The majority of food products were not
transported across great distances, as
preservation techniques remained simple
and transport networks were limited. For
example, animals could be slaughtered in
the vicinity of the butcher’s shop where the
meat was then sold.
Despite these echoes from the past, the
first signs of modernity in food production,
storage and sales started to appear in the
1950s. For instance, while in this decade
over 20% of people were working on the
land in the EU-6, the introduction of laboursaving
machinery heralded the start of the
industrialisation of animal agriculture. Fifty
years later only slightly more than 5% of
the adult population would be doing the
same level of labour intensive work in the
EU-25.