The British Food Journal Volume 60 Issue 4 1958

Speaking at a recent dinner, the new Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Rt. Hon. John Hare, observed that he had arrived at a time when the last traces of shortages and controls had been finally buried. He claimed that the efforts of the Conservative Party had been largely responsible for the great improvement in the general food situation over the last six years. “What a transformation has occurred,” he said. “Thanks to the policies we have adopted, everybody is eating better, including, I am glad to say, the old‐age pensioners. We have finally passed out of the era of shortage into plenty. I mean, of course, plenty in relation to consumers' purchasing power throughout the world. I know full well that there are great areas of the world where the population is still woefully badly fed.” The last‐quoted sentence of the Minister shows more signs of under‐statement than the earlier ones, for it is unhappily only too true that under‐nourishment is still the apparently inescapable lot of millions of our fellow human beings.