Farmers played a key role in the war effort during the two major armed conflicts of the 20th century. They were kept busy feeding the troops and supplying the allies and local populations. During the Great War, from the very start of the hostilities, Quebec purchased thousands of tons of cheese from the Coopérative des fromagers (one of Sollio’s founding cooperatives) for shipment to the English metropolis. In addition to cheese, exports of certain meats to Great Britain were such that, in 1917, the Food Controller recommended that Canadians stop eating bacon two days a week. Rationing was not about shortages, but about priorities.
World War II required a similar war effort. As fighting and blockades disrupted supply chains and made it difficult to access food on the old continent, farm gate prices doubled between 1939 and 1944. Thus, the war brought more than woes. It prompted changes that accelerated the transition to market agriculture in several cases and generalized the transition to greater industrialization and mechanization. Economic policies and production patterns shifted.
Beyond fighting and rising exports, the two world wars would have a profound impact on agricultural practices and economic policies. The use of nitrogen fertilizers became widespread thanks to the work of the inventor of mustard gas, Nobel Prize winning chemist Fritz Haber. Motorization overtook the horse, while oil and electricity replaced wind as an energy source. On trade policy, fears of starvation that remained fresh in the minds of European leaders lent agriculture a special status in the GATT (General agreement on tariffs and trade) agreements. For years, that agricultural exception gave greater latitude to States that were able to adopt their own national agricultural policies.