The recent escalation in the severity of temperatures, droughts, storms, and floods has diminished my hopes that the stability and safety that I personally enjoyed during my lifetime will continue into the future for my children and grandchildren. The most immediate threat from this climate change is to our food supply. How can we best adapt to a more difficult world?
Recent history provides many examples of populations of people whose lives have been disrupted by circumstances beyond their control. The best illustrations come from the widespread food shortages that plagued the lives of people living during World War I and II in Western Europe. Some survived these hardships better than others, and here is where valuable lessons for our future can be learned.
One result of the British naval blockade of the North Sea during WWI was that over 400,000 Germans died due to malnutrition from 1914 to 1918. Denmark, which remained neutral during this conflict, was also severely affected by the blockade. But in contrast to the German experience, the Danes thrived. This turn of fortune was due to the brilliance of the physician and nutritionist, Mikkel Hindhede (1862-1945), who served as the manager of the Danish National Laboratory for Nutrition Research in Copenhagen and food advisor to the Danish government during World War I. |
