Turnip Winter

Urban Farm DB summary

The article on the German food crisis of 1916–17 during the First World War. It states that the Allied blockade reduced food supplies by 33 per cent and that the civilian diet fell to 1,560 calories a day by the summer of 1917 and to 1,000 calories a day in winter, against the 3,000 calories said to be needed by a healthy adult male. The name comes from the substitution of fodder swedes (turnips) for the failed potato crop. Female mortality is given as rising 11.5 per cent in 1916 and 30 per cent in 1917 against pre-war rates, and the historian G. J. Meyer is cited, quoting a Berlin physician, for the claim that eighty thousand children died of starvation in 1916. The historian Avner Offer is cited for the estimate that one-fifth to one-third of food could be obtained only through illegal channels.

Only numbers and their conditions are stored, as structured data — never the source's own sentences. Metric and condition names stay in English, as coded.

• 1,000 kcal_per_day↓ Decrease

  daily calorie intake(civilian diet)

  HealthControl: 3,000 kcal said to be needed by a healthy adult male

  region

  Germany

  year

  1916-1917

  method

  civilian diet in winter during the Allied blockade

• 33 %↓ Decrease

  food supply reduction(allied blockade)

  PolicyControl: pre-blockade food supply

  region

  Germany

  year

  1916-1917

  method

  effect of the Allied naval blockade on food supplies

• 1,560 kcal_per_day↓ Decrease

  daily calorie intake(civilian diet)

  HealthControl: 3,000 kcal said to be needed by a healthy adult male

  region

  Germany

  year

  1917

  method

  civilian diet in summer 1917

• 30 %↑ Increase

  mortality increase(female mortality)

  HealthControl: pre-war female mortality rate

  region

  Germany

  year

  1917

  method

  female mortality against pre-war rates

• 11.5 %↑ Increase

  mortality increase(female mortality)

  HealthControl: pre-war female mortality rate

  region

  Germany

  year

  1916

  method

  female mortality against pre-war rates

Direction of conclusions

Each author conclusion is recorded only as a coded direction per topic. Read the original for the conclusion itself.

• Food securitySupportsWith caveats
• Nutrition and healthSupportsWith caveats