Nuts have the great advantage that although richer in protein than is meat, they are much less putrescible. Fresh meats are practically always in a state of putrefaction when eaten while nuts are delivered to us by the generous hand of Nature in aseptic packages, ready to eat, and presenting pure nutriment in the most condensed and refined form known to science. Fresh meats are always contaminated with colon and putrefactive germs with which they become contaminated in the slaughtering process. If flesh is to be used as food, animals should be killed with the same antiseptic precautions which are employed in modern surgery. This is never done, and within a few days after killing, the flesh of a slaughtered animal is swarming with colon germs, and when long kept for use of hotels and many restaurants, is covered with a beard of green mold. Such food is fit only for scavengers. Hamburger steak and pork liver often contain more manure germs than the fresh droppings of animals.
The liberal substitution of nuts for meats would save billions annually.
According to Prof. Baker, of the Department of Agriculture, fully 80 per cent of the total feed and food products in the United States is consumed by live stock. Most of these animals are consumed as food.
The enormous loss involved is shown by the fact that 100 pounds of digestible foodstuffs are required to produce 3 pounds of beef.
According to an announcement by the United States Bureau of Statistics, the per capita annual cost of meat in the United States is more than $80.00, which totals for the whole population nearly $10,000,000,000 per annum.
Prof. Baker suggests that the annual per capita consumption of meat might without injury be reduced from the present 170 pounds to fifty pounds, which would make a saving of $6,000,000,000 at least, for $1,000,000,000 would easily supply from nuts and other plant sources more than enough food to replace the discarded meats.
The general belief that nuts are an expensive food is an error. When a man pays a dollar for three pounds of steak, he is probably not aware of the fact that three-fourths of what he buys is simply water, so that the actual solid nutriment purchased amounts to not more than three-quarters of a pound, making the actual cost of the water-free food $1.33 per pound.
Two pounds of almonds or other nut meats which might be purchased at the same cost, would yield twice as much and better food.
If the whole beef industry were wiped out, the country would be the gainer.
What the nut industry needs most is a campaign of education to tell the American public about the superior values of nuts and to correct the errors broadcasted by the Meat Board. The public must not only be taught the value of nuts as set forth in Mr. Russell's admirable book, but should be encouraged by government aid to plant nut trees on barren mountain sides and areas devastated by lumbering operations. If every lumberman had been required by law to plant a nut tree for every ten timber trees cut down during the last 50 years, a food source would have been provided which would insure more than an ample supply of precious protein and satisfying fat to feed 120,000,000 of Americans if the cereal food crops were destroyed by a drouth or predatory insects.