Different Speeds, Similar Directions. Agricultural Development in Grat Britain and Austria after the Second World War
Different Speeds, Similar Directions. Agricultural Development in Great Britain and Austria after the Second World War

Summary/Abstract: The essay compares the pathways British and Austrian agro-food systems took after the Second World War. Dispite sharp structural differences - e.g. Great Britain as a large country with a small agrarian sector versus Austria as a small country with a large agrarian sector -, it is striking that both countries implemented similar agricultural and food policies after 1945. British and Austrian policies were framed by the concept of 'productivist' (i.e. capital-intensive, concentrated and specialized) agriculture, driven by the orientation towards national food security, income parity between agrarian and non-agrarian sectors and structural change from agrarian to industrial society. Though agricultural developments in Britain and Austria - as well as in other Western European countries - differed in speed, the direction towards labour and land productivity growth was quite similar.

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