ABSTRACT
Food is a powerful weapon for social and political change; from the Netherlands to the USSR to Chile, food has created countries, shaped political systems and changed geography through warfare; changing food production systems have also changed the map, altering the landscape beyond recognition to pre-industrial ancestors. Obesity and poor diet are closely linked to poverty, the welfare state could be reorganized to become the foodfare state, to promote socio-economic well-being, financial equality, nutritional health and food opportunity. Food is a complex good, full of contradictions. It is a private good but also a quasi-public one, carrying as it does major cost implications for public and private health services. It is a material good, but also incorporates many intangible factors, cultural, national and psychological. In the United Kingdom, William Beveridge published his eponymous report which formed the basis for the post-war welfare state. He spoke of Slaying Five Giants: Want, Disease, Squalor, Ignorance and Idleness.
