1949 - Food Availability

Food Availability

Famine ravages the new People's Republic of China. The nation's cereal grain production falls to 110 million tons, down from 150 million before the war when the population was smaller (see 1952).

FAO chairman John Boyd Orr receives the Nobel Peace Prize and is elevated to the peerage as Lord Boyd Orr of Brechin (see 1945). He observes that "hunger, which is the worst manifestation of poverty, is also the fundamental cause of the rebellion of the Asians against the economic domination of the European powers, a rebellion that cannot be put down with bombs and guns as long as these peoples remain convinced that their hunger and their poverty are sufferings to which they are not condemned by necessity."

Meat, dairy products, and sugar remain in short supply in Britain and sales are restricted, but rationing of chocolate and sweets ends April 24.