---
title: This is a Cow... (home-grown food and shipping)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-this-is-a-cow-grow-your-own-food-greycaines-1939/
description: Six panels of maps of Britain with verse captions contrast a cow fed on food from 60 ships a month before the war with one fed on home-grown food.
section: Collection
---

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3. This is a Cow... (home-grown food and shipping)

[![This is a Cow..., 1939 UK poster: Six panels of maps of Britain with verse captions contrast a cow fed on food from 60 ships](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-this-is-a-cow-grow-your-own-food-greycaines-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-this-is-a-cow-grow-your-own-food-greycaines-1939.jpg)

# This is a Cow... (home-grown food and shipping)

Six panels of maps of Britain with verse captions contrast a cow fed on food from 60 ships a month before the war with one fed on home-grown food, then show crops and a spade. The verses speak in the collective 'we' and 'our will', fusing the reader with the national effort, and ask households to sow vegetables so ships carry arms.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)

## Text on the object

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

```
This is a cow who smacked her lips
On food that came to her in ships.
For 60 ships a month pre-war
She'd give the milk we asked her for.

This is a cow in war-time mood
Who's learnt to feed on home-grown food;
But British farmers plan her diet,
So milk supplies don't suffer by it.

These are the spuds and oats and wheat
(The most important things we eat),
That must be grown on British farms
So ships are spared to bring us arms.

These are the things that you can sow
To supplement what farmers grow.
With vegetables throughout our land
We'll foil the scheme the Axis planned.

This is a spade to symbolise
Our will to grow our own supplies.
We'll feed ourselves - then ships are free
To carry arms to Victory.

[imprint:] Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaines, Watford and London. 51-2961
```

[← They Talked... This Happened](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-they-talked-this-happened-1939/) ['This is the Year! It's up to us to let 'em have it!' (Ministry of Aircraft Production poster) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-this-is-the-year-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Our job is to beat the Hun. Vote Union Government (Canada, 1917 election)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/our-job-is-to-beat-the-hun-union-government-1917/) (Canada · 1917 · Name-calling, Identity fusion). Content note: Ethnic slur ('Hun') for Germans in the slogan.
- [Julistus (Proclamation): Red Guard committee denies rumours and orders rumour-spreaders arrested](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/punakaarti-julistus-huhut-1918/) (Finland · 1918 · Identity fusion)
- [Salzburg 20-Kronen "Anschluss" voucher (1921)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/salzburg-anschluss-voucher-20-kronen-1921/) (Austria · 1921 · Identity fusion)
- [The Bombay Chronicle, article on a foreign-cloth bonfire (July 30, 1921)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bombay-chronicle-cloth-bonfire-1921/) (British India · Jul 30, 1921 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)
- [L'Unione Sarda, 24 March 1929: 'Il voto di oggi, è atto di fede' (plebiscite day front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/unione-sarda-plebiscito-front-page-1929/) (Fascist Italy · Mar 24, 1929 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)
- [Zwei SA-Männer bringen ein Hitler-Plakat an (Mecklenburg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sa-maenner-kleben-hitler-plakat-mecklenburg-1932/) (Weimar Republic · Jun 21, 1932 · Identity fusion). Content note: Photograph of SA men in uniform with swastika armband putting up a Hitler election poster, 1932.
- [Hitlerjugend, Deutsches Jungvolk: Altmetallsammlung](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hj-altmetallsammlung-jungvolk-1933/) (Nazi Germany · 1933 · Identity fusion). Content note: Deutsches Jungvolk boys in uniform collecting scrap metal, 1933.
- [Marine-HJ werben für den Bau von HJ-Heimen (Handwagen mit Plakat)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/marine-hj-werbung-hj-heime-1933/) (Nazi Germany · 1933 · Identity fusion). Content note: Hitler Youth members in uniform with swastika armbands and flags promoting the building of Hitler Youth homes.