Her situation is complicated by the fact that she has no great
cold-storage plants like ours, and so must get meat-supplies at
frequent intervals.
Before the war Germany was much better prepared than the Allies in
that she had many more animals in proportion to her population than
they. But she was more dependent upon imports of feed, and as her
commerce has been cut off, she has had to kill her animals faster.
Counting up all her animals in terms of cattle according to the amount
of meat they would yield, shows a loss of over one-third. For Austria,
there are no available figures, but her decrease has probably been
larger than Germany's.
Meat shortage is not a problem by itself, but is closely connected
with the shortage of available grain. When cereals are short, they
must be fed to human beings rather than to animals. Feeding grain to
animals and then eating the animals is not nearly so economical as
eating grain directly. For example, when grain is fed to a cow, only
31/2 per cent of the energy of the grain is turned into meat or fat,
and 96 per cent is burned up by the cow in its own daily living. When
a man eats the grain directly, he uses at least 85 per cent of its
energy. Thus 811/2 per cent more of the grain is actually used for human
food. So Europe to-day has to sacrifice her herds, and uses grain for
bread instead of turning it into meat.
Alongside this shortage has come an increased demand for meat for the
great armies.
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