History- Food Shortages Flashcards
Britain had problems keeping food supplies going in the war. Something needed to be done to make sure nobody starved.
German U-boats made it hard to import food
In 1914 Britain was used to importing quite a lot of food from the United States and countries that were part of the Empire.
Germany use U-boats (submarines) to attack shipping all around Britain and make it impossible to import all the food Britain needed to survive.
By April 1917 Britain only had six weeks supply of wheat left. The prime minister, David Lloyd George, took three big steps to solve the food crisis:
STEP 1: Navy convoys protected merchant ships
STEP 2: compulsory rationing started in 1918
When food rationing started in 1970 it was voluntary. In 1918 shortages were still a problem and rationing was made compulsory for beer, butter, sugar and meat. Everyone got rationing coupons. They had to hand them over when they bought beer, butter, sugar and meat. When the weeks coupons for, say, sugar, ran out, they couldn’t buy any more that week. Some people hoarded food, partly because they were afraid it would run out, and partly because of increasing prices. They would sell it on later, creating a ‘black market’ for food. There were shortages of some kinds of food but no one starved. The government had never been this involved in organising peoples daily lives before.
STEP 3: Britain grew more food
The women’s land Army was set up in 1917. Women from the land Army were a big new labour force available to work on the farms.
