Leland and Gray High School - Messenger Yearbook (Townshend, VT)

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Page 20 THE BANISHMENT OF WORLD HUNGER CONT'D manufactured. This has been tried, and some V ordinary soil plants have been grown in chemically treated watert The costs of these Whydroponicn foods proved toov high to make them generally valuable. V There also has been a careful investigation of more food from the ocean but no real hope has been offered from this source. A Since prehistoric times men have depended upon grain and animals which feed upon, grain for their food supply. Both depended upon the soils Recently a new food-producing team that thrives 'in llquid pastures without the aid of soil has been discovered. The newt Ngrainn is Chlorella, a green alga or single-celled plant. Fed with common minerals and gas, many times as much basic food can be grown in an acre of shallow pond as on an acre of our best soil. r ' The yeast ee11 is the other member of the new food team. This team works together much as grain and hog have worked for centuries but without the use of soil. If the earth's present two billions were given an equalized right to eat, there would be less than one acre'of productive land to grow the food each needs. This shows how much mankind has outgrown' the corn-hog team of food production. 4 The Japanese farmer is very skillful and the production per acre is as high in Japan as anywhere in the world, but population of Japan has increased and only fourefifths of the food needed to feed its people

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' ' Page THE BANISHMENT OF WORLD HUNGER CONT'D piling up in the West Indies and the naeivis were in great need of more protein in their diets The new torula yeast which contains more than forty per cent protein was the answero It sparked the construction of the Jamaican factory which is now producing high-protein food yeast for human consumption at a rate of five tons a day, This factory doesn't have much difficulty in ' selling its output for human consumption., The natives are eating it in porridgelg fish cakes and flapjackso It won't be possible to duplicate the texture of unground meats with the proteins produced by yeasto These must still be pro- duced by the soilbound plants and animalso But ice creamy weiners and sausages, processed cheeses, milk and cream substitutes, breakfast cereals and dehydrated canned soups can be made without difficultys Now the question arisesg can this food be bought within reach of the poverty- stricken millions who don't get enough to eat? Certainly thefworlE.can't afford not to feed its hungry millions now that a way to feed them has been foundo Ther cases give the indication of being as low as ordinary food Nbut depend largely upon the success of the engineers, ' ' The advancement in this food production has been made possible by the-study of one-celled plants which grow in rthe water instead, of the soils It climaxes a struggle science has been carrying on for a century to find ways of producing food,beyond the limits of the soils For a time it was hoped that food pills could be

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Page El THE BANISHMENT OF YOQLD HUNGHH CONT'D is being produced. Japan isn't the only country A that needs aid. India is steadily increasing in population. Agricultural soil production can't overtake population growths ' , The hunger waves even gnaw at our North American island of plenty. Yet the outlook is no longer' as hopeless as it seems. The raising of food need no longer be bound to the production of the soil. The success of the Jamaican factory is really as important in its way as the realease of atomic energy. Similar plants are on the Phillippines. Soon many more of these plants will be able to go to' work producing the proteins humans desperately need. Elsie Abbott CLASS wELcoME V Honorable board of trustees, worthy members of the faculty, alumni, parents, classmates, and friends: we welcome you here on this day, which marks the end of our four years of high school. During this time we have seen a war in progress, which induced many new scientific developments, the question in our minds is, nwill the great developments be used for our welfare or our destruction?U, - In procuring a high school education we have made the first step towards answering the question ourselves, We are entering a troubled world with a good education. The solution to many of these problems will be eventu- ally in the hands of all high ,school students every- w ere. - we are looking forward to the opportunity to help in some way, to do our part towards insuring world peace. ' Cynthia Pearson