolley reported no searching outaide the traditional boundaries of the agricultural approach. He gave no indication of the great chemical ine5ciency of the agricultural method; for example, that less than one third the phosphorus c h e m i d y available to plantainmodern fertilizers actually is assimilated by the plant. It appeared tacitly &s-
sumed that the area of arable land is the basic measure of the world’s ultimate capaoity for food production. These limits need not be accepted as 6nal boundaries for achievement. Hydroponics is already a practid reality. In another direction a few years ago Carl C. Lindegren, a St. Louis c h e d , in work sponsored by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, announced favorable progmn in develop ment of yeasts intended for human food. Various strains of yesst have 9avora similar to beefand other palatable natural produbts. Most American n u t r i t i d experts recommend yeasts as dietary supplements rather than as basic foods, but a well-eatablished trend toward gmater yesst consumption in the human diet is clearly evident-1,500,000 of the 6,000,000 pounds of baker’s yeast produced in 1942 were debittered for human use, the remainder being used in animsl feeds. By 1945, total production had gone up to nearly 11,000,000 pounds, and the debittered foodquality fraction was up over 60 per cent to 2,500,000 pounds. In Frome, in the British West Indies, a plant producing foodgrade yeast has been in operation since 1944 using by-product m o b from sugar factories as a culture medium. The operators have no difIiculty disposing of ita output, estimated to be 15.000 tons in 1948, to help overcome nutritional deficiencies of the natives. ScienOe for April 9, 1948, contains a brief article by Harry Humfeld, Western Regional Researoh Laboratories, U. S. Department of Agriculture, on the production of mushrmm mycelium in submerged culture. He obtained a product comparable to commercial mushrooma in protein content, flavor, and composition, at rates promising for commercial applications, from a simple culture medium. The p r o m appears capable of inde6nit.e continuous operation merely by replenishing the nutrient consumed in the mycelium production. The known “fd manufacture” processes susceptible to industrialiration are dependent on agricultural products or by-products for the culture medium when simple yeasta or fungi are grown, or upon cumbersome and inefficient plant growth cycles in hydroponics. But the implieations behind the next step forward are historic. When coal, air, water, and the essential mineral nutrienta are processed to make food, industrislised nations will he emancipated forever from absolute dependence on arable soil or imports for food. We do not expect the abandonment of agricultwal activities to become socially neeeasary in this age. But the knowledge that the resource is there, ready for USB to the Bxtant needed by the earth’s human populatian, will tremendously enhance man’s conMence in his ability to control his phyeid destiny. Here is another great goal. T h m in the chemical profession can direct their careers toward its achievement in the knowledge that it is worthy of their most dedicated efforts,and that succeas will earn them a place in history h i d e such giants as Liebg, Priestley, and the Curies.
