Aar Experts clcaim food shortages

Brown explained that, because animals are inefficient in converting vegetable protein into animal protein, "the production of meat, milk, and eggs requires the use of large amounts of grain as animal feed." As a result, "it requires a ton of grain per year for the diet of the average American. Only 150 pounds of this are consumed directly. In contrast, the average person in the poor nations of the world consumes only 400 pounds of grain per year about one fifth of the American average. Almost all of the 400 pounds is consumed directly," Brown noted, since the poor cannot afford the luxury of beef. According to Brown, "the US is the world's leading importer of beef. American per capita consumption of beef, which was 55 pounds in 1940, was 116 pounds in 1972." Much of the beef produced by developing countries is exported to the US, because Americans can afford to paymore for the beef than the local people can. The market for America's food exports, Brown continued, is now dominated by other industrialized countries such as the USSR and Japan. Urban, discussing the role of rapid population growth in the food crisis, commented that "Five to ten years ago, there was a great sense of optimism that the 'green revolution' would solve our food supply problem. However, population growth has cancelled the gains that the green revolution brought." The green revolution, a result of new plant hybrids and new agricultural techniques, brought about spectacular increases in cereal grain yields in many developing countries. An unexpected consequence of the green revolution, however, was to shift agricultural resources from legume production to more profitablecereal production. This shift, said Urban, has aggravated the protein shortage in the poor nations. ' Accordingto Urban, rapid population growth is a recent phenomenon. Urban remarked, (Please turn 'to page 7) By Greg Saltzman "The present worldwide food shortage is not a temporary problem. It's something much more serious than that," said Dr. Lester Brown of the Overseas Development Council. In the US, he noted, this problem is manifested by rising food prices; in West Africa, by famine. Brown, Associate Professor of Management Glen Urban, and Professor Nevin Scrimshaw, head of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, addressed the problem of "Policy Responses to World Food Scarcity" in the spring's first Karl Taylor Compton lecture. Although the world food supply generally has been increasing, demand is increasing also. "In addition to the traditional increase in demand caused by population growth," Brown said, "rising affluence is beginning to have an impact." Dr. Lester Browrn of the Overseas Development Council.