CfP: Food and War in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Paris, 8-11 September 2009

International Commission for Research into European Food History (ICREF), 2009
Deadline: 31 March 2008

ICREFH has held biennial symposia since 1989 on various aspects of European food history, each of which has resulted in the publication of a book of the papers given. To date nine volumes are in print and a tenth is in preparation. These symposia are notable for the use of pre-circulated papers so that sessions consist of workshop-type discussions. In consequence ICREFH symposia have developed a reputation for friendly criticism and co-operation. ICREFH’s Eleventh Symposium will be held in Paris early in September 2009.
The provisional title of the Symposium is “Food and War in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”, a topic which has been under consideration at the last two ICREFH meetings. The aim of this Symposium will be to shed some light on the question of how wars, food supply and consumption are interrelated. We hope contributors will ask whether the special circumstances of war resulted in the development of new eating and drinking customs and patterns. A common view is that wars lead to privation and shortages but we also want to consider how wars helped to promote new foods and lead to the substitution of others. We shall be interested to discuss whether or not wars helped new consumption patterns to develop: did war provoke the development of gendered eating styles; did it stabilize male and female consumption patterns or did it destabilize them? What long-term effects of wartime foods on public health can be observed in Europe? Did governments try to learn from these experiences and did war-time experience influence health policy after the end of war?
During the last two decades, food history has elaborated the basic development of food supply and food consumption. It has often been summarized as explaining the development from scarcity to abundance. But this development has not been as linear as the overall narrative suggests and ICREFH has explored the social and cultural factors by which knowledge of food has been transmitted from one generation to another. Wars have not so far been the subject of ICREFH’s consideration in any detail: yet they are not only interruptions of normal life; they influence the daily life and cultural developments deeply. Indeed, the World Wars in the twentieth century brought severe ruptures and breaks for food production and distribution which necessitated the improvisation of substitutes and alternative methods of manufacture. War brought about long lasting effects upon the economic structure of the food industry and the food policy of respective governments, not only with regard to protective standards for the quality of food consumed by their populations but also measured by changes in the individual food habits of the people. Moreover, it was during the two World wars and their aftermath that European governments developed food policy programmes, including rationing systems and health surveys.
Historians have been well aware of the negative influences of wartime upon food but they have widely neglected the longer lasting effects on health status and on consumption patterns and eating customs. Even the food of the armies, the organization of the army’s food supply and the role of the nutritional sciences for the planning of rations have been almost completely disregarded by food historians so far. However, army rations were conceived as a possible way of getting people used to better and healthier food, and as a means of educating the mostly young men who made up the armed forces. The army has also been an initiator of innovations: some of the food items and commodities that we take for granted today have been developed especially for the army in times of war as, for example, tinned food, instant soups and dried foods. As long as their production was too costly for normal civilians, the armies served as a field for experimentation and for the gathering of experience of production and the reaction of consumers. In doing so, they served as a kind of test market and created the possibility of developing methods of cheap mass production in order to lower prices. This helped to make new food products cheaper, so that they could be integrated into normal diets after the war had ended.
The proposed topic for ICREFH XI seems, therefore, to offer opportunities for many food historians to contribute to a discourse with wide comparative perspectives in European food studies. To stimulate discussion at the Symposium, contributors should address one or more of the following research questions in their papers. Papers should not only describe the development of particular topics, but should also assess the short and long term consequences which affect nutritional habits of today.
Papers may be offered in one of the four following sub-themes.

(1) Food allocation, food shortages and rationing in time of war:
- How was food allocated for the civilian population during twentieth-century European wars?
- How did government strategies differ in Europe?
- Were the armed forces given priorities in food allocation? What food was considered necessary for the fighting man?
- What rations were allocated to the armed services and civilians? What role did nutritional sciences play in these decisions?

(2) Alternative strategies for consumers:
- Did food control and food shortages alter consumer behaviour during European wars in the twentieth century?
- Did governments provide recipes and nutritional information for civilians?
- Did the black market have a significant effect on food supply during wartime?

(3) The social and health implications of wartime food consumption:
- Did war change patterns of eating and eating behaviour in either the short or long term?
- Were governments stimulated to develop food and nutrition policies by war? Did these policies persist in the post war era in the long term?
- Were food-related diseases present in wartime Europe?

(4) Innovations in food supply and technology during war time:
- Did war accelerate innovations in food processing and preservation?
- What “inventions” were made and how and where were they implemented?
- Did technological change persist to influence postwar food consumption?

Anyone wishing to propose a paper for ICREFH XI should complete the Application Form and send it back together with an abstract of up to 200 word.
Papers will be selected for the Symposium by ICREFH’s Technical Committee. Successful proposers will be informed by 31 May 2008 and sent further information.

APPLICATION FORM

ELEVENTH SYMPOSIUM OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR RESEARCH INTO EUROPEAN FOOD HISTORY (ICREFH)

Food and War in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

8-11 September 2009

Please e-mail this application form to: adrouard01@noos.fr
or post it as soon as possible to the symposium administration, care of:
M. Alain Drouard, rue Parrot 16, Paris 12, France 75012.
Applications must be received at the latest by 31 March 2008.

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Provisional title of Paper:

Summary of Topic (100-200 words)

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