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Military government weekly information bulletin
Number 74 (January 1947)
[Highlights of policy], pp. [4]-18
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Page 9
German farmers using outmoded e- quipment plow a field near Hamburg. to meet ration requirements and was de- pendent on other zones of Germany and imports from countries outside Germany. In the US Zone crop land had decreased by about nine percent between 1937 and 1945, and the 1945 production of such basic food crops as grains, potatoes, and sugar beets was substantially below the prewar level, with output decreases varying from 27 percent in the case of potatoes, to 56 per- cent for sugar beets. PROVISIONS OF PLAN OUTLINED Under the provisions of the 1946-47 plan, a high calorie content in the food to be produced will have priority over a variety of diet, with areas for the production of grains and potatoes on the priority list for ex- tension. A person consuming these items directly receives four to eight times more energy than is the case if he feeds the grains and potatoes to animals and eats the animals. The plan calls for a substantial increase in areas devoted to the cultivation of sugar beets because, when converted into sugar, they yield a very high number of calories per hectare. Areas devoted to the production of vegetable oil crops will also be expanded, since imports of low cost fats and vegetable oils are not available. The expansion of these areas is made pos- sible in two ways: first, through contraction of land used in the production of fodder in 1945-46; and second, through the use of land which was cultivated in prewar years but remained unused during the war or was used for non-agricultural purposes. Along with the decrease in land allotted to fodder production and the planned re- duction in meadow and pasture area, the 1946-47 plan calls for a substantial decrease in the number of cattle, hogs, and sheep. Specifically, the number of cattle at the end of 1947 is to be 10 percent below the number registered as of 3 December 1945. One con- tributing reason for this decision was the lack of sufficient fodder to maintain present numbers of livestock. Some of the "extra" cows will be slaughtered to increase the meat ration and the remainder will be exchanged for food from other zones. In relation to the policy of obtaining the maximum calorie content in foods, these exchanges have been profitable in the past. For example, in a recent exchange of cattle for sugar with the Soviet Zone, the US Zone received 20 times as many calories as they gave. For similar reasons, the plan calls for a drastic reduction in the number of hogs dur- ing the 1946-47 year. Hogs are consumers of potatoes and grains which are needed for (Continued on page 28) 9
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