1930s, on the other hand, the disastrous effects of the Great Depression on
consumer purchasing power and on the incomes of primary producers, under-
lined the need for some form of intergovernmental arrangement for staple food-
stuffs. At the same time, the results of important new advances in the science of
nutrition were widely propagated. This led to the discovery that the incidence
of chronic malnutrition, with harmful effects on health, was widespread, even
in relatively high-income countries, and particularly among children and other
vulnerable groups. Following the Great Depression, when markets for staple foods
were glutted and producers faced ruin, the growing recognition of the widespread
character of nutritional deficiencies strengthened the conviction that there was
something wrong with the recurring manifestations of `poverty in the midst of
plenty' and that solutions should be sought through the selective expansion of
food consumption rather than through the curtailment of output that had been
previously practiced. Furthermore, the basic cure of under-consumption had to
be seen in the promotion of measures designed to raise the real incomes of needy
people.
information about the food position in representative countries of the world. Its
report was the first introduction of the world food problem into the international
political arena.
on Nutrition and Public Health (1935), which showed that there was an acute food
shortage in the poor countries, the first account of the extent of hunger and
malnutrition in the world. Discussions held on nutrition policies in the Assembly
of the League of Nations were based on some important pioneering efforts that
had helped to prepare the ground and led to further practical progress. These
endeavours marked the beginnings of co-ordinated nutrition policies in a number
of countries. Meanwhile, the hardships caused by the unprecedented slump of
the early 1930s, and fears of their recurrence, led governments to adopt national
price and production controls for foodstuffs and other agricultural products in
exporting countries, coupled with trade restrictions in importing countries. At the
same time, there was also growing interest in the regulation of world trade in
foodstuffs and other staple products through intergovernmental action.
control schemes to develop before the great depression, intergovernmental
schemes have developed during the years since the depression' (ILO, 1943). In
essence, the inter-war agreements for foodstuffs were based on quotas as well as the
operation of buffer stocks. The possibility of organizing international buffer stocks
as part of international control arrangements was first discussed more thoroughly
only in 1937 by the League of Nations Committee on the Study of the Problems
of Raw Materials. To sum up, the main trends of thought and action developed
during the 1930s were: first, the beginning of national nutrition policies based