FOOD SITUATION: SUPPLIES FROM U.S.A. (Hansard, 8 October 1941)

§ THE MINISTER OF FOOD (LORD WOOLTON)

My Lords, I very much welcome the opportunity of giving the House some information on this point. I should perhaps start by saying that our stock position, so far as the bulky storable foods are concerned, is good, and that, indeed, we enter the third year of the war with better reserves of such things as wheat and sugar than we have held at any previous period since the war began. These bulky commodities are the foodstuffs that have made the heaviest demands on our shipping tonnage. The fact that we hold big stocks of them is the best demonstration possible that we have been getting the better of the enemy in the Atlantic, a task in which we are receiving most valuable American aid.

We have been taking advantage of the long hours of daylight through the summer months to build up reserves against the greater risks and difficulties of the winter. These reserves are our insurance against starvation. In themselves, however, they do not provide a balanced diet such as we need if we are going to keep this country fighting fit. What may be called the balancing items in diet are the things which have been giving us most trouble—such things as meat, bacon, eggs, milk, cheese and dried fruits. My medical adviser, Lord Horder, and Professor Drummond, the Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Food, tell me that some months ago the supplies of these things were at a dangerously low level. Generally speaking, most of the 180 items which I have mentioned cannot be stored in large quantities; many of them require cold storage and so cannot be accumulated in this country to a very considerable extent.

In a recent White Paper issued by His Majesty's Government it was stated that the food coming to this country under lend-lease constituted 5 to 6 per cent. by weight of our total food supply, and that, of course, was correct; but lend-lease goods include very few of the bulky types of food. We explained to the American Government that our urgent need was for the balancing items which I have mentioned—canned and dried milk, canned meat, canned fish, bacon, cheese, dried fruits, eggs and egg products. These are the things that we are receiving from the United States, and, as Mr. Wickard, the head of the Department of Agriculture in the United States, has recently pointed out, they constitute a highly significant percentage of our total supplies of foods of that particular type. Apart from the bulk cargoes of such things as cereals, sugar and oilseeds, the programmes on which we are working show that we shall receive quite 25 per cent. of our total needs from the United States. It has recently been possible, I am glad to state, for us to say encouraging things to the people of this country about our food outlook. That was possible only because we felt certain that the United States of America was standing behind us and was going to develop the volume of its aid to us. For instance, it is American lard that has permitted us to increase the fat ration in this country this winter.

The United States is now, of course, one of the nearest sources of supply available to us. To bring in the great volume of food which we shall be obtaining from that country on the comparatively short haul across the Atlantic is an economy in the use of shipping that is worth a very large number of additional ships to us. The particular foods that we need under lend-lease are not being made available to us without very special efforts. They are not of the type that the United States has been accustomed to export in large quantities; and to find the amounts that we need is requiring a very special effort on the part of American farmers. In contrast with the large surpluses of cereals, there was comparatively little surplus of these things when the 181 lend-lease arrangements first came into operation. But we are already receiving substantial shipments. American cheese is already sustaining an increased domestic ration in this country, and also special allocations to certain industrial workers. American canned milk has enabled the Ministry of Food to guarantee a sufficiency of milk throughout the winter to mothers and children. We have already been able to distribute American dried fruit; American supplies of lard, as I have said, will enable us to raise the fats rations to 10 ounces a week this winter. We are going to be able, within a few weeks, to allocate American canned meat in quantities sufficient to permit of nation-wide distribution.

While the level of food distribution has improved, and will be further improved with the ration increases that take effect in mid-November, your Lordships will be aware that we shall still not be in any danger of living on a luxurious diet in this country. The meat ration, when cooked, gives us an average of only about 7 ounces of edible meat a week on the plate, and I make no secret to your Lordships that I have difficulty in maintaining the ration even at that quantity. The fat ration will still give us only 2 ounces of butter. The weekly ration of bacon is four ounces; and in the month of October, I regret to say, we expect to have no more than 2 eggs per head of the population. There is no danger, therefore, of luxurious feeding in this country during the war. To sum up, the bulk stocks we hold of such things as wheat and sugar are our line of defence against starvation. Lend-lease supplies have been vital in restoring balance to the diet and so defending us against malnutrition—against the risks, that is, of injuring the health of the children of this country, the spread of disease and the loss of working and fighting efficiency among our people and our Forces. I am very grateful to the noble Lord for the opportunity of making this statement.