In this age of excess, it's easy to forget that there was a time when people rallied around the idea of individual deprivation for the common good. What a nice surprise to come across this poster, which so neatly sums up some of my most basic beliefs about food, and realize it was created nearly a century ago.
Designed by Fred G. Cooper for the U.S. Food Administration in 1917, this poster and others like it were part of an effort to get Americans to voluntarily reduce consumption of certain staples during World War I. The effort led to the introduction of the original "Meatless Mondays" as well as "Wheatless Wednesdays," and helped the country avoid government rationing during the war.
It seems we've come full circle in the nearly 100 years since this poster was designed. Ideas that seem so modern — eat locally! use less meat! — are actually a return to the past, back to a time when food was more precious and powerful enough to win wars.
→ Find it: Food, Don't Waste It poster, $9.99 at The 2 Fun Ad Guyz
Related: 5 Ways To Combat Food Waste At Home
(Images: Library of Congress, in the public domain)
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Beautiful!
It is amazing how quickly we have overcome food scarcity. The amount of calories we can consume for only a dollar is astounding. But the problem is that junk food is cheap and real food (vegetables,fruit, meat, etc) is so expensive and scarce in some neighborhoods.
That's awesome!!
We have this hanging in our kitchen. It's one of my favorites.
Every day is wheatless at my house!! Great posters.
I have seen and loved this many times --- just ordered the poster! Thanks for bringing it to my attention again!
It's basic common sense. I'm reminded of a line from the kid's movie called Labyrinth, "The way forward is sometimes the way back."
after this year's drought, we might want to add Eat Less Corn.
and then rethink our reliance on it for everything from feeding cattle who can't digest it to ethanol to corn syrup in almost all processed foods.
This monocropping will be the death of us.
I had no idea that Meatless Mondays were around in 1917.
@sistervashti - I'm with you about the corn.
Maybe a Free from Corn Friday?
Get the images for free from the Library of Congress website - to download, crop, and print yourself!
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002708936/
:) Just a tip from a librarian.
I was raised by a single mother who lived through The Great Depression, and to this day it gives me the horrors if I find something forgotten in the fridge that I have to throw away. When I was growing up wasting food was one of the cardinal sins. Mother could make the Sunday roast last almost all week, either warmed up in gravy, or turned into other things like stuffed peppers or hash. I still do that.