In a book devoted to practical advice on eating, we can not attempt to give any encyclopedic information regarding the production, manufacture, and marketing of food. Such facts as I note in this chapter are, therefore, given because they
In a book devoted to practical advice on eating, we can not attempt to give any encyclopedic information regarding the production, manufacture, and marketing of food. Such facts as I note in this chapter are, therefore, given because they throw light on the more immediate personal food problem, or suggest industrial changes that any one interested in food reform would do well to comprehend and advocate.
As pointed out briefly in Chapter V, the present diet of mankind is not the result of, following either the dictates of natural food instincts, or of any recent and scientific plan for the proper nourishment of the human race. Man made his conquest of the world and became the dominant species because of his ability to adapt himself to changes in diet and his ingenuity in increasing his food supply. As we see the world in its present state, both the kind of food and the amount of food produced are subject to the economic laws of supply and demand.
In other words, food is at present produced for profit, and the farmer or food manufacturer gives us such food as he finds we will pay the most for in proportion to its cost of production. If the foods so provided for us are not the best that might be provided, it is because we will not demand and pay for better ones.
The chief criticism that the food reformer, interested in the health and efficiency of the race, has of the present system of food production is that it gives us an over-supply of foods derived from grains and from the flesh of cattle and swine. This overproduction of grains and meat, which is the fault of the entire modern scheme of world food production, is exaggerated in the United States. This is due to the fact that this country is still com