Food as a Weapon: Agricultural Sciences and the Building of a Greater German Empire

摘要

Food played a crucial role in the Nazis’ vision of a new European order under Germanncontrol. More food had to be produced and markets had to be reorganized. Agriculturalnsciences under the Nazi regime worked to increase productivity, breed new plants andnto improve existing species. In the war against the Soviet Union, food was explicitly usednas a weapon to defeat the enemy. This paper focuses on Richard Walther Darré andnHerbert Backe, who were in charge of agriculture and food throughout the twelve yearsnof the Third Reich. The two men stood at the crossroads of agricultural sciences andnpolitics, and the continuity between their ideas and policies illustrates the relationnbetween agricultural sciences and the Nazi state.