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Whosays
thefoodis
running out?
Whar's
all
this noiS<: al;out famioc aod ovcrpopubtioo?
There h2Vc always bccn &mines, right? What's
so
dtlfereot
now?
f or many of
us,
the insisteot warrungs about a corrung
food
crisis
are a litde hard to cake. Hard!y a week goes by
without someooe telliog us that che world is doomed. Surdy
ic can't
be
thal
bad, can ic?
UnfortUJ12tdy, rhe world
is
&cing ao unprecedented
crisis. The problem is bideously slln.plc. Thc
catth
is
sma.ll.
and there are roo many of
w.
Thc irresistible mathematics
of popu1ation growt!' poiot ro a supreme disasrer, probably
in this very ceorury. The
appro:~ching
food-popu1ation
crisis was p redicred ceoturíes ago.
Tbe famous " four horsemco" prophecy
in
the
book
of
Revelation has sorne stardiog things to say about the ·crisis
at thc closc of tbc agc and its eventual outcome.
·If
you'd Jike
ro koow more, wriie for the free
booklet
eotitled
Famine
-
Can
w~
Survillt!?
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plain
ltuth
•
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P02t
~-----------------------------~
FEBRUARY 1976
NEWFOOOS
TO FEED THE FAMISHED?
l(
by
Robert
Ginskey
Can
ncw and exotic foods be mass
produced to fccd the world's bungry?
What about algae, "llour
from
the sea."
or synthctic protcins?
Many cnthusiasts bave prophesied
that man-madc foods
will
ultimately
case the food shonage. But the facts are
far ·from eneouraging. Tbe problems in
such an undertaking are simply
cnonnous.
Consider, for example, the possibility
of utilizlng the miscrQSCOpic sea orga–
nisms callcd planlcton for food. In order
10 extract enough plankton to equal the
nutritional equivalen! of
a
pound of
beans, a man-made planltton gatherer
would have to strain the equivalen! of
fifleen one-story bou.ses full of water.
E
ven in very ricb arcas of tbe ocean like
the Outf of Maine or the North Sea,
some
S,OOO
tons ofsttained water would
yoeld only
10
pounds of plankton! The
eost of such
a
processor.and the energy
10 run ot appears to rule out such
schcmes.
Flour of the Sea - FPC
Other experiments in new food pro–
duction have included the development
of Fish Protein Concentrate (FPC),
touted as
a
solution for pan of the
world's hunger problem. Tasleless and
odorless, FPC loolcs mucb üke ordinary
wbeat ftour. lt
can
be made from just
about any
kind
or
sea life -
fuh,
shcll–
fuh.
shrimp.
kriU.
etc.
But even if the total world sea catch
eould be evenly distributcd
as
FPC. i1
would amo\Ult
10
only an ounce or
so
per person per
da
y.
Some people bave suggested totally
synthetoc foods - proteins made from
raw materials readily
~vailablc.
Food expert Georg Borgstrom is not
optlmistic. "De.1pite the euphoria ovcr
various new high-protein foods now
emerging from laboratories. their impact
on human nutrition has been
ín~
significant." says Borgstrom.
Even if such
"foods"
were good to eal,
mos1 are bardly in the test-tube stage
yet. Many are still being researched.
Wha1 about production? Distribution?
Education of peoples
10
use them? Who
is going 10 pay for the researcb and
developmcnt?
Sorne SCJentists are excitcd over ad–
vances made in synthesizing amino
acids. the eomponents of pro1ein. Tbey
envision the age wben man
will
produce
protein in 1he laboratory. But such ideas
are only dreams today. Truc, sorne
progrcss has been made. And even eoal
and oil have been successfully converted
in to "usable" fats and oils.
Bu1 there is no evidence at all that
synthetics will significantly eontribute 10
fceding the world
in
the next generation.
In
a
book editcd by Clilford M. Har–
din. former U.S. Secretary of Agricul–
ture, one food-science expert observes:
'"There are !hose, of eourse. who put
their faith in noneonventional agricul–
ture, in the biological or chemical syn–
thesis of foods. ...
TltL
ti~
has
nor yer
comr,
however, wben factories can pro–
duce the bullc or
basíe
foods that more
!han three billion human bcings require.
We cannot wait for potential miracles
while millions of peoplc bunger. For
many decadts
s1iU we must depend on
eonventional agricultuxe and its im–
provemen1"
(Over<omlng World Hwrgtr.
p.
93).
lndeed. merely to provide food
through chcmistry for one single year's
added population - sorne 80 milhon -
wouJd requite
(aciJiLies
greatly
CX•
cecding the total synthetic-organic in–
dustry of the Umlcd Slates.
An
annual
U\Vptmen1 of at leas1 fifleen billion dol–
lars would be necdcd.
In
shon. the eost
of supplyong any substantial ponion of
mankínd's diet through synthetic foods
from petroleum or eoal would be incred–
ibly high. To add just a balf pound of
synthetics
a
day to tbe diets of
5
billion
persons would rcquire over
2.5
million
1ons ofpetroleum a day!
The sad truth is that we are slill
dccades away from fac1ory foods -
lf
indeed they ever arrive. And lhe prob–
lem is that mankind simply doesn'1 have
decades lo wait.. "New foods" provide
no significan! solution to the world's
food-population crisis. O
11
l
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