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This paper is concerned with the internationalization of public health in Asia during the inter-war years. The first section shows that international health networks created new connections across Asia, and between Asia and Europe in the 1920s. The second part of the paper shows that by the 1930s, South and Southeast Asia were central to the global debates on agricultural production, the consumption of food, and the welfare of populations. The economic crises of the 1930s reflected both the progress and the limitations of the 1920s’ experiments in Asia. The debates between international experts were drawn into moral and political debates about sovereignty, and on the relations between nations, empires, and international organizations.