Food: Don't Waste It

I found this sign on a trip to New Hampshire at the beginning of February. I was headed to the White Mountains on a travel writing assignment, and on a stop at the Antique Gallery in Concord, my companion happened to discover this strange piece of propoganda. We figured it was from the 1950s, or maybe the Depression era.

When I got home, though, I discovered that the sign came from Herbert Hoover's food conservation campaign during World War I. According to the Hoover Library & Museum, President Wilson called Hoover to take charge of the food situation as U.S. Food Administrator in 1917, at the start of the war. The U.S. Food Administration would be responsible for providing food not only to US troops and the American people but also to the Allied troops and populations.

Wilson thought the effort would require strict laws on food consumption, but Hoover wanted to make the sacrifice voluntary--by appealing to the American public to conserve food and eliminate waste. He instituted Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays and used signs like this one to proclaim "Food Will Win the War."

Hoover's efforts were a great success. Without rationing, he was able to reduce American food consumption by 15%, keep the American troops fed, and build up a surplus of food to prevent a post-war famine in Europe.

It is interesting, I think, how closely the advice on eating in this poster resembles the "new" era of food thought propogated by people like Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver (of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle), and others. The basic message--eat locally, thoughtfully, in moderation--remains the same.