That’s the title of the biography of Fred Marquis, later dubbed Lord Woolton, Minister of Food in Great Britain during World War II. His job description was simple—keep Britain and her colonies fed throughout the war. He did his job and did it well against all odds and despite all the criticism.
I could totally relate to him. Woolton would tell Churchill the exact situation with a commodity, how to rectify the situation, and the importance of acting immediately. And Churchill would often blow him off. He sometimes seemed incapable of understanding the importance of food, unless it was his own meal. For Woolton, it was like banging his head against a wall.
As part of making sure everyone was fed, Woolton also had to prevent people from panicking. He had to keep the food coming in—Britain imported the majority of its food, and Woolton had to silence reports of Germans sinking ships carrying food. The British had to be kept in the dark about such matters. They couldn’t be trusted to behave responsibly.
Woolton also had a little bit of a personal agenda. Like many of us, he experienced periods when he didn’t feel well, and he knew it was due to his diet. So he was really careful about what he ate. He knew people would be healthier if they ate a well-balanced diet and reduced consumption of sugar and fats. And so Woolton was going to make the British the healthiest people on the planet during his tenure as Minister of Food.
By and large, Woolton succeeded. Infant mortality rates dropped. Children grew taller and experienced less illness. Of course, wartime conditions forced many lifestyle changes, and when the war was over and rationing finally ended (not until the 1950s for some items in Great Britain), people eventually went back to their old habits.
The results, however, beg the question: Should government force these dietary changes upon people “for their own good”? Naturally, being who we are, most of us are adamantly opposed to the idea.
Eggs or Anarchy presents a biography of Lord Woolton and the food situation in WWII Britain. It’s definitely not written with the intent of learning from history to avoid repeating the same mistakes. However, there are still a few lessons we can glean.
Sugar. First, the people were allowed 15 lbs of sugar per person per year. Pregnant women and children received 30 lbs. Americans consume about 100 lbs annually. That’s a colossal adjustment. We don’t have to have that much sugar. Like the Brits who were at their healthiest during the war years, we also would be much better off with far less sugar.
When I read that children in Britain were allotted 2500 calories per day, my first thought was that they must have been a bunch of porkers. After all, that is at least 500 calories more than we advocate today for a healthy diet. We forget that children were a lot more active during WWII. What happens when kids don’t have devices or TV? They’ll eventually become way more active. They will need way more calories than we were planning (OK, that was an eye opener for me as well. I figured on small children becoming more active, but I didn’t realize that they would be 500 calories a day more active. I know adults will be more active. People are not going to be happy on 2,000 calories a day.
Unlimited Bread. The one item that Woolton refused to ration was bread. People needed to be able to become full. They just wouldn’t be able to do it with sugar, cooking oil, or meat or dairy products. People must absolutely be able to become full, especially all those performing hard labor.
Fresh produce wasn’t rationed. It just wasn’t often available.
It may be that the only way to have enough bread to eat will be to grind your own grains. Making bread isn’t difficult. It would be best to learn bread making from someone with a great deal of experience making bread in your area.
2.16.22
