---
title: Food Is Ammunition - Don't Waste It.
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-is-ammunition-dont-waste-it-1917/
description: A basket of vegetables, corn and grapes fills the foreground below a silhouetted column of mounted soldiers carrying the American flag against an orange
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Food Is Ammunition - Don't Waste It.

[![Food Is Ammunition - Don't Waste It., 1917 US poster: A basket of vegetables, corn and grapes fills the foreground below](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-is-ammunition-dont-waste-it-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-is-ammunition-dont-waste-it-1917.jpg)

# Food Is Ammunition - Don't Waste It.

A basket of vegetables, corn and grapes fills the foreground below a silhouetted column of mounted soldiers carrying the American flag against an orange sky. The title equates household food with military ammunition, so the soldiers' prestige is transferred to the act of not wasting food.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Food is
Ammunition-
Don't waste it.

No. 5

UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION

HEYWOOD STRASSER & VOIGT LITHO. CO., N.Y.

J. E. SHERIDAN
```

'J. E. Sheridan' is the artist's signature within the picture; 'No. 5' is the sheet number at lower left.

[← Food Control Is a War Measure](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-control-is-a-war-measure-1917/) [Food Will Win the War: The Conservation of Food (Herbert Hoover) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-will-win-the-war-conservation-of-food-hoover-1917/)

## 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)