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Britain urging return to wartime food frugality
Posted by Lev/Christopher on November 7, 2008 at 7:42am in Prophecy & End Times
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 11, 2:31 PM ET
LONDON - Waste not, want not.
Evoking an era of World War II austerity, British families are being
urged to cut food waste and use leftovers in a nationwide effort to
fight sharply rising global food prices.
It's not back to ration books, "victory gardens" or squirrel-tail soup
yet, but warning bells are being rung by experts at all levels of
Britain's government as well as from the World Food Program.
With food and energy prices soaring around the world, a constant supply
of high-quality, affordable food is no longer guaranteed, the officials
are warning Britons. That could mean an era of scarcity like Britain's
1940-54 food rationing, during the war and its aftermath.
"Well, of course, in the war years it was not only immoral to waste
food — this was one of our slogans then — it also was illegal," said
Marguerite Patten, 92, who worked at the Ministry of Food during World
War II and urges a return to those more thrifty days.
"I know it's old fashioned, but some old fashioned things are worth doing," she said.
During the war, Nazi Germany's U-boats crippled the flow of ships
carrying food to Britain. Diets were tightly controlled by rationing.
Bananas and pineapples became exotic treats, and enterprising
housewives traded recipes for baked hedgehog and carrot fudge.
The experts say the postwar era of cheap food has ended — squeezed by
the demands of a growing world population, a greater appetite for meat
among emerging middle classes in China and India and the pressure on
agricultural land from biofuel production.
"Recent food price rises are a powerful reminder that access to ever
more affordable food cannot be taken for granted," Prime Minister
Gordon Brown said in a foreword to a bleak new report by Britain's
Cabinet Office.
The report says the task of feeding a larger, richer world population —
while simultaneously tackling climate change — is far greater than
imagined. The World Bank estimates the cost of food staples has risen
83 percent in three years.
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at London's City University, said
junk food will remain readily available, but good quality, nutritious
produce could become scarce worldwide.
"There has been 60 years of silence on this issue," he said. "We
haven't had any sort of overview of food policy since the end of the
Second World War. I think we need to accept that food is once again in
a wartime state."
Some Britons might find it a tad galling to take advice on food
frugality from the prime minister, who along with fellow Group of Eight
leaders dined on sumptuous feasts during their summit this week.
But the government says the public might find one solution by looking
into their garbage pail. Britons throw out 4.5 million tons of edible
food a year, or about $830 worth per home — wastefulness the government
says contributes substantially to rising prices.
Brown wants Britons to store their fruit and vegetables better to avoid
waste and plan their meals more carefully. Some municipal authorities
want to go further and increase taxes on those who throw away the most
rubbish.
"If I throw away food I feel guilty — even if it's just a little bit,"
said Tania Carbonare, a 45-year-old jewelry seller at the Camden Lock
market in London.
Those who remember Britain's 1940s "Dig for Victory" campaign to turn
home gardens and soccer fields into vegetable patches say the past
holds lessons for any food crisis.
Eggs, butter, meat and cheese were all strictly rationed, prompting an
adventurous few to turn to squirrels or horses for protein.
"We didn't live very grandly, but we learned to make do with what we'd
got," said Helen Trevena, 82, who recalled sweetening her tea with jam
when sugar was scarce.
Britain's Women's Institute, launched in 1915 to help cut waste and
encourage thrift during World War I, is once again offering classes on
cutting food waste and livening up leftovers.
"People want those skills," said Ruth Bond, an institute stalwart from
Cambridge in southern England. "Apart from anything else, it helps them
save money."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080711/ap_on_re_eu/britain_war_on_wast...
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Updated on 5 May 2010
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