---
title: Don't Take More Than You Can Eat (Food Is Ammunition, Conserve It!)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-take-more-than-you-can-eat-1941/
description: 'Food-conservation poster: a photographed soldier in uniform scrapes a plate of leftovers into a dustbin under the headline ''Don''t take more than you can'
section: Collection
---

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3. Don't Take More Than You Can Eat (Food Is Ammunition, Conserve It!)

[![Don't Take More Than You Can Eat, 1941 US poster: Food-conservation poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-take-more-than-you-can-eat-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-take-more-than-you-can-eat-1941.jpg)

# Don't Take More Than You Can Eat (Food Is Ammunition, Conserve It!)

Food-conservation poster: a photographed soldier in uniform scrapes a plate of leftovers into a dustbin under the headline 'Don't take more than you can eat', with an arrow reading 'Food is ammunition. Conserve it!'. Equating food with ammunition carries the weight of the military cause over to the plate, a transfer technique.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
DON'T
TAKE MORE
THAN YOU
CAN EAT
FOOD IS
AMMUNITION
CONSERVE IT!
FCP-1
[credit:] S/SGTS. H.M. PASCAL
+ PAUL LEFEBVRE
QMRTC, CAMP LEE, VA.
```

[← Don't save his face! Every blow counts in the battle for production](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-save-his-face-every-blow-counts-1941/) [Don't: 1. Talk loosely to strangers 2. Spread rumors →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-talk-loosely-spread-rumors-seagram-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)