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Fattening children or fattening farmers? School milk in Britain, 1921–1941 1
Author(s) -
ATKINS PETER J.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2005.00298.x
Subject(s) - popularity , politics , dairy industry , agricultural economics , business , agricultural science , political science , economics , food science , biology , law
Fattening children or fattening farmers? School milk in Britain, 1921‐1941. The introduction of school milk in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century was a relatively slow process. This article seeks to understand state and private sector initiatives in the light of four issues: nutrition, political factors, problems in the dairy industry, and the moulding of the consumers of the future. Overall, the nutritional benefits of school milk are debatable, possibly even negative in those areas where it replaced other foods; but the dairy industry did well, creating new markets at a time of depression. After the war school milk reached the zenith of its popularity.