World Food Board Proposal

MAC/WFY

Page-16

0230_553559_07_cha03

194570. Early Attempts: FAO's Pioneering Work

United States and to extreme nationalism and fascism in Europe, which eventually
led to a war resulting in the greatest loss of life and physical destruction in human
history. Out of this terrible experience came the spirit of hope and optimism
expressed in the Atlantic Charter of 1941, the Declaration of the United Nations of
1942, and the conference in San Francisco in 1945 that established the United
Nations, and adopted the UN Charter, which proclaimed, among other things:

We the people of the United Nations determined

to reaffirm faith in funda-

mental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the
equal rights of man and women and of nations large and small, and

promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom

and

for these ends

to employ international machinery for the promotion of the

economic and social advancement of all people. (Charter of the United Nations,
24 June 1945, San Francisco, USA)

As a student of biology, a doctor of medicine, a practicing farmer and a researcher

who had spent much time trying to improve the nutrition of poor people in the
depressed areas of the United Kingdom, Boyd Orr was convinced that food should
be considered as something much more than merely a tradable commodity. He
also thought that: `If the nations cannot agree on a food program affecting the
welfare of people everywhere, there is little hope of their reaching agreement on
anything' (Hambridge, 1955, p. 67). Being a farmer, its trade aspects he appreciated
shrewdly enough, as his attention to prices showed. But as a medical man and
researcher, he saw food as the prime necessity of life itself. He felt that ways should
be found to feed all people adequately, even if it could not always be done at a
profit. To him, civilization had a profound moral obligation to provide food for
the hungry poor, just as it had to provide them with medical care. He believed
that the WFB proposal, or something like it, was necessary not only to galvanize
expanded production and industrial development, and start what he liked to refer
to as `the upward spiral of prosperity', but also to solve the problem of surpluses,
the nightmare of agriculture during the economic depression of the 1930s.

On a personal level, no doubt Boyd Orr still carried with him memories of his

nutrition work in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s at the Rowett Research Institute
in Animal Nutrition, where he was its first director, during which time he travelled
extensively visiting research institutions in many parts of the world, at the Duthiue
Experimental Farm, in Scotland, and during the war years when he was intimately
involved in wartime food policy in the United Kingdom, all admirably described
in his autobiography As I Recall (Boyd Orr, 1966). He undertook a series of tests
among schoolchildren in Scotland in 1926/27, which showed that given additional
milk their rate of growth increased by over 20 per cent. This led to the provision
of free milk to school children in the United Kingdom, which was maintained
during and after the Second World War, and gave rise to Winston Churchill's
famous statement: `There is no finer investment than putting milk in babies'.
He was also involved in a pioneering survey, Food, Health and Income, into the
adequacy of diet in relation to income in Britain in the 1930s (Boyd Orr, 1936).

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Useful links	World Food Board Proposal MAC/WFY Page-16 0230_553559_07_cha03 16 194570. Early Attempts: FAO's Pioneering Work United States and to extreme nationalism and fascism in Europe, which eventually led to a war resulting in the greatest loss of life and physical destruction in human history. Out of this terrible experience came the spirit of hope and optimism expressed in the Atlantic Charter of 1941, the Declaration of the United Nations of 1942, and the conference in San Francisco in 1945 that established the United Nations, and adopted the UN Charter, which proclaimed, among other things: We the people of the United Nations determined to reaffirm faith in funda- mental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of man and women and of nations large and small, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom and for these ends to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all people. (Charter of the United Nations, 24 June 1945, San Francisco, USA) As a student of biology, a doctor of medicine, a practicing farmer and a researcher who had spent much time trying to improve the nutrition of poor people in the depressed areas of the United Kingdom, Boyd Orr was convinced that food should be considered as something much more than merely a tradable commodity. He also thought that: `If the nations cannot agree on a food program affecting the welfare of people everywhere, there is little hope of their reaching agreement on anything' (Hambridge, 1955, p. 67). Being a farmer, its trade aspects he appreciated shrewdly enough, as his attention to prices showed. But as a medical man and researcher, he saw food as the prime necessity of life itself. He felt that ways should be found to feed all people adequately, even if it could not always be done at a profit. To him, civilization had a profound moral obligation to provide food for the hungry poor, just as it had to provide them with medical care. He believed that the WFB proposal, or something like it, was necessary not only to galvanize expanded production and industrial development, and start what he liked to refer to as `the upward spiral of prosperity', but also to solve the problem of surpluses, the nightmare of agriculture during the economic depression of the 1930s. On a personal level, no doubt Boyd Orr still carried with him memories of his nutrition work in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s at the Rowett Research Institute in Animal Nutrition, where he was its first director, during which time he travelled extensively visiting research institutions in many parts of the world, at the Duthiue Experimental Farm, in Scotland, and during the war years when he was intimately involved in wartime food policy in the United Kingdom, all admirably described in his autobiography As I Recall (Boyd Orr, 1966). He undertook a series of tests among schoolchildren in Scotland in 1926/27, which showed that given additional milk their rate of growth increased by over 20 per cent. This led to the provision of free milk to school children in the United Kingdom, which was maintained during and after the Second World War, and gave rise to Winston Churchill's famous statement: `There is no finer investment than putting milk in babies'. He was also involved in a pioneering survey, Food, Health and Income, into the adequacy of diet in relation to income in Britain in the 1930s (Boyd Orr, 1936). back to top Next page
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