---
title: Know your onions
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/know-your-onions-1943/
description: 'Food-conservation poster: a smiling cartoon cook in a chef''s hat holds an onion in one hand and a paring knife in the other.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Know your onions

[![Know your onions, 1943 US poster: Food-conservation poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/know-your-onions-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/know-your-onions-1943.jpg)

# Know your onions

Food-conservation poster: a smiling cartoon cook in a chef's hat holds an onion in one hand and a paring knife in the other, with the headline 'Know your onions' and the banner 'Make all the food go all the way'. A yellow shell-casing disc reads 'Food is ammunition, don't waste it', moving the weight of ammunition onto kitchen waste.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/)

## Text on the object

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

```
KNOW YOUR
ONIONS
FOOD IS AMMUNITION
DON'T WASTE IT
MAKE ALL THE FOOD
GO ALL THE WAY
[imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943--O--546993]
```

[← Kill the black market with your ration stamps](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-the-black-market-ration-stamps-1943/) [Lamb feeders! Produce shearlings! Help keep our flyers warm →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lamb-feeders-produce-shearlings-1943/)

## 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)