The Rhetoric of Hunger and Plenty: Agro-Food Policy in Belgium, 1919-1958

For centuries, people depended on local or regional markets for their food supply. From the late nineteenth century onwards, global agricultural production, international trade in food products, and the food industry grew rapidly. The European governments had to drastically adapt their agro-food policy to the challenges of this globalizing market.

How did Belgium, a small and densely populated country that was particularly sensitive to the market, do this? This dissertation exposes the social tensions and political discussions about the supply and demand of food during the crucial, but unexplored, period between 1930 and 1955. The debates in governments, parliament, political parties and interest groups of producers and consumers on 'the people’s food' (its quantity, quality, diversity and food safety) were strongly influenced by the two world wars, the crisis of the 1930s and the Cold War.

The dissertation focuses on two research questions. Firstly, did Belgium have an agro-food policy in the interests of the farmer or the consumer? Until recently, historians approached this period from two almost separate historiographical traditions: the historiography of agriculture, agricultural policy and farmers' associations on the one hand, and the historiography of consumption and the consumer movement on the other. This dissertation bridges the gap between these two traditions. It examines the tensions, the compromises and the relations between the interest groups of the consumer (trade unions, doctors, sociologists, etc.) and those of the farmer (farmers' associations, agricultural experts, etc.). Parliament became the political arena where these interest groups defended their positions. Parliamentary acts therefore form the most important source for this research.

The second research question departs from the conceptual framework of civil society theory (Putnam, Zijderveld, Trentmann). This theory is applied to the analysis of the relationship and tensions between the spokespersons of farmers' and consumers' interests, and unravels the assumed - but often blurred - dividing lines between the political field (the state), the economic field (the market) and the civil society (the interest groups). How did the relations between these three fields evolve from 1930 to 1955? The good cooperation between the Belgian Farmers' Union and the state - built up since the end of the nineteenth century - was maintained; the association was consulted in advisory committees, received subsidies, and its expertise and know-how was used in policy-making. Newer associations such as the Alliance Agricole Belge and the Union Professionnelles Agricole built up a similar partnership, while the Boerenfront opposed the state through the organization of strikes. There existed no well-organized interest group to defend 'the consumer'. As a result, the voice of the consumer remained quite absent from the political debate and from advisory bodies.

Despite the better organization of 'the agricultural group', successive governments did take consumer interests into account between 1930 and 1955. They did this with various, fluctuating motives: to maintain order, in the context of a deflationary policy, or with the intention to stimulate demand in favour of the national economy. This study concludes that Belgian agro-food policy was never determined by the influence of a single interest group, but rather the result of a changing balance of power between these groups. The Belgian governments deliberately manoeuvred their agro-food policy between the interests of the consumer, the producer and the industry (the food industry, the supply industry, etc.), thus steering a middle course.