By focusing on the British blockade of Germany, the prevailing narrative over-privileges one aspect of the use of food for belligerent purposes during the First World War. Blockade was not just Britain’s concern. France played a key role in its implementation, especially in respect to land routes and in the Mediterranean. Also, it was not just imposed in the Atlantic approaches. The other seas lapping both Europe and western Asia were vehicles for the application of sea power. In addition, starvation was not just an instrument of maritime warfare: it was also used by armies. Nor was Germany the only target; so too were its allies: Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. How the blocking of maritime trade affected their fighting power varied, depending on the management of their domestic food production, their distribution networks and their agricultural workforces. The blockade may have looked like a blunt instrument but its effectiveness depended on its interactions with other conditions, not all of them under governmental or even human control.