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17.5% of pre-war German imports were foodstuffs.
The British blockade thus cut off the supply of fertilizers for agriculture, as well as a significant portion of foodstuffs.
In addition, the German administration made many mistakes at the very beginning of the war.
As early as 1915, the so-called Schweinenmord was committed, when the authorities, in a misguided move intended to "save" on the amount of grain available for human consumption, ordered the slaughter of approximately 9 million pigs!
In the short term, this improved the availability of pork, but, as the article emphasizes, a "by-product" was a further decline in the availability of fertilizers, in the form of so-called manure, or "home-made dung!" Rebuilding the pig population in the following years under wartime conditions proved practically impossible.
Bread rationing was initially introduced in Berlin in January 1915, and soon throughout Germany. Portions were limited to 250 grams per day. In the spring, cake baking was formally banned, and two official "meatless" days per week were introduced. Even earlier, in October 1914, so-called K-Brot, or war bread, was introduced, initially containing around 5% potato flour, soon to be increased to 10%. Already in January 1915, so-called KK-Brot was introduced, containing as much as 20% potato flour.
Thus, in the first few months of the war, Germany faced a serious problem supplying its population with basic food.
After the winter of 1916/1917, there was a potato harvest failure, which exacerbated the already difficult food situation.
