ABSTRACT
In the mid-20th century, the world’s food system was set on a different course to its earlier trajectories. Policy and actions on food supply, which had previously been subject either to national (and often local) efforts or to the vagaries of war, famine and circumstance, were given different directions. This post-Second World War settlement represented the triumph and hard work of many food analysts from the natural, medical and social sciences of the day (Vernon, 2007; Lang et al, 2009). They seized the chance offered by the world’s dire experience of two World Wars, agricultural trade slumps and famines to offer a new policy package to policy-makers. It is hard for those of us who inherit this post-1940s policy framework to appreciate the ambition, timing and brilliance of what was achieved with this new approach, or to appreciate the hard work that fleshed it out and delivered it. The word ‘paradigm’ is frequently used in policy analysis, sometimes too loosely. But if ever the word was appropriate in food policy, the 1940s was such an occasion.
