It is vividly described in the passage how, during World War II, the British government ____ .

Within a short time after the outbreak of the Second World
War, Britain was without imports of many vital
pharmaceuticals that had formerly come from Japan,
Germany and the Far East. As a result, the first wartime
government set up systematic research into the
cultivation and medical use of herbs, By 1940, women's
voluntary organisations had been drawn into a national
campaign to gather wild herbs, Up and down the country,
County Herb Committees were organised to oversee the
gathering, drying, distillation and distribution of the
medicinal herbs. Lay people were given brief locally-based
training in how to recognise herbs, store and dry them.
Farmers were given subsidies to farm certain naturally
hard-to-find herbs. By 1943, every county had its herb
committee and during the five years of the Second World
War, over 750 tons of dried herbs were gathered and
turned into medicines.