ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the twentieth century, industrial workers in Western Europe had finally gained access to a diet of previously unknown luxury—daily meat, white bread, and fresh vegetables—only to see it vanish again in the misery of global war and depression. As successive waves of soldiers fell to machine guns on the front, another war of attrition was fought at sea. At the outbreak of war, the British Navy closed off the North Sea to Germany, which imported not only a third of its foodstuffs but also the chemical fertilizers needed for domestic agriculture. By the fall of 1915, rationing had inspired butter riots in the capital along with wider consumer protests against profiteering. The struggle for victory in World War I brought unprecedented state intervention in the economies of Europe and North America, and food policy remained crucial for governments in the postwar era.
