§ 105. Mr. J. H. Osbornasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to encourage the production of synthetic and substitute foods, such as protein from natural and synthetic sources; how much money has been spent on research in each of the last three years; and what estimate he has made of the saving on balance of payments due to import saving in this way.
§ Mr. Cledwyn HughesI am keeping in close touch with work in this field and have asked the Food Research Advisory Committee to advise on whether Government support for research on new sources of protein is needed. As much of the research is being undertaken by commercial enterprises, I cannot give figures of total expenditure. Substitute foods have not yet been produced or used on a sufficiently large scale to have any effect on the balance of payments.