Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1917 — Animal Resources of the Arctics May Relieve Meat Shortage in United States [ARTICLE]

Animal Resources of the Arctics May Relieve Meat Shortage in United States

As war’s drain on food resources continues to grow more acute new reservoirs have to be tapped. Already reindeer meat from Alaska is replacing beef on the Pacific coast, and Christian Leden, ’ the missionary-ex-plorer of Greenland and Hudson Bay, sponsors a plan for mobilizing the food resources of the Arctics, the Boston Globe says. It appears that the Eskimo, belleving antmals are sentby the great_splrIt to be killed for food, conceives It to be his duty to kill all he sees. Enormous quantities of most valuable meat are thus washed —meat which the Northern tribes could, Mr. Leden thinks, easily be induced to save and sell to the people of the lower altitudes. The German army, from the very start of the war, has been fed largely on dried meat. One pound of dry meat is equal to five pounds of fresh meat, and it is, in addition, far easier to transport. The Eskimos are especially skillful in drying their game, which would make a resort to. this source of food supply all the more feasible. The Arctics are far richer in animal resources than we of the temperate zone suppose. Caribou, walrus, salmon—all are prolific of foodstuffs, not to- mention the by-products of leather, furs and oil. It is the explorer’s computation that the Arctics, even moderately exploited, would yield enough meat to feed 70,000 men for a year. He assures us that caribou makes the best venison, and that the walrus, being himself fond of oysters, makes good food.