Food Values and the Farmers The report of the League
of Nations Health Organisation on Diet and Health has an economic as well as a hygienic value. It has its origin, indeed, in a proposal by Mr. S. M. Bruce, the Australian High Commissioner, who emphasised the importance of studying in association the needs of agriculture and the needs of public health. It is a notable event when the foremost public health authorities in the world meet to decide on the optimum diet from the point of view of nutritive value for average men, women and children in any country. It is to be observed that emphasis - is broadened out from the importance of carbohydrates to the importance of food substances rich in minerals and vitamins. And when it is laid down that milk, eggs and potatoes are of particular importance in this connexion, the value of the economic side of the report becomes manifest. In this country these particular substances are all home-produced, and if their consumption can be increased the farmer will benefit no less than the consumer. We have made a beginning with milk in the schools, and campaigns for the increase of milk-consumption are in progress or in contemplation. The League report is, of course, an international document, but the Ministries of Health and Agriculture and the Board of Education should give it immediate and sympathetic attention.
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