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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
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