A Practical Analysis of the Food Supply of the World, of the Relations of War and Science thereto, and of America's Great To carry out the purpose for which it was founded twenty-seven years Entered at the Post-Office at Washington, D. C., as Second-Class Mail Matter VOL. XXIX, No. 1 WASHINGTON JANUARY, 1916 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE A HOW THE WORLD IS FED BY WILLIAM JOSEPH SHOWALTER T THE present juncture, while great issues of world politics hang critically upon the effort of the Entente Powers in the European war to force the Central Powers into submission by drawing around them the steel ring of war and the cold ring of hunger, it is more than interesting to take an inventory of the world's market basket, and to pause for a passing moment to see what effect war has had on the world's food supply in the past, what effect it is having today, and, if possible, to forecast its effect upon the future food problems of the earth. If we go back one hundred years it will be discovered that France was facing almost the same problems then that Germany is facing today. England's fleet blockaded France's ports then just as they blockade Germany's today, and over-sea foodstuffs had little chance to reach the French. How far this went, and how great an effect it had on conditions in Napoleon's Empire, is revealed by the fact that sugar sold for two dollars a pound. And that the world is not sugar-hungry today is due to the steps taken by Napoleon to overcome the effect of the blockade on sugar. Years before, some Prussian scientists had been trying to get sugar from the beet, and, under the patronage of the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, succeeded in their task. Napoleon borrowed their ideas, set up beet-sugar factories around Lille, and gave to the beet-sugar industry that impetus which has resulted in its development to a point where it yields half of the world's supply of sugar (see page 86). WAR AND CANNED GOODS The Little Corporal saw himself seriously embarrassed in the matter of food supplies for his army. He wanted something for his men besides things that were dried or smoked-a desire that was enhanced by his knowledge that millions of dollars in valuable but perishable foods were wasted because of the lack of adequate means of preserving them. He therefore offered a prize of twelve thousand francs to any one who would devise a practicable method of preserving such foodstuffs. Such a method was quickly evolved, and out of it has grown the world's canning industry-one of the important steps that civilization has taken in the direction of insuring mankind against famine (see also page 66). It is not improbable that the present war will bring to mankind new methods in the feeding of the race that will prove as important as those brought out by the Napoleonic wars. It has been announced lately that the Germans have devised a new synthetic method of producing protein. It is said that they feed yeast with a combination of sugar and nitrogen from the air, and thus secure that most important of all of the elements that enter into the world's diet-protein. Examples of protein are the whites of eggs, the |