Food Guide for War Service at Home / Prepared under the direction of the United States Food Administration in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Education, with a preface by Herbert Hoover

by United States Food Administration; Katharine Blunt; Florence Powdermaker; Frances Lucy Swain

MEAT CONSERVATION

Meat does not play nearly so important a part in the world's dietary as we are accustomed to think. There is no comparison, in the quantity consumed, between meat and bread, or even meat and sugar or potatoes. Half of the people of the earth eat little or none of it. Only in two kinds of communities is meat used largely—new and thinly populated countries with much grazing-land, or wealthy industrial countries.

Australia and New Zealand are of the first type, consuming more meat per person than any other country in the world—5 pounds a week in Australia and 4 pounds in New Zealand. The United States, parts of which may be considered in both classes, eats about 3¼ pounds per person weekly. This is much less than some years ago, when there was more grazing-land.

Great Britain, because it could afford to import it, used about 2¼ pounds a week before the war. Germany's consumption was slightly lower. France, Denmark, Switzerland, with fewer animals or less wealth, are small meat-eaters, the average amount being about 1½ pounds a week—about half as much as our consumption.