Agriculture in the United Kingdom fund the purchase as a mortgage. The Council could not refuse without the Minister of Agriculture's permission. In 1919 the Board of Agriculture and the Ministry of Food were merged to form the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, which later became the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). MAFF was in turn the predecessor of DEFRA. Before the Second World War started, Britain imported 55 million tons of food a year. By the end of 1939, this had dropped to 12 million, and food rationing was introduced at the start of 1940. It did not completely end until July
Rationing in the Soviet Union were deprived of rations. The rationing system was divided into four rates that differed in the size of rations, with lower rates unable to get such basic products as meat and fish. The rationing existed up to 1935. Foreign specialists employed in Russia were supplied through a separately established organization Insnab. The last, 12th Five-Year Plan that fell within the "perestroika" period ended with uncontrolled economical degradation, resulted in part in various ways of rationing in all Union republics. Perestroika produced a unique type of rationing: rationing of money. In 1990 in Byelorussia introduced a "Consumer's Card", which was a