During World War One (WW1) the British Government faced large difficulties in the maintaining of adequate food supplies to the civilian population. This resulted due to a number of attributes including the attitudes of civilians in the face of war, effective German war strategy, and the poor experience of Britain in dealing with these types of situations. These difficulties became noticeably evident soon after the outbreak of WW1, the British Government had implemented rationing across the nation in 1918, where the issue reached its pinnacle. This came as a result of the Kaiser’s introduction of the successful “U-boat” campaign; whereas unrestricted submarine warfare halted the flow of imports, causing massive food shortages across Britain.
The war brought fear into the hearts of the British civilian population, which caused the initial issues relative to the maintaining of food supplies. The declaration of war caused panic across the nation, civilians began to hoard food in preparation for the worst. This caused some stores to sell out of food completely within just a few days in the month of August 1914. This saw the initial food shortages to be noted as self imposed during the start of the war, but these shortages would not again become a huge problem until 1916.
It wasn't until 1916 that Britain felt great pressure in maintaining adequate food supplies as a result of the deliberate actions of the opposition. Since the declaration of war Britain had continued to import products, including food supplies mainly from countries such as America and Canada as mentioned in Source B. These supplies included meat, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, chocolate, and fruit. Source B outlines that these ships were able to transport these g...
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...kments were transformed and used as allotments. This aimed to allow the nation its own self sufficient food supply, maintaining the availability of food stuffs, which would otherwise of been lacking during that time due to blockage of imports to Britain.
The issues the British Government faced in the maintaining of adequate food supplies to the civilian population were drastic, putting some of Britain's population at risk of starvation or malnutrition. This amounted due to the nature of war, and presented a real threat to Britain. Nevertheless the government dealt with the situation in the implication of various strategies, and in the end no one civilian died as a result of food shortages. In addition to this the British Government had actually resolved the issue in almost matching the average intake of calories per person to those of the pre-war level.
World War One took a toll on everyone between 1914 and 1918. What were some of the main causes and effects of World War One?
[4] From the memoirs of J.B Gent a Child in the war who lived on
a basis of production, and the only way to operate large farms at the time,
the growing concern about the quality of food in America the government took action to
But what would ultimately lead to the outbreak of the first world war was Germany’s ever-increasing belief in militarism. The German military power had continued to grow as their industrial sector did the same; such power was seen as a symbol of national pride by the government. Other nations had built up their arms stockpiles as well, though they did not glorify it nearly as much as the Germans did. Nevertheless, the availability of arms, when combined with other political and economic factors, meant that a full-scale conflict was all but unavoidable.
During the civil war soldiers in both the North and South relied on preservable food, considering the long travel to battles. The Union commonly had more
Professor Geoff Hayes, “4 August 1914: Slithering Over the Brink, The Origins of the Great War,” Lecture delivered 31 October, 2011, HIST 191, University of Waterloo
During WWII people had to ration their food so that there was enough for everyone to eat. “It was tight at times. You had to stop and think of what you were going to buy, and buy things that were going to stretch, maybe spaghetti, macaroni and mix it up with something else. I’d say in the summer months we were fortunate that we had fresh produce” (Doc. F). It made things worse that there were labor and transportation shortages and made it hard to harvest fruits and vegetables as well as transport them to various markets. The government
The Germans did great damage, and they sunk many of the British merchant ships, (see appendix 1) and if this battle had not been declared, Britain would have been in a very bad situation. Britain was once the world’s largest ship-building nations, and they could easily replace the ships that were sunk but, soon they were not able to keep up with the damage that the German...
production of goods and foods decreased drastically and this ultimately led to starvation as people were
Encl. "World War I and the Economy." January 2001. Encyclopedia.com. Electoronic. 24 October 2013. .
Unlike what most of the people were expecting, the war had horrible devastations. At least 10 million soldiers died in war while 21 million were wounded. Civilians faced dangers and hardships since the world experienced food shortages. Economies were neglected because every effort was directed towards the support for the war. Hunger, influenza pandemic and other diseases caused civilians to die not only in warring countries but even in neutral c...
American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous could apply to many different things though. Our food is dangerous to the consumer, the workers and farmers, the animals and the environment. Walsh gives examples of each of these in his article that leads back to the main point of how dangerous the food we are consuming every day really is. He goes into detail on each of them but focuses his information on the consumer.
As the world population grows so does the amount of people that live without the proper amount of nutrition and food. Hunger in America can be hard to recognize and many people do not realize that hunger and malnutrition is a problem that many Americans face every day. America is the land of plenty and one of the most powerful and wealthy countries in the world, however is well known that is subject to problem such as starvation, considered as “third-world problem”. For decades, Americans have gone above and beyond to aid other countries that were faced with problems such as malnutrition and hunger. Sadly, the US has failed to aid them and millions are currently suffering from hunger. In addition, with how the economy is now, the effects of hunger are getting worse every day. Many Americans are relying and most of them depend on food stamps and private organizations to help with this crisis. The documentary, “A Place at the Table” by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush present some issues and real life story to explain what is really happening and how hunger and obesity are not problems on opposite ends of a spectrum, but are in fact intricately linked. Poor nutrition, health problem and poverty are all related.
The world that we live in is inevitably problem stricken. There will always be a challenge that we are given to overcome, may that be a natural disaster, war, poverty, hunger, etc. As a whole we need to come together to find a ‘solution’ for all of these issues that are so detrimental to this world and those living in it. Some may be more preventative than the others, however, we must work together in times of distress to rebuild. I will be addressing the problem of hunger and food insecurity in America. Food security is define by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as access by all people at all time to enough food for an active, healthy life. On the other hand, food insecurity is outlined very well by the National Research Council.