Different Speeds, Similar Directions

The essay compares the pathways British and Austrian agro-food systems took after the Second World War. Despite 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.