---
title: Food is ammunition ...so don't waste it!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-is-ammunition-so-dont-waste-it-navy-1944/
description: Cartoon of three cooks in white caps pushing a loaf of bread into the mouth of a seated sailor, with scraps, sausages and a ham bone on the floor around
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Food is ammunition ...so don't waste it!

[![Food is ammunition...so don't waste it!, 1944 US poster: Cartoon of three cooks in white caps pushing a loaf of bread into](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-is-ammunition-so-dont-waste-it-navy-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/food-is-ammunition-so-dont-waste-it-navy-1944.jpg)

# Food is ammunition ...so don't waste it!

Cartoon of three cooks in white caps pushing a loaf of bread into the mouth of a seated sailor, with scraps, sausages and a ham bone on the floor around him. The headline 'Food is Ammunition ...so' runs into the bottom banner 'Don't Waste It!'. The food-as-ammunition equation is played for humour; no other persuasion device is prominent.

## 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

```
FOOD IS AMMUNITION
...SO

DON'T WASTE IT!

[signature:] DYER USNR
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-620867
```

[← Floating Smoke Pot, M4A2](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/floating-smoke-pot-m4a2-1944/) [For Liberty and Peace on Earth Give War Bonds →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/for-liberty-and-peace-on-earth-war-bonds-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)