Posts Tagged: World War I
It's time to get serious about food waste
Here's my take on food waste. It goes back in part to lessons I've learned from studying World War I, when the American government set food conservation goals (along with goals for local food production via Liberty - later Victory - Gardens). I'm a big proponent of both reducing food waste and producing more food in communities via school, home and community gardens. Big point: the World War I poster included in this post has advice we'd be well served to heed today.
"Food waste is both an ethical and environmental issue. It should concern us that we waste nearly 40 percent of the food we produce and purchase in this food-abundant nation.
For an interesting comparative statistic, consider this: our nation produced nearly 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables we consumed on the American home front during World War II in school, home, community and workplace gardens."
It's an iconic poster from World War 1. Food...don't waste it. The image is regularly shared on Twitter and Facebook.
The original was produced in 1919 by the United States Food Administration, under the direction of the newly appointed food "czar" - Herbert Hoover.
The poster was reissued during World War II. It's been revised in recent years, by individuals and organizations interested in encouraging an ethos incorporating local foods and sustainability.
While I'm the UC Food Observer, I also dabble in the history of wartime poster art. I'm often asked if this is a contemporary mock-up made to look and feel vintage.
It's not a mock-up. It's the real deal, produced 95 years ago, with messages we should embrace today.
History of poster art
The First World War marked the first large-scale use of propaganda posters by governments. Posters, with easy-to-understand slogans and compelling images, made powerful propaganda tools. The government needed to shape public opinion, recruit soldiers, raise funds and conserve resources and mobilize citizens to important home front activities ... including gardening, food conservation and food preservation. In an era before television and widespread radio and movies, posters were a form of mass media. And they appeared in windows and were posted on walls everywhere, in as many languages as were spoken in this nation of immigrants.
If you want to dig a little deeper, the poster art of WWI was influenced by the La Belle Epoque - the beautiful era - named in retrospect, after the full horror of WWI had been revealed. The Art Nouveau movement in France and the rise of modern advertising were also important in shaping how posters were used during wartime. Technical improvements in printing, including a process called chromolithography, facilitated mass production of posters.
The original poster: Yes: 'buy local foods' is rule 4
The original poster has six rules that we'd be well served to follow today. The fourth rule - buy local foods - is somewhat of a surprise to people today, because the notion of buying local seems somewhat modern. But in WWI, the U.S. government encouraged the local production and consumption of food, in part, to free trains to more effectively ship troops and war materiel.
Tackling food waste through preservation: today's Master Food Preserver Program
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) hosts a UC Master Food Preserver Program. The program teaches best practices on food safety and preservation to volunteers. The extensive training program prepares the volunteers to work in their community educating others on the safe practices of food preservation, including pickling, drying, freezing, canning and fruit preserves.
Thinking about gardening? Do we have resources for you!
UC ANR also has the UC Master Gardener Program, which fields more than 5,000 volunteers in communities across the state. The Master Gardener Program is a national program, housed at the land grant institution in each state, but it's also connected to the USDA. Free gardening resources are available here. Advice to grow by...just ask.
This is an excerpt of an article from a post on the UC Food Observer blog, used with permission.
Victory Gardens a Boon in Hard Times...Then and Now
I collect gardening catalogs. To me, they represent life and productivity and the promise of family, good food and good health. They also provide a link to a simpler, agrarian past that I find comforting and restorative in these unsettling times. In a world where oil gushes unabated into the Gulf of Mexico, violence seems unchecked, compassion towards the less fortunate seems to have evaporated and economic misery abounds, I find gardening catalogs a refuge of optimism. We need fewer bad things in this world and more good gardens.
I’ve spent more time this year sitting in the chair in my garden, thinking about what this small cultivated area says about these times, this world and my life. I’ve resisted buying many seeds this year; like others, the economy gives me jitters. Not that I’m without hope about the economy or the potential of gardens in this current presidential administration. Especially the latter, as the residents of the White House look favorably on sustainable and local food systems. Like our family, the first family has a garden on the front lawn. What’s more affirming than a front yard garden in hard times like these?
In hard times, Americans have always turned to gardening.
The Victory Gardens of World War I and World War II - and the garden efforts of the Great Depression - helped Americans weather hard times. These gardens helped the family budget; improved dietary practices; reduced the food mile and saved fuel; enabled America to export more food to our allies; beautified communities; empowered every citizen to contribute to a national effort; and bridged social, ethnic, class and cultural differences during times when cooperation was vital. Gardens were an expression of solidarity, patriotism, and shared sacrifice. They were everywhere...schools, homes, workplaces, and throughout public spaces all over the nation. No effort was too small. Americans did their bit. And it mattered.
Consider this: In WWI, the Federal Bureau of Education rolled out a national school garden program and funded it with War Department monies. Millions of students gardened at school, at home, and in their communities. A national Liberty Garden (later Victory Garden) program was initiated that called on all Americans to garden for the nation and the world. The success of home gardeners (and careful food preservation) helped the U.S. increase exports to our starving European Allies.
The WWII experience was equally successful. During 1943, some polls reported that 3/5ths of Americans were gardening, including Vice President Henry Wallace, who gardened with his son. That same year, according to some estimates, nearly 40% of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed stateside were grown in school, home and community gardens. In addition to providing much-needed food, gardening helped Americans unite around a positive activity. Gardens gave all Americans a way to provide service to the nation, enabling citizens on the homefront to make significant contributions to the war effort.
Our nation again finds itself in challenging times. School, home and community gardens provide a way to respond positively to this period of uncertainty and change.
Will you do your bit?
Oh, what a tangled web we weave...
When first we practise to deceive!"
These oft-quoted lines, written by Scottish author Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), have a great deal of relevance when applied to the latest food system crisis. The current crisis, which involves the adulteration of dairy products originating in China, is having worldwide repercussions.
The adulterating substance is melamine, which should ring a few bells for pet owners, who will certainly remember the wide recall of numerous brands of pet food in the spring of 2007. This recall eventually involved products in the human food supply. The recalls in the United States came largely as the result of clusters of pet deaths due to renal failure from exposure to the tainted foods.
Melamine is sometimes added to products to increase the appearance of their protein content. It is a chemical that poses serious and long-term health implications for humans and other animals.
The list of implicated products is growing by the day, and already includes cheese, infant formula, cookies, creamer, candy, instant coffee and tea, and baby cereal. The implicated products - and the list of potentially contaminated products - have affected major consumer outlets, including Pizza Hut. While most of the tainted products have been discovered in Asian countries, some products have been pulled from American shelves. The recall will continue to grow, because the tainted products are ingredients in many processed foods.
How can we even know that the processed food products we buy aren't implicated? It's difficult to ascertain. Foods are so highly processed, and the aggregate nature of this processing means that food streams from all parts of the world often come together to form a single product. So while the manufacturers of my favorite processed food indulgence (a not-to-be-named cream filled chocolate cookie) have assured consumers that their cream filling doesn't contain any dairy product from China, I can't help but be concerned. Food labels simply don't contain enough information for me to accurately determine where a product's many ingredients originate.
In 1906, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a muckraking novel which highlighted - among other social ills - unsanitary practices in the meatpacking industry. While it wasn't Sinclair's primary intent, national response to the graphic descriptions of tainted food led to major federal legislation directly impacting food safety. These legislative pieces included the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which resulted in the creation of the Food and Drug Administration.
As an historian who has read The Jungle as both a piece of literature and as one of the first major commentaries on the American food system, I marvel at the impact a single book made. And I marvel at the lack of outrage at this latest food crisis, and the unquestioning way many of us purchase processed food products.
One of my favorite World War II posters encourages Americans to "be sure" by growing their own. Sounds better and better to me. If you can't grow your own, try to buy locally, and if you can't do that, buy minimally processed foods as often as possible.
Food processors intentionally sought to deceive consumers by cutting corners and adulterating food products. But the tangled web that has facilitated the spread of these tainted food products - a dysfunctional food system - is one entirely of our own making.
"A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."
Food Will Win the War
UC Advisor Emeritus Dan Desmond (he was also a Food and Society Policy Fellow, Class IV) and I co-authored an op-ed that appeared last Sunday (May 4th) in the Ventura County Star. Since then, it's been referenced in a few blogs. Here's the link, and I hope you'll read it. Gardening and the food system are big news these days, and there is certainly a political aspect to that.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/may/04/food-will-win-the-war/
I recently returned from the Kellogg Food and Society Conference in Arizona. There, I met a number of incredible people who are doing important work towards a more sustainable food system. I'll be writing about them in the weeks ahead.
Several of those who made the greatest impression upon me were bloggers dedicated to their message and their craft. They've inspired me to commit to blogging at least 2-3 times a week. Stay posted.
"A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."