Why Is It Necessary To Eat Less Meat and Less Wheat Bread?

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

Why
is it necessary to eat less
Meat and less Wheat Bread?

THE UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION asks you to get behind our soldiers, sailors and Allies by sending them now the most food possible in the least shipping space. Every man, woman and child in America can help by eating less wheat, beef, pork, fats and sugar, more of other plentiful foods which can not be shipped, and by avoiding waste.

What the food situation is
THE men of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy and Belgium are fighting; they are not on the farms. The food production of these countries, our Allies, has therefore been greatly reduced. Even before the war it was much, less than the amount consumed. The difference was supplied by the United States, Canada and other countries, including Russia, Roumania, South America, India, and Australia.

This difference is now greater than ever, and, at the same time, food can no longer be obtained from most of the outside countries.

Therefore our Allies depend on North America for food as they have never depended before, and they ask us for it with a right which they have never had before. For today they are our companions in a great war against a common enemy. For the present it is they who are doing the fighting, the suffering, the dying—in our war.

One million of the finest young men in the United States will soon be fighting side by side with the millions of brave soldiers of France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and Russia.

Millions of the men, women, and children of the United States can not go abroad and fight the enemy face to face. But they can fight by helping the fighters fight.

WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO EAT LESS WHEAT BREAD
France, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium must now import sixty per cent of their breadstuffs instead of the forty per cent they imported before the war.
America must supply the greater part of this need. To send them the least that they can live on we must increase our export of wheat from 88,000,000 bushels to 220,000,000 bushels.
We can not send them corn because they have not enough mills to grind it. We can not send them corn meal because it spoils in shipping. The oats, rye, barley, etc. that we send will not support them unless mixed with wheat. WE MUST SEND THEM MORE WHEAT, and to do this WE MUST EAT LESS WHEAT BREAD.

WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO EAT LESS MEAT
Because of the lack of fodder and the increased need of meat to feed the soldiers and war workers, France, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium have on hand today 33,000,000 less head of stock than they had before the war. Their herds are still decreasing in spite of the fact that we are now sending them three times as much meat as we did before the war. We must send them more meat this year than ever before.

WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO EAT LESS FATS
The chief source of fats for eating is in dairy products. We are able to produce no more of these now than before the war. Yet last year we sent our Allies three times as much butter and ten times as much condensed milk as we used to send them. Because their milk cows are still decreasing we must send even more butter and condensed milk this year. Because their Hogs are decreasing we must send them more lard.

[… remaining text omitted: the right-hand column (WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO EAT LESS SUGAR; 'How you can help' with its paragraphs under EAT LESS WHEAT BREAD, EAT LESS MEAT, EAT LESS FATS, EAT LESS SUGAR and BURN LESS COAL)]

Eat plenty, wisely, without waste, and help win the war

UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION
No. 7.                Washington, D.C.

The poster is a dense two-column text sheet and is legible in the larger scan, but its full text exceeds the 4,000-character field limit. The transcription runs from the title and introduction through the whole left-hand column, then an inline marker records the omitted right-hand column (the sugar section and the 'How you can help' list, which sets out the specific requests under each heading), then the closing line and imprint.