![Grow Your Own Food [1], 1939 UK poster: A painted signboard reading 'grow your own' stands in dark soil above a leek, two](../images/uk-grow-your-own-food-zero-1939.jpg)
Grow Your Own Food [1]
A painted signboard reading 'grow your own' stands in dark soil above a leek, two turnips and a stalk of celery whose shapes spell out 'food'. The tell is the everyday allotment crop presented as the citizen's own contribution; there is no named authority, threat or promise on the sheet.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Printed for H.M. Stationery Office (issuing department not named on the poster); artist Hans Schleger (signed 'Zero'); printed by Fosh & Cross Ltd, London
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Artist Hans Schleger ('Zero'); printed for HMSO by Fosh & Cross Ltd. NARA, World War II Foreign Posters (44-PF-195a).
Text on the object
grow your own ZERO PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY FOSH & CROSS LTD., LONDON. 51-3540
