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Food for a Stronger AmericaM. L. WilsonChairman, Nutrition Advisory Committee to the Coordinator of Health, Welfare, and Related Defense Activities
During the black months or years ahead, we must consider the nutritional status of the nation as a whole, as well as the status of its individuals. I think we can all agree with the proposition that no man, woman, or child in the United States should be allowed to starve. But having pledged ourselves to that proposition we find we are committed to a good deal more than might be imagined. Starvation can be hidden, subtle and slow, as well as desperate and dramatic. Science has uncovered starvation in places where it was not supposed to exist, in high and middle places as well as in the low. Bad food habits, careless food preparation, the evolution of food processing explain in part the large percentage of unsatisfactory diets in the United States. We are, to be sure, a well fed people compared with most parts of the globe. But we are not well fed in relation to the productive potentialities of our land and labor. In the totalitarian countries food is a weapon. In America food is a boon, the gift of God's good earth. We have, as a matter of fact, some food to spare. We are in the twice blessed position of being able to feed ourselves and others, a position that may prove to be all important when the starving and shattered nations of Europe gather round a barren peace table. In primitive times, through a process of natural selection and survival, the people chose the best available foods. Thus nations which did not or could not make a wise choice died out. They were conquered by an enemy from within—by slow or fast starvation. We have the inestimable advantage of being able to choose wisely—if we will. And in these days when the ever-increasing demands for ever-increasing production call for optimum physical vigor and morale, it behooves us to choose wisely.
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