To Win the Peace: The Food and Agriculture Organization, Sir John Boyd Orr, and the World Food Board Proposals

Sir John Boyd Orr, who became the first director‐general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, sought a peace centered on the idea of achieving “freedom from want.” This idea led to the World Food Board proposals he developed and presented to the international community in 1946. However, his plan for a massive international campaign to boost global agricultural productivity as well as an ambitious commodity storage program to stabilize world prices were largely rejected by the U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Office. Orr's vision of the postwar world—of how to win the peace—differed markedly from their own, which was based on the ideas of free trade and military strength aimed at the emerging Soviet bloc. This article raises questions about alternatives to the Cold War as well as the role of the new UN's specialized agencies in developing the postwar world.