Lord John Boyd Orr

Kilmaurs, East Ayrshire, Scotland, 1880 - 1971

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About MeJohn Boyd Orr was one of the UK’s leading experts on nutrition and spent much of his life campaigning for better diet, both nationally and internationally. Based on his work in the 1920s, the government introduced milk for children in Scottish schools, which was of huge nutritional benefit. John was instrumental in establishing the Rowett Institute, now part of the University of Aberdeen, which today continues his work to prevent disease and improve health through nutrition.

In the 1930s his work was used by Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, to develop food policy during the Second World War. John’s recommendations saw women and children, particularly from poorer classes, having better health at the end of the war than at the beginning. In 1945 he was elected Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation for the United Nations, where he argued that food and prosperity for all people led to peace. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949.
Additional InfoImage attribution: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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