Food Consumption on the Home Front 1913-1923 – PSOMI

Bringing together historians, socio-anthropologists and specialists of visual studies, this multidisciplinary project examines the role of the First World War in the long-term transformation of food systems and identities, in a context of increased food insecurity. Food was one of the major issues of the total war between 1914 and 1918, having played a role in the defeat of the Central Powers. In a global perspective and a chronological framework extended to aftermath of the conflict (1913-1923), the project focuses on the lesser-known situation of the Entente countries through a comparative approach of four countries affected in different ways by food insecurity : France, Italy, Belgium and Greece. At the crossroads of the history of the First World War and Food Studies, the project focuses on food consumption on the home front – the space extending from the rear-front to the territories furthest from it –, from the point of view of food retail (food shops, restaurants, emergency distribution) whose organization, supply and economic prospects were transformed during this decade. It combines the study of practices and representations to grasp the evolution of food consumption constrained by tensions over supply and public regulations, marked by transformations in gender dynamics, identities and social ties. The project also questions the transformation of tastes, put to the test of restrictions and confrontation with other food cultures, in connection with the mass mobilities of the period. The project thus seeks to assess the features and extension of food insecurity in these countries through the evolution of the retail food sector and consumption. It adopts a comparative approach to capture the diversity of actors, sites and issues at different scales, local, national and transnational (Entente and Central Powers).