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The Changing Significance of Food
MARGARETMEAD
nØe live in a world today where the state of nutrition in each country is relevant and imp.ortant to each othe¡ country, ând where the state of nutrition in the wealthy indus_ trialized count¡ies like the united states has profound significance for the rore that such countries can plây in eliminating famine_ and providing for adequate nuúition through_ out the world. In a wo¡ld in which each halfknows wÈ-at the other halfdoer, *..”r,io, live with hunger and malnutrition in one part ofthe world while people in anorher part are not only well nourished, but over-nourished. Any talk of one world, of brotier_ hood, rings hollow ro those who have co¡ne face to få.. on the televìsion screen with the emaciation of starving children and to the people whose children are staring as they pore ovff month-old issues of glossy American and European magazines, where full color prints showpeople glowing wìth health, their plares piled hlgh l¡/ith food that glis_ tens to match rhe shining textures of their crothes. peopres who hav”e resorutely tightÃed thei¡ belts and put up with going to bed hungry peoiples who have seen their children die because they did not have the str.ngtt to i..iri di..ase, and called it fate or the will of God, can no longer do so, in the vivid visual ¡ealization of the amount and qualiry of food eaten-and wasted-by others.
Through human history there have been many stringent taboos on watching other people eaL_or on eating in the presence of others. There-have been attempts to explain this as a relationship between those who are involved and those who a¡e not simulta- neously involved in the satisfaction of a bodily need, and the inappropriateness of the already satiated watching others who appear_to the’satisfied_to be sÀa_”Lrrly go.g_ ing. There is undoubredly such an element in the taboos, bur it seÞms more likely that they go back to the days when food was so scarce and the onlookers so hungry that not to offe¡ them half of the little food one had was unthinkable, and every glance was a plea for at least a bite.
In the rural schools of America when my grandmother was a child, the bette¡-off chil_ d.r€n took apples to school and, before they began to eat them, prornised the poor children who had no apples that they mighr have the cores. The specàcle of the pÀor in rags ar the rich man’s gate and of hungry children pressing th.ir rroses
“grin.t th. glass win_
dow ofthe ¡ich man’s ¡estaurant have long bàen inváked to aroosåum”n compassion. But until the advent of the mass media and travel, the sensitive and sympathe;c could pro-tect themselves by shuring themselves away from the sight of the staìving, by gifts of food to the poor on religious holidays, o. pe.pet,r”l beqriests for the distribution of
12 Ma¡ga¡et Mead a piece of meat *the size of a child’s head,, annually. The stawing in India and China saw only a few feasdng .foreigners and could not know how well or il1 the poor we¡e in counrries from which they came. The proud poor hid their hunger behind å facade that often included insistent hospitaliry to the occasional visitor; thi beggars flaunted their hunger and so, to a degree, discredited the hunger of their respectable compatriots.
But today the articulate cries of the hungry fill the air chanrrels and th.re i no escâpefrom the knowledge of the hu¡rdreds of miilions who are se.ioorly maloou.ished, of theperiodic famines chat beset whole populations, or of the looming dáger of famine in many other parts of the world. The age-old divisions berween one p”å oiitl *o.ld
“r,a “rroiÀäbetween one class and another, between the rich and the poå..u..’*h..”, Ìr”lr. been bro_ken down, and the tolerances and_insensitivities of the piast are ,rá long.. possible. But ir is not only the media of communication wl,ich .an take a man sitting at an
ove¡loaded breakfast table straight into a household whe¡e some of the children are tooweak to-stand. Something else, something even more sigrrific”rrt, has happened. Toda¡fo¡ the fi¡st time inthe history of_mankld, we have rî. fr”J”.r*. capacity to feed everyone in the world, and the technical knowledge to seeìhat their stomachs are notonly filled but that their bodies are properly nourisied with the essential ingredienes forgrowth-and health. The progress of agticulture_in all its cornpl”úti.s of improved seed, methods of cultivation, fertilizers anã pesticides, method. of
‘.,o.”ç, p…”.vation, andtransporration-now make it possible for the food that is needed foithe whole iorlJto be produced by fewe¡ and fewer farmers, with greate.
“rrd g..rt ….t”inty. Drought
and flood srill threaten, but we have the means to-prepare foånã de”l with even mam_moth shortages-if we will. The progress of nut¡itiànal science has matched the progress of agriculture; we have finer and finer-grained knowledge of lust which substances_vitamins, minerals, proteins-are essential, especially to
-gro;h and full development,
and increasing ability to synthesize m”ny of tÀ.* or, ”
*””r.iu. ..”1″. . ]h3se
ne1 rwentierh-century potentialities have alte¡ed the ethical position of therich¿ll over the world. In the past, there were so few who li .”d *.11, anã so _”rry *holived on the edge of starvation, that the well-to-do had a rationale and indeed almost a necessity to harden their hearts and turn their eyes away. The jewels ofthe richest rajah could nor have purchased enough food to feed Lis hrrngry ,ob¡”lo to. _o.e than a few days; the food did not exist, and the knowledge of toiio;;i; *”. missing also. At the same time, however rear the inability of a Jar-.torn and submarìne-ringed Britain rorespond to thefamine in Bengal, this inabiliry was made bea¡able in Britain only by rheextenr to which the B¡itish were learning how to share what food they had aáong allthe-cìtizens, old and young. ..you do noi know,” tt
” ¡.-“ri.”r, .orrsul, who had cometo Manchester from spain; said to me: “you do not know what it means to live in acountry wh€re no child has to cry itself to sleep with hunger.,, But this was only achievedin Britain i¡ the ea rly 1940s. Befo¡e the well_fed t*rr”J”*”y th.ir.y.r, in,fr. f..ìing
that they were powe¡less to alleviate the pererrnial poverf “ia
lìrrg.. of _ost of theirown people and the peoples in their far-flung comÀonwealth. And such turning awaythe eyes, in Britain and in the United States-and .t..*t “rf -“r-“..ompanied by therationalizarions, not only of the inabirìty of trre well+o-do–had iey given ail their wealth-
to feed the poor, but of the undeservingness of the pooq who hal tt .io’ty U..r, industrious and saving would have had enough, although of course ot” to*.ì qodi.y, ,o keep .bodf and soul together. ”
lndia and China the poor were in nd a facade thar rs flaunred their cornpaüiots. rere is no escape .ourished, of the [famine in many
‘rld and another,
, have been bro- r possible.
an sining at an :hildren are too ppened. Toda¡ apacity to feed )machs are not ingredients for improved seed, :servation, and re whole world :ainty. Droughr ¡ifh even mam- ed the progress r substances- I development,
>osition of the I so many who rdeed almost a e richest rajah ore than â few issing also. At rged Britain to .in only by the rad among all yho had come
.os to live in a only achieved in the feeling ‘most of thei¡ turning away ranied by the *rei¡ wealth- :n indusuious o keep “body
The Changing Signifca¡ce of Food 13 ‘when
differences in race and in cultural levels complicated the situation, it was only too easy to insist that lesser breeds somehow, in some divinely correct scheme, woulå necessarily be less well fed, their alleged idleness and lack of frugality combidng with such matters as sacred cows roaming over the randscapes-in India—or nights splnt in the pub or the saloon-ar home in Britain or America-while fathers drãnk up their meager pay checks and their children starved. so righteous was the assumed associa- tion between industriousness and food that, during the Irish famine, soup kitchens were set up out of town so that the starving could have the moral advantage of a long walk to receive the râtion that stood between thern and death. (The modern version of such ethical acrobatics can be found in the united states, inthe mid-1960s, where food stamps were so expensive, since they had to be boughr in large amounts, that only those wÀo have been ext¡aordinary frugal, saving, and lucky could afford to buy them and obtain the benefits they were designed to give.)
The particular ways in which the well-to-do of different g¡eat civilizations have ratio- nalized the contrast between rich and poor have differed dramaticall¡ but ever since the agricultural revolution, we have been running a race between our capacity to pro_ duce enough food to make itpossible to assemble great urban centers, outfit huç armies and armadas, and build and elaborare the instirurions of civilization and o.,r ábi[ty to feed and care for the burgeoning population which has always kept a little, often a great deaf, ahead of the food supply.
In this, those societies which practiced agriculture contrasted with the earlier sim- pler societies in which the encire population was engaged in subsistence activities. p¡imitive peoples may be well or poorly fed, feasting seldom, or blessed with ample supplies of fish or fruit, but the relations between the haves and the have-nots were in many ways simpler. Methods by which men could obtain permanent supplies of food and wiihhoid them f¡om thei¡ fellows hardly existed. The sour, barery edibre breadfruit mash which was stored in breadfruit pits against the ravages of hurricanes and famines in poly.ne- sia was not a diet .for the table of chiefs but a stern measure against the needs of entire comnuniries. The chief mighr have a right ro the first fruits, or to half the crop, but after he had claimed it, it was redistributed to his people. The germs of the kinds of inequities that later entered the world were present: there was occasional conspicuous destruction of food, piled up for prestþ, oil poured on the flames of self-glorifyirrg f.r.tr, food left to rot after it was offered to the gods. people with uery m.agei fooá ,”rorrr.., rnight use phrases that made it seem th>t each man was the recipieni of greât generos_ þ on the part of his fellow, or on the other hand always to be giving awayã *hole animal, and always receiving only small bits-
The fear ofcannibalism that hovered over northernpeoples might be elabo¡ated into cults of fear, or simply add to the concern thar each member oi
” g.oop had for all,
against the terrible background that ext¡emity might become so great that one of the group might in the end be sacrificed. But can¡ibalism could also be elaborated into a rite of vengeance or the celeb¡ation of victories in war, or even be used to provision an army in the field. Man’s capacity to elaborate man’s inhumanity to man existed before the beginning of civilization, which was made possible by the application of an increas- ingly productive technology to rhe production of food.
Vith the rise of civilizations, we also wirness the growth of the great religions that made the brotherhood of all men part of their doctrine and the gift of arms àr rhe life
14 Ma¡ga¡et Mead of voluntary poverry accepted religior¡s practices. But the alms were nevef enough, ând
the life of inãividual poverry and abstinence was more efficacious for the individual’s
salvation than for the well-being of the poor and hungry although both kept alive an
ethic, as yer impossible of fulfillment, that it was right that all should be fed. The vision
preceded the capabilitY’ But rodaywe have the capability. Whether that capability will be used or not becomes
not a technical but an ethical question. It depends, in enormous measure, on the way
in which the rich, industrialized countries handle the problems of distribution, or mal-
nutrition and hunger, within their own borders. Failu¡e to feed their own, with such
high capabilities and such fully enunciated stâtemenrs of responsibility and brotherhood,
-.”n, ih”a feeding the people of other countries is almost ruled out, except for spo- radic escapist pieces of behavior where people who close their eyes to hunger in Mississippi
can wo¡k hard to send food to a ..Biafra.,’ The development of the international inst¡u-
ments tu meet food emergencies and to steadily improve the nutrition of the Poo¡ef countries
will fail, unless there is greater consistency between ideal and practice at home’
And so, our present Parlous plight in the United States, with the many pockets of
rural unemployment, city ghettos’ ethnic enclaves, where Americans are starving and
ân esdmated tenth of the population malnourished, must be viewed not only in its con-
sequences for ourselves’ as a viable political community, but also in its consequences
foithe wo¡ld. We need to examine not only the conditions thât make this possible, to
have starving people in the richest country in the world, but also the repercussions of
American conditions on the world scene. ‘Why, when wenty-five years ago we were well on the way to remedying the state of
the American people who had been described by presidential announcement as “one
third ill-housed, ill-clothed, and ill-fed,” when the vitamin deficiency diseases had all
but vanished, and a variety of instruments for better nutrition had been developed, did
we find, just two short years ago, due to the urgent pleading of a few crusaders’ that we
have fallen so grievously behind? The situation is complex, closely related to a series of
struggles for regional and racial justice, to the spfead of automation and resulting unem-
plolrnent, to changes in crop economies, as well as to population growth and the inadequary
ãf many of our institutions to deal with it. But I wish to single out here rwo conditions
which have, I believe, seriously conuibuted to our blindness to what was happening: the increase jn the diseases of affluence and the growth of commercial agriculture’
In a country pronounced only twenty years before to be one third ill-fed, we sud-
denly began to have pfonouncements from nutritional specialisæ that the maior nutritional
disease of the American peoplg was overnutrition. If this had simply meant overeating’
the old puritan ethics against greed and gluttony might have been more easily invoked,
but it w;s overnutrition that was at stake. And this in a country where our idea of nutri-
tion had been dominated by a dichotomy which distinguished food that was “good for
you, but not good” frorn food that was “good, but not good for you’” This split in
man’s needs, into our cultural concePtion of the need for nourishment and the search
for pleasure, originally symbolized in the rewards for eating spinach or finishing what
was on one’s plate if one r#anted to have a dessert, lay back of the movement to Pro- doce, .o-merciall¡ nonnourishing foods. Beverages and snacks came in particularly for this demand, as it was the addition of betlveen-meal eâting to the three square, nutfi-
tionally adequate meals â day that was responsible for much of the trouble’
€r enough, and rhe individual’s h kept alìve an fed. The vision
or not becomes fe, on the way )ution, or mâl- ,¡¡n, with such J brotherhood, :xcept for sPo- r in Mississippi Lational instru- ,ooref countries t home. rny pockets of e starving and :nly in its con- consequences
ris possible, to percussions of
ng the state of :ment as ” one seases had all leveloped, did aders, that we I to a se¡ies of :sulting unem- :he inadequacy vo conditions rs happening: ficulture. l-fed, we sud-
ior nritritional ot overeâting, rsily invoked, idea of nut¡i-
!¡as “good for This split in
od the search nishing what :ment to pro- r panicularly ;quare, nutri- ‘le-
The Changing.Siguiûcance of Food 15 ‘We
began manufaccuring, on a terrifying scale, foods and beverages that were guar- anteed not to nourish. The resou¡ces and the ingenuity of industry were diverted f¡om the preparation of foods necessary for life and growth to foods nonexpensive ro pre- pare, expensive to buy. And every label reassuring the buyer that the product was nor nourishing increased our sense that the trouble with Americâns was that they were too well nourished. The diseases of affluence, represented by new forms of death in mid- dle-age, had appeared before we had, in the words of Jean Mayeq who has done so much to de.Êne rhe needs of the counûy and of the world, conquered the diseases of poverty-the ill-fed pregnant women and lactating women, sometimes resulting in irre- versible damage to the ill-weaned children, the school children so poorly fed that they could not learn.
It was hard for the average American to believe that while he struggled, and paid, so as not to be overnourished, other people, several millions, right in this country, were hungry and near starvation. The gross contradiction was too great. Fu¡thermore, those who think oftheir country as parental and caring find it ha¡d to admit that this parental figure is stawing their brothers and sisters. During the great depression of the 1930s, when thousands of children came to school desperately hungr¡ it was very difficult to wring from children the ¿dmission that their parents had no food to give them. “Or what man is there of you, whom, if his son ask bread, will he give a stone?”
So today we have in the United States a situation not unlike the situation in Gernany under Hitler, when a large proportion of the decent and law-abiding simply refuse to believe that what is happening can be happening. “Look at the taxes we pay,” they say, or they point to the millions spent on welfare; surely with such quantities assþed to the pooq people can’t be really hungry or if they are, it is because they spend their money on TV sets and drink. How can the country be overnourished and undernourished at the same time?
A second major shift, in the United States and in the world, is the increasing magni- tude of commercial agriculture, in which food is seen not as food which nourishes men, women, and children, but as a staple crop on which the prosperity ofa country or region and the economic prosperity-as opposed to the simple iìvelihood-of the individual farmer depend. This is pointed up on a world scale in the report of the Food and Agri- culture Organization of the United Nations íor 7969, which states that there are two major problems in the world: food deficits in the poor countries, which mean starva- tion, hungeq and malnut¡ition on an increasing scalg and food surpluses in the industrialized part of the world, serious food surpluses.
On the face of it, this sounds as foolish as the production of foods guaranteed not to nourish, and the two are not unrelated. Surpluses, in a world where people are hun- gry! Too much food, in a world where child¡en are starving! Yet we lump togerher all agricuhural surpluses, such as cotton and tobacco, along with food, and we see these surpluses âs threatening the commercial prosperity of many countries, and farmers in many countries. And in a world politically organized on a vanishing agrarian basis, this represents a political threat to those in power. However much the original destruction of food, killing little pigs, may have been phrased as relieving the desperate situation of little farmers or poor countries dependent upon single crop exports, such situations could not exist if food as something which man needs to provide growth and maintenance had not been separated from food as a cash crop, a co¡nmercial as opposed to a basic
76 Ma¡ga¡et Mead maintenanc€ enterp¡ise. when it becomes the task of government to foste¡ the economic prosperiry of an increasingly sman, but politically influential, sector of the electo¡ate at the expense of the well-being of its own and other nations, citizens, we have reached an erhically dangerous position.
And this situation, in the United States, is in pan responsible for the previous state ofour poor and hungry and for the paralysis that still preveots adequate political action. During the grear depression, agriculture in this country v¡as still a viabl; way of life for millions. The Department of Agriculture had responsibility, not only for foåd produc_ tion and marketing, but also fo¡ the well-being ftom the cradle to the grave, in the simpl.st, mosr human sense, of every family who lived in communities under 2,500. Vheå th” needs of urban man were parceled out among a number of agencies_Office of Educa_ tion, children’s Bureau, Labor Departmenr-there v/as stir ã conside¡able amount of integration possible in the Department of Agriculture, where theory and practices of farm wives, the education of children and youth, the questions of small loans fo¡ small landowners all could be considered togethe¡. It was in the Depanment of Ägricultue that concerned persons found, during the depression, the kind oi unde¡standirig ofbasic human needs which they soughr.
. The¡e were indeed always conflicts betwèen the needs of farmers to sell crops and the needs of chüdren to be fed. School lunch schemes were ded to the disposal ãf sur_ plus.commodities. But the recognition of the wholeness of human needs w-as stin there, firmly related to the breadth of the responsibilities of the different agencies within the Department ofAgriculture. Today this is no longer so. Agriculture is big business in the united srates. The subsidies used to persuade farmers tJwithdraw their impoverished land from production, like the terrible_measures involving the slaughter of linle pigs, are no_ longer ways of helping the small fa¡mer oo a frmil-y far*. The subsidies go”to the rich commercial farmers, many of them the inheritors of old exploitive plantãtion traditions, wasteful of manpower and land resources, often in the very countries where the farm workers, displaced by machiner¡ are penniless, too poor to move a.¡/ay, starv_ ing. These subsidies exceed rhe budget of the antþoverty adÀinistration.
So toda¡ many ofthe ¡eforms which are suggested, inihe dist¡ibution offood o¡ dis_ tribution of income from which food can be Èought, center Òn removing food ¡elief programs frorn the Department of Agriculture and placing them under the-Department of Health, Education, and Velfare. In Britain, during lforid War II, it was necessaÌy to have a Ministry of Food, concerned primarily in matc-hing the limited food supplies wlth basic needs.
At fust sight, this proposal is sound enough. Let us remove from an agency devoted to making a_profit out of crops that are treated like any other m”nrrfaÃ.eá product the responsibility for seeing that food acruâlly feeds people. After all, we do ìot ask clothing manufacturers ro take the responsib ity for crotiinjpeopre, or trre house-bu ding industry for housing them. To the extent that *. …ogrii. tieÁ at all, these a¡e thã responsibiliries of agencies of government which proviãe the funds to supplement the activities of p¡ivare industry. Why not also in food? The Department of Health, Edu_ cation, and Velfare is concerned with human beings; they Àave no food to sell on a domestic or world market and no constituents to appease.
-r{¡d from this step it is sim_
ply a second step to demand that the whole syste* åf distribution be re_oriJnted, that
rster the economic ,f the electorate at we have reached
:he previous state :e political action. ble way of life for for food produc- ,re, in the simplest, 1,500. Vhere the -Office of Educa- :rable amount of and practices of ll loans fo¡ small rt of Agriculture stânding of basic
n sell crops and disposal of sur-
ls was still there, ncies within the g business in the :ir impoverished ter of .little pigs, ‘ subsidies go to ritive plantation counffies where )ve away, starv- )n.
r offood or dis- ving food relief ;he Department ¡âs necessary to rd supplies with
rgency devoted ctured product we do not ask house-building l, these are the rupplement the f Health, Edu- :d to sell on a s step it is sim- -oriented, that
The Changing Signifcance of Food 1Z a basic guaranteed annual income be_provided each citizen, on the one hand, and thatthe government porice standards, on behalf of the consoî.ä .n” orn…
But neither of these changes, shifting food ..liefp.og.anns äJ- Agrl.utt*” to ff.A*r,Education, and Welfare, or shrfting th. *h.1. *df”;.;;;r^”_ ioro, ro”.rnr.ed income,realty meet the pardcular difficuities rhat a¡ise b.;”;:;-;’;;;pr”ing food into twocompartments rÃ/ith disastrous effects; we are separating food that nourishes people fromfood out of which some peopre, “nd.o-. .o,-cri.r, i-*i* Trr”i ,”.”mes. ft does notdeal with the immediacy of the experience of food by th” *Jt_ìã, or *ith the irrepara_bility of food deprivation during prenatal ana porá”t”t gro*J, deprivation rhat cannever be made up. Human beings have rn”i”r”i”.a ú,.1. aign’i;ìn incredibly bad con_ditions of housing and clothing,_emerged triumphant fro”i fri’r,
“”a log cabins, gonefrom ill-shod childhood to Wall Streerãr.n” f..ãir. p.”, t J”ri”g
“”a poor clothingare demeaning to the human spirit when ,t.y.orr**,ù-jÇwith the visible stan_dards of the way others live.
Butfood affects not onry man’sdignity but the capacity of children to reach their fullpotenriâI, and_ the capacity of adultsìo act from d”; ;;ã”;. y;;.”n- ear eirher nuúi_tìon or part of a not yet rcalized guararrteed annual’inc”.á, “. n.fi r.”l nromises.
you cant eat hope. Ve know that hope and faith have .rro._oo, .’fi..o in preventing ill_ness and enabling people to put forth th. l”.t ourr.. oi.”Ç ifr.y f,r”.. But energy isultimatelydependenr upon food. No a-oon, or r.r.rrog.;.ï’, oïp.iorrties in th. futu.ecan provide food in the present..It is uue that,rr”
“”îi”e-;Ài his efficiency enor_mously impaired by lack of food, may-us.u3lly k b.*d;bJ ;gain ro his previousstâte of efficiency. But this is not true of children. Wfr”r”rfr.y i.r. i, fost for good.’What we do about food is therefore fa, -o.” .r,r.ãiiori iJrìn. qo”tity or th” n”*tgeneration, our own American children, *a.rufar”o
“r..y*fr.r., “nd also for the qual_ity of our responsible acdon in every 6eld. L i, i”,ir””;;i;’.;;;:;ned with the wholeproblem of the pollution and exhausdon_ofour environm.n,, rvìü.n” a.”g”r thar manmay make this planet uninhabitable within ”
,t oa ..rr*.y o. ,o. ff fooa is grown instrict relationship to the needs of those who will eat it, if ;;:;;;” ” -“de to reducethe costs of uansportadon, to improve storage, to conserve the land, and there, whereit is needed, by recycling waste,
“rrd *”t.4 *ã *ilt g. ;i;”;;;;;ward solving manyof our envi¡onmental problems also. r, i,
“, ” …få*iuì. *””rää.. on
” r_all, limitedplot, aware of the comrnuni,’ abour him wi*, *f,”_ fr. *lìifï”1î””q.,”t” rooa o. f”_io.,that man has_developed what conserui’g
“g.i.oi ;r”l i..irJnr.ìi” r,””.. . Divorced_ from its primary function of fJeding p.opl.,;.;;;; ,ì_pty u, a commer-cial commodity, food loses this primary rigttin*”d rh. ú”i is minedìnsteaa of .eplenishedand consewed. The Food and Agricui*L Org””ir”røn, i*.”_”ï.¿ p-duction, laysgreat sftess on the increase in the use of artificiar fertilizers, yet the ,rse of such fertiliz-ers withthei¡ difJuserunoffs may be a grearer danger ro our a,”i
“.oiogy ,t
“rr,t . industrialwastes from orhe¡ fo¡ms of manufacturing. Th’e *_. ,f,i”g ,, ,JJ of pesticides. Withthe marvels of mi¡acle rice and miracle ør”ãt, *t i.t i”u.l;;;;;;;L ,.r”r…s of inter_nadonal effo¡t and scientific resources tog.th.., go
“t pr”* pî.iriprio”, fo¡ artifcialfertilizer and pesticides. The innovative indri-rÉ.;;;; iåÇ.tio* *irh i_p-u.aagricultural methods, new dangers to the enviror,ment of ii. i_fãr”iirg.”rrtries. Onlyby treating food, unitaril¡ as a subsrance o”..rrrry io-i”.Jf.ioì”ì ,rul.., fust to the
1 8 Ma¡garet Mead needs of people and only second to the needs of commercial prosperiry-whether
they
U. ,i. ,råatìt ptivâte enterprise or of a developing socialist country short of foreign
“”piof—“” *” ftope to meei the ethical demands that our present situation makes on
“.lfo. *t” et”,l*Jsince the beginning of civilization, we can feed everyone’ now’ Those
-ho “.” ,,ot f”d -ill die or, in the case of children, be permanently damaged’
We are ;ost beginning to develop a world conscience’ Our present dilemma is due to
pr.uioo, i*”dl”rian Loves *itÁ ,,nanticiPated effects’ Without the spread of public i”.Lh ,o””r*”r, *e would not have had the fall in infant death rates which has resulted
in it. pop”t”,ion “xplosion.
Without the spread of agricultural techniques’ there would
not h; been the fãod to feed the child¡en who su¡vived The old constraints upon fopJ”aott gro*att-ømine’ plague, and war-are no longer
acceptable to a world whose
.onr”i”n ” i, ¡nrt barely stirring on behalf of all mankind’ As we are groping our way
i”.k ,o u ,r”* ,,”..ion of the full fellow-feeling and respect for the nâtural world which itr” f.irni i”. ett lmo felt when food was scarce’ so we are trembling on the
edge of a
,r”*’u”..ion of the sacriÊce to cannibalism of the weak, just as we have the technical
means to implement visions of responsibility that were very recently onìy visions’
The tempìation is to turn aside, to deny what is happening to the environment’ to
trust to the “gfeen revolution” and boast of how much rice previously hungry coun-
tries *rll.xpo-rt, to argue about legalities while people starve and infants and children
“r. ir.”p*tlfv á”-“g-“d, to .”fur” to deal with the paradoxes of hunger in plenry and
the coiicidences of starvation and overnutrition. The basic problem is an ethical one;
the solution of ethical problems can be solved only with a full recognition of reality’
iie child¡en of the agricrlltur.l wo.kers of the rural South, displaced by the machine’
“.” ttongry, .o ur” th-” children in the Northern cities to which black and white poor
i”u” fl”ã ir, ,””r”h of food. On our American Indian ¡ese¡vâtions’ among the Chicanos
oi C”tiforoi” “rrd
the Southwest, among the seasonally employed, there is hunger now.
If this hunger is not met now, we disqotlify o”tselvet, we cripple ourselves’ to deal with
world problems. .W.e
irrost btlance our population so that every child that is born can be well fed’ We
must cherish our land, inste”d of -ining it’ so that food produced is fust related to those
*ho ,r.”d it; und *” must not desPoil the earth, contaminate, and Pollute it in the inte¡-
“.i, of i-rrr.di”t. gain. Behind us, just a few decades ago,lies the vision of André Mayer
“nà ¡ohn 04 thJconcepts of a world food bank, the founding of the United Nations
Fooã and Agriculture Organization; behind us lie imaginative vision and deep concern’
i” ä. p**i *” ftave nÃv and various tools to make that vision into concrete actual- ity. Bui we rnust resolve the complications of Present practice ând Present concepdons
iiit ”
u”ty p.”.irion and efficiency of our new knowledge is not to provide a stumbling
block to the exercise of fuller humanity’
NOTES
The Proctor Prize given by tle scientific Research society of America (RESA) was designed in
ii?s i. -6i,,,
*l h?lt””-ótt”.it o” tt”nie¡ and mal¡ut¡ition in the program of the annual meet- i.,n. ir, Sorton of tt e AmËrican Associaiion for rhe Advancement of Science’ The subject’ ‘The
äfi;;;ñr”öi;”t6;; J rooJ.; *”, .”t””,ed befo¡e the white House conference on “Food Nutri- #:’i;’å;iäi,i’”ä;;;;;”;J;;;ã ,h.’”fo’” th” Association-widesvmposia’ of which the il;;;ilË;;i r,ã n¡in l”åir. *as one, came as a fo ow-up of the white House con- ;¿;;ä;Ë;il;l plt”¿”-rtt”
“rt”irman ôf the session was Dr’ Jean Maver’ whose vision
ty-whether they y short of foreign tuation ¡nakes on yone, now. Those amaged. dilemma is due to : spread of public r¡hich has resulted ques, there would constraints upon
: to a wo d whose groping our way ural world which I on the edge of a rave the technical only visions. : environment, to tsly hungry coun- ânts and children ger in plenty, and is an ethical one; gnition of realicy. I by the machine, vide a stumbling
A) was desþed in of the annual meet- , The subject, “The ce on “Food, Nutri- :osia, of which the White House Con- fayer, whose vision
he Changi¡g Signific¿nce of Food L9
Health, Ohio Stâte Department of Health; and Mrs. L. C. Dorsey of the North Bolivar
u¡ãl History New Yo¡k’ NY 10024.
ã.oow Farm”rs’ Cooperative Inc., of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, to which Dr. Mead had asked ,-lrrt the RESA ptir” -oney be given in recognition of an effon which promised increasing strength
ã
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