HEALTH AND THE FARMER
THE importance of the recently issued report of the 'League of Nations Health Organisation on Diet and 'Health was briefly emphasised in last week's Spectator. But the questions raised open up possi- bilitieS 'that. demand extended treatment. It would be hard AO find a question of greater concern to every country in the world than the "marriage between 'health and agriculture " proposed by Mr. S. M. Bruce, the delegate of Australia, at the last Assembly. of the League. The first-fruits of the investigations arranged as result of the adoption of this 'proposal by the Assembly is the report, entitled ." The Physiological Bases of Nutrition," already mentioned, prepared by a commission of experts in public health from many countries, including, from Great Britain, Professors Cathcart and Mellanby and Sir John Orr. Technical . though the document itself may be, the subject of nutrition has an importance that is realised by every social worker, and the adoption by Governments of progressive nutrition policies would inevitably have direct and vital effects on agricultural development both in their own and other countries. From this point of view the key to the report may be regarded as contained in the declaration that "deficiencies in important nutrients arc a common feature in modern diets, and these deficiencies usually occur in the protective foods (foods rich in minerals and vitamins) rather than in the energy-giving foods." Among protective foods instanced by the commission are "first and most important, milk and milk- products; eggs and glandular tissues ; then greenleaf vegetables, fruit, fat- fish (i:e:, herrings, &e.) and meat , (muscle)."
This 'authoritative finding is of no less importance in the 'field Of agriculture and economies than of public health, and it appears to point to a way of escape from the vicious circle in which the world finds itself - caught Since the economic depression in 1929; world 'markets for agricultural exports have shrunk to such an extent as to cause serious loss to the agricultural exporting countries, and this, in turn, through loss of purchasing-power, has led naturally tO a general falling-off in the volume of manufaCtUred exports, with consequent heavy in- creases, of unemployment in the industrial countries. Most European countries have attempted policies of agricultural self-sufficiency and have reinforced their entrenched system of customs barriers with the wire entanglement • of quotas and other forms of quantitative restrictions. At the London World Economic Conference it appeared hopeless to expect any modification of extreme agrarian proteetion; and, ironically enough, one of the few subjects on Which substantial assent Was • reached • was the desirability of international agreement for the restric- tion' of 'production. Fortunately the world in 1935 is showing signs of greater confidence. As the report on Nutrition to the Assembly stated, "increased production gave to Governments the opportunity to take anether step forward in their attempt to build a healthier people." The Govern- ments of the industrial countries of Europe, including Great Britain, remain determined to foster the prosperity of their own agriculture, but the 'Geneva discussions showed them to have become "nutrition- conscious." The experts' report points a way whereby national agriculture can be maintained and indeed expanded, while at the same time world trade in agricultural products can be increased. It is to be noted that most of the protective foods listed by the commission of experts are perishable products, for whose prOduction the soil and climate of England, France, Belgium or Germany are well fitted. The evolution of national nutrition policies in these countries would call for a great expansion of pro- duction of such foods, and action along the lines advocated would reduce the importance attached by the national agricultural authorities to the main- tenance of highly protected or subsidised wheat and sugar production—which in turn would have beneficial effects on international trade generally.
The League Commission emphasises the food-value of milk. Its members recommend a consumption of no less than one litre per head per day for mothers and for children up to school-leaving age. A litre is equal to 1.76 pints, which may seem a large amount, but is actually less than the quart per -head per day fixed as a national objective in the United States: The adoption of any such national nutrition standard would call for something approaching a doubling of milk production in this country and in all the predominantly industrial countries of Europ. with the exception of Switzerland, where the con- sumption of milk and milk-products is already at
relatively high levels. The dietetic standards recommended further provide for the use of one egg per day. This would also necessitate a doubling of the production or importation of eggs, both here and in most European countries. Any such expansion of dairying and poultry-keeping, together with large increases in the production of fresh vegetables and fruit, would produce a reorientation of farming in the British Isles and in industrial Europe along lines which would allow for a substantial revival of world trade in other products. This, of course, represents a concentration on one aspect only of a complex problem; The nutrition experts were not asked to consider the economic means whereby their standards would be applied in this or other countries. That is the task of the main committee, to be appointed by the Council of the League. The report of this committee, which is to be presented to the next Assembly, should impart to many Governments a fresh realisation of the importance to their own countries of the proposed marriage of health and agriculture. But • to agree that a new and saner dietary is to be encouraged leaves unsolved the problem of how it is to be encouraged. It is useless to tell people who have not the money to buy more milk and potatoes and eggs that they ought to consume more milk and potatoes and eggs. The solution is probably to be found in an increased distribution of relief in kind on the lines of the British plan of free milk, or cheap milk, in Schools: Explorations in that field are more than due.
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