---
title: Food Control Is a War Measure
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-control-is-a-war-measure-1917/
description: A dense text broadsheet argues that allied strategy and military urgency justify food regulation, setting columns of 'Europe's Needs' beside 'America's
section: Collection
---

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3. Food Control Is a War Measure

[![Food Control Is a War Measure, 1917 US poster: A dense text broadsheet argues that allied strategy and military urgency](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-control-is-a-war-measure-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-control-is-a-war-measure-1917.jpg)

# Food Control Is a War Measure

A dense text broadsheet argues that allied strategy and military urgency justify food regulation, setting columns of 'Europe's Needs' beside 'America's Record' and listing what 'war governs': exports, imports, business and living. The tell of transfer is the military framing of civilian food rules ('the army has first claim on all'), and the side-by-side statistics are the selected evidence offered for the case.

## 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

```
Food Control is a War Measure
Allied strategy shapes the food conservation campaign
Military urgency gives force to every food regulation

All needs bend to army requirements.   Moving the army, equipping the army, supplying the army, sustaining the army—the army's needs always come first.
Food, iron, wool, leather—our labor, our strength, our hopes, our prayers—the army has first claim on all.

EUROPE'S NEEDS
[… remaining text omitted: six short paragraphs of figures on food shortages in Belgium, France, England, Italy and other European countries, ending 'ALL ALLIED EUROPE DEPENDS ON FOOD FROM AMERICA']

Our Aims
Food resources of all nations fighting in the common defense are pooled for the war.  Ordinary markets are superseded by dominating purchases of allied powers.  Each nation is, therefore, compelled to set up a measure of food control.
The United States Food Administration is called into being:
To feed the Allies that they may continue to fight.
To feed the hungry in Belgium and other lands that they may continue to live.
To feed our own sailors at sea and our soldiers overseas that they may want nothing.
To keep prices steady and the flow of distribution even that the poor at home may be nourished nor feel the pinch of hunger.
Food Control in America is of and for the People

AMERICA'S RECORD
[… remaining text omitted: side panel of export and price figures for wheat, beef, pork and flour, ending 'AND THE ALLIES HAVE BEEN SUSTAINED']

Vessel room limits the number of men we can send; cargo space limits the food and equipment we can give them, the munitions we can put in their hands.
War dictates all exports and imports.  War governs our shipments of wheat and meat, our consumption of sugar, our allowance of coffee.  War needs rule our eating and going without.  War needs fix what we shall wear, what we shall spend, what we shall save.  War needs direct our living to the last detail.  Carrying capacity sets the margins for using or giving up.  Food control is a war measure.

War Needs Govern Exports—America is giving up wheat that war needs may be met—every grain the ships can carry is needed to hold intact the armies of France and England and Italy and to save Belgium from starvation.
America is sending beef and pork to the limit of shipping capacity to sustain the armies of the Allies.  America is using sugar carefully to free shipping for war needs.
War Needs Govern Imports—America is limiting its intake of luxuries and stripping its needs to vital wants, so to release shipping for war.
War Governs Business—Americans are shaping their traffic to supply the nation's needs, to maintain the strength of millions without waste, to provision the community at the least cost.
War Needs Govern All Living—As a military necessity, Americans eat potatoes instead of wheat, dip carefully into the sugar bowl, make their clothes last longer, save their income above bare need for government funds, set their clocks an hour earlier, cultivate the home garden, preserve fruits against the winter, calculate their household provision, regulate their expenditures of money and food and energy.

Food Control is a War Measure
Nations at war have been learning and doing these things through three terrible years.  America also is learning and doing

UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION
```

The two side panels (Europe's Needs; America's Record) are in very small type and are omitted from the transcription at paragraph boundaries to fit the 4,000-character limit; the headings and closing lines are given. The five circular shield emblems are not transcribed. A small sheet number at the lower left is illegible.

[← Food: Buy It with Thought, Cook It with Care (Don't Waste It)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-buy-it-with-thought-dont-waste-it-1917/) [Food Is Ammunition - Don't Waste It. →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-is-ammunition-dont-waste-it-1917/)

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