Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1918 — SEA TO MAKE UP SHORTAGE IN FATS [ARTICLE]

SEA TO MAKE UP SHORTAGE IN FATS

Even Oleomargarine Is Now Being Manufactured in Norway From Fish Oil. TROPICS TO BE DEVELOPED Subjugation of the Sea Not the Only Important Step Being Contemplated Toward More Effective Utilization of Nature. London. —The world’s supply of oils and fats is going to be derived in rapidly Increasing measure hereafter from the seas. This is the conclusion to which investigators of this problem, which was one of the first to become acute after the war started, have brought themselves. The problem indeed was beginning to be a real one before the war started. The production of live stock for a long time had not been peeping pace with" the world’s requirements. This has been in considerable part because of the increasing number of peoples that are requiring more and more meat in their diet, and partly from other causes.

The net result is that in the search for new oils and fats, and indeed for new uses of fish as a substitute for meat, important progress has been made. Some recent developments suggest that the seas are altogether likely In coming generations to take the place of the great ranges of the Americas and Australia for the production of some important food articles. Butter Substitute From Fish. The announcement recently from Norway that a satisfactory substitute for oleomargarine had been produced from fish oils, while it was regarded as extremely Important, is in fact only one evidence of this increasing dependency of the world upon the seas’ sources of supply for various necessaries. Now it is asserted that the denizens of the deep waters are presently 'going to be put under contribution for a variety of new foods and substitutes for leather in many uses. The subjugation of the sea is not the only great step that men are contemplating toward a more effective utilization of nature’s bounty. The tropics are going to be developed, after this war, at a rate never before imagined, unless all signs fail. Not only are the governments preparing to give more systematic and scientific encouragement to proper colonial development in the tropical areas but the colonizing spirit has been receiving a great revival. One hears soldiers from every army, Englishmen, Scotchmen, Frenchmen, Italians and, it is said, German prisoners, talking of the possibilities of South America, Africa, the Pacific islands, in fact, the whole great undeveloped empires of the world. Price Will Be Higher. In Norway milk and butter supplies are very short, but the Morgenblatt announces that the. problem of a substitute for oleomargarine has been solved and that the Norwegian oleomargarine could be made of purely

Norwegian materials without the admixture of foreign vegetable oils, which experts had declared to be essential. The discovery is due to the researches of a committee appointed by Hr. Vik, the minister of supply. For the present the Vera fat refinery will manufacture the article, apd it is asserted that the factory will be able to meet the requirements of the whole country. The secret is the use of different kinds of fish oil, of which there la plenty on hand, both of whale and other fish. The price will be slightly higher than the former oleomargarine, because there is a duty on fish oils higher than that on the vegetable oils previously used. A representative of the Morgenblatt has been given the opportunity of tasting the new product and asserts that in flavor and appearance it is equal to the best oleomargarine. It is expected to be on the market as soon as a supply can be manufactured.