The Food War

For Americans at home, the war and the vast expansion of government were felt every day at mealtime. Under the direction of Food Administrator Herbert Hoover, one of a number of Americans elevated to national prominence by the war, authorities in Washington set out to match the country's food supply to the demands of the war. Rejecting outright rationing, Hoover relied instead on appeals to the public to conserve food and to farmers to produce more of it. A massive publicity campaign set a pattern of "meatless" and "wheatless" days, and 20 million Americans, the majority of them women with families, pledged to run their households in accord with Hoover's directives. By setting the price of wheat at a high level, however. Hoover used direct government power to boost production.