Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2015 Cultivating Intelligent Consumption: The United States Food Administration and Food Control During World War I James H. Smith Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Smith, James H., "Cultivating Intelligent Consumption: The United States Food Administration and Food Control During World War I" (2015). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 6672. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6672 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cultivating Intelligent Consumption: The United States Food Administration and Food Control During World War I James H. Smith Dissertation submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in United States History Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, Ph.D., Co-Chair James Siekmeier, Ph.D., Co-Chair Mark Tauger, Ph.D. Melissa Bingmann, Ph.D. David Hauser, Ph.D. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2015 Keywords: food history, culture, nutrition, nutritionism, World War I, food control propaganda, Herbert Hoover, progressive era Copyright 2015 James H. Smith ABSTRACT Cultivating Intelligent Consumption: The United States Food Administration and Food Control During World War I James H. Smith This dissertation examines government food control in the United States during the First World War. More specifically, it looks at the food conservation program, and the associated propaganda, formulated by the United States Food Administration (USFA). The USFA was a wartime government agency headed by future president Herbert Hoover. I argue that the philosophy guiding the Food Administration’s food control program was clearly influenced by a particular strain of progressivism that men like Hoover subscribed to. Using the input of experts in various fields such as nutrition, physiology, and advertising, the government was able to present a message to the American public that both generated an emotional response to act and educated people in a new, scientific approach to eating. Such an approach allowed Hoover to avoid imposing mandatory rationing, thus preserving the freedom from government intervention into the personal lives of American citizens. In addition to examining the various dimensions of Food Administration propaganda that attempted to stir the emotions and enlighten the intelligence of the people, this dissertation also examines a third theme that is found in the messaging. Hoover and his agency also worked to get Americans to think more about how their food choices might impact people and events overseas. Through their propaganda the Food Administration sought to get people to think more globally when considering the impact of their food choices. Though the Food Administration itself was relatively short-lived, the impact it had on the shaping of modern food culture was rather large. Cultivating Intelligent Consumption: The United States Food Administration and Food Control During World War I Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1 13 Food Dictator or Food Administrator?: The Creation of Government Wartime Food Control Chapter 2 57 Awakening the War Consciousness of the American People Chapter 3 110 Promoting “Individual Reconstruction” by Selling the Science of Eating Chapter 4 150 Transitioning from a “War Consciousness” to a “World Consciousness” Conclusion 191 Bibliography 197 !iii Introduction: When the United States officially joined the Great War in April of 1917, the government moved quickly to initiate an unprecedented (and controversial) program to control the American food system. Never before had the federal government requested this level of power to determine what and how Americans would eat. To achieve this goal it formed the United States Food Administration. This wartime agency was tasked with a number of responsibilities, including the direct control of the domestic production and distribution of certain foodstuffs such as wheat, the prevention of hoarding and profiteering at the wholesale level, as well as the coordination of Allied purchases of American food supplies. In addition, the Food Administration was responsible for developing and administering a program that would attempt to control the amount and types of food the American public ate. The overall objective was to create a surplus of foodstuffs that could then be shipped to Europe in order to feed both the soldiers and the citizens of the Allied nations. In order to secure this cooperation, the government worked to craft a message for Americans to show them that the food conservation program not only provided them an opportunity to express their patriotism, but it also gave them a chance to practice new modes of efficiency within their homes. Additionally, by cutting back on certain foodstuffs, Americans were led to believe that they were playing a crucial role in making their country an influential force among the world’s major powers. While certain government regulations were placed upon food producers, Americans’ food consumption habits were to be altered through their voluntary cooperation with the United States government. This approach, as it related to individual !1 conservation, reflected both an appreciation for long-standing American political tradition, as well as the modern progressive outlook of those individuals who were tapped to lead the Food Administration. This particular agency, along with the host of other wartime measures initiated by the government, represented a dramatic increase in the power and influence of the federal government. Such steps, especially in the midst of a war that was not universally supported by the public, had the potential of creating further internal unrest. A fundamental suspicion and fear of a powerful central governmental authority could be traced all the way back to the nation’s origins. With the Food Administration in particular, the potential was there for federal power to reach all the way into the homes of American citizens. Herbert Hoover, the man that would come to lead the food control agency, appreciated such an outlook, and his particular approach to implementing government food control reflected a strain of progressive thought that envisioned a limited government role in addressing social crisis. While the Old World nations of Europe, the enemy Germany as well as our Allies, were forced to impose various degrees of rationing upon its citizens, American food conservation would be based on the voluntary cooperation of the people. In this scenario, the power of the government would be limited to providing expert guidance to educate the public on the reasons for and methods of food conservation. Once educated, the belief was that Americans would willingly comply with government conservation guidelines. With this particular approach, it was believed that individual liberty would be preserved. Thus, in addition serving the explicit goal of increasing food shipments for people in need overseas, the success of this particular approach to food conservation would also serve as proof of the superiority of the American democratic political system !2 over other, Old World systems. In addition, there were other, less explicit motives behind the particular nature of the American government’s food control program. As stated previously, the nation’s involvement in the First World War was not universally supported by the population. This reflected an overall tension that had existed in American society throughout the early twentieth century. It was during this period that the nation had experienced an enormous wave of immigration that contributed its overall ethnic and cultural diversity. America was increasingly transforming into a modern, urban country which led to a certain level of unease within mainstream American society. The Food Administration campaign was viewed by many as an opportunity to forge solidarity amongst the citizenry, not just to support the war effort, but to foster the creation of a more homogeneous society moving forward. In addition, those behind the wartime food conservation program saw it as an opportunity to convince the American public that the message of efficient, economical behavior could become a normal part of life after the conflict was over. Thus, as suggested above, the U.S. Food Administration was in many ways a progressive project. Many scholars have studied the relationship between the progressive movement and World War I, examining both how the war impacted the movement and how progressive thought influenced wartime government policy. The Progressive Era was a period of American history that roughly encompassed the years 1890 to 1920. Largely characterized as an attempt to deal with the drastic changes brought about