Food Policy in Britain

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Discussion Circle, No. 2 (Craig and Wilson, 70 Bath Street, Glasgow), opens with an article by Sir John Boyd Orr, entitled "If I were Minister of Food in Peace-time". The first thing that might be done, says Sir John, is to get out a statement of the findings and recommendations of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Conference, the delegates of which represented 80 per cent of the world's population. They unanimously declared that: (1) the kind of food needed is known; (2) even in the best fed countries, 20–30 per cent of the population do not obtain sufficient of the right kinds of food essential for health; (3) lack of sufficient of the right kind of food is the cause of disease, physical disability and untimely death; (4) the first cause of lack of food is poverty; (5) we have the knowledge and ability to produce all the food needed. The Conference also recommended that every nation should provide a diet adequate for the health of the citizens, and these recommendations have been accepted so far as they affect Great Britain. If, continues Sir John, you were Minister of Food, the first decision which you would have to make would be whether you would carry out these recommendations, and, before you made this decision, you would have to consider what would happen if you did carry them out. Opinions on this will differ. Sir John bases his estimate of what would happen on what did happen when we changed the national diet between the War of 1914–18 and the present time. During this period the average consumption of foods of special value for health increased by about 50 per cent, and there was also a remarkable improvement in national health. Certain deficiency diseases, such as rickets, almost completely disappeared; children were nearly three inches taller, and infant mortality fell by more than 30 per cent, and deaths from tuberculosis by more than 50 per cent. Other factors undoubtedly helped to produce this result; but the improvement in the national diet was, Sir John thinks, the outstanding change. During the recent War, the food policy of Britain has been based upon nutritional needs. The special needs of mothers and children have been provided for, and the diet of the working class is therefore now better than it was before the War.