---
title: Eat all you want...but be sure you want it!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eat-all-you-want-but-be-sure-you-want-it-1944/
description: Food-waste poster. A cartoon farm daughter in a gingham dress stands with hands on hips beside a milk pail, with a rhyme addressed to the reader above
section: Collection
---

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2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Eat all you want...but be sure you want it!

[![Eat all you want...but be sure you want it!, 1944 US poster: Food-waste poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/eat-all-you-want-but-be-sure-you-want-it-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/eat-all-you-want-but-be-sure-you-want-it-1944.jpg)

# Eat all you want...but be sure you want it!

Food-waste poster. A cartoon farm daughter in a gingham dress stands with hands on hips beside a milk pail, with a rhyme addressed to the reader above a sailor who is scraping a tray of uneaten food into a bin. The tell is a pin-up style figure and a nursery-rhyme parody used to carry a rationing-era plea not to waste food.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Old MacDonald had a farm
He had a daughter, too...
If you'd rate four-point-O
With both
DON'T WASTE THE FOOD
THEY GREW
EAT ALL
YOU WANT...
BUT BE SURE
YOU WANT IT!
[signature:] DYER USNR
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944 - O - 620867
```

[← Earn money each week for War Bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/earn-money-each-week-for-war-bonds-schools-at-war-1944/) ['Denryoku wa senryoku!' (Electric Power Is Military Power!) home-front poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/electric-power-is-military-power-poster-1944/)

## 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)