Preliminary Programme

As a consequence of WWII, health and nutritional conditions of a part of the European population experienced strong impairment during the period 1940-1960. The present paper analyses national and international surveys and reports around the consequences of hunger and famine in Europe during post-war years. The last reports on nutrition and health published by the League of Nations, as well as those discussed by expert committees at the FAO and WHO, are the main, valuable sources. National Institutes for Food, National Schools of Hygiene and policies of rationing and community nutrition will be taken into consideration, in the frame of an international field of collaboration between politicians and experts.
Specific research on malnutrition and nutrition deficiencies in rural areas, among refugees, prisoners in internment camps during the war and post-war years will be also discussed.
Some documents and technical reports are
Données sur la FAO, Organisation del Nations Unies pour l’Agriculture et l’Alimentation, Washington, 1947.
Enquête Mondiale sur lÁlimentation, Washington, Rome, Organisation del Nations Unies pour l’Agriculture et l’Alimentation, 1946-1953.
Joint FAO/WHO Espert Committee on Nutrition. Report on the first session, Geneva, World Health organisation, 1950.
Joint FAO/WHO Espert Committee on Nutrition. Prevention and treatment of severe malnutrition in times of disaster. Presented to World Health Assembly. Geneva, World Health Organisation, 1951.
Joint FAO/WHO Espert Committee on Nutrition, Rome April 10th – 17th 1951. Past activities and future program.
Rapport de la Réunion de la FAO sur la Nutrition en Europe, Rome, Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1958, 28 p.
World Food Survey [1st], Washington, Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1946, 39 p.
World Food Survey [2nd], Rome, Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1952, 59 p. (Show less)

My paper will focus on the circulation, between agronomy and medicine, of the concept of ration in France, during the XIXth century.


Many concepts concerning nutrition, which today are part of our food culture, were developed at the early XIXth century. Among them, the most important is certainly the conception of nutritional needs like a “ration”, that is to say the relationship between food and body as an account which has to be balanced. Except that in this case, the equivalent between entry and expense is not money (but calories, for example).

The “intake-output” analysis (of the post-Lavoisier chemistry), was firstly applied in the 1830's to rural economy, in order to establish balanced rations for the livestock, not in medicine. Chemical analysis was applied to the agronomic problem that is to compare, on a rational basis, the cost of food provided to animals and their outputs. The relation between food given and animal production was, in this case, not only a question of money but also a question of exchange of chemical elements (nitrogen, starch, etc.). It is only after a decade that the physicians of faculties and the hygienists had begin to use this concept of quantified comparison in order to study the relationship between food and health. Of course some physicians were already interested by the question of the amount of foodstuff necessary to live, but it was not in this meaning.

How an economic reasoning about rational management of farms was introduced in medicine and was extended to the field of human health ? Starting from the implementation of agricultural chemistry in the late 1830's in France, I study the relationship between several institutions and scientists who take part to the process of integration of the “ration” in medical thought about food and health. I consider principally the "Institut National d’Agronomie" and some corporate laboratories (animals feeding), the "Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers" (chemistry applied to agriculture and industrial hygiene), the Paris faculty of medicine (biological chemistry), and the work done by the hygienists of the "Annales d’Hygiène Publique et de Médecine Légale". (Show less)

The new food safety problems raised by the industrialization of the food chain from the late 19th century, led to the organization of new regulations and controls of food quality. In these
controls, chemical and medical experts were increasingly involved. However, they did
not always play the role one could expect.
In this paper I will focus on the role played by the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine in the passing of new regulations. In Spain, the reports on food safety issues drafted by the Academy were usually quoted in the main special food orders. Nevertheless, the real impact of sanitary and chemical expertise was not clear at all. I will analyze the intervention of this institution in the establishment of food safety standards for foodstuffs such as saccharin, edible oil and paprika and will shed new light on the actual meaning and relevance of the involvement of these experts in food regulation.
The Spanish case study will be considered in relation to other local cases such as those of France and Germany. This will be useful in order to state the different meanings of expert assessment at the turn of the century. (Show less)