This Capitalist World
How to feed the hungry
Something like 90,000 tons of US chemical-warfare agents have now been employed in the Vietnam war. Seven thousand tons have been CS gas, the remainder herbicides. With the latter, crop cultivations sufficient to feed two million people for a year have been destroyed, and 20,000 square kilometres of forest laid waste.
(New Scientist, 22 June 1972).
Abolishing plenty amidst poverty
Up to two million laying hens may have to be slaughtered in an attempt to solve the present surplus of eggs on the British market.
The National Farmers’ Union has put a plan to the Eggs Authority suggesting that a special slaughter subsidy should be paid to poultry farmers who want to cut down on their hens because they are making a loss. There are 60 million egg-laying hens in the national scheme.
(The Sunday Telegraph, 30 July, 1972)