The 1918 print, “Will You Help the Women of France? Save Wheat” by Edward Penfield was created as war-effort propaganda for the United Stated Food Administration during World War I((Penfield, Edward. “Will You Help the Women of France? Save Wheat / Edward Penfield.” The Library of Congress, 1918, accessed November 12, 2022, https://www.loc.gov/item/94510050/. )). The significance of this piece is rooted in its ties to the greater trend of adjusting domestic, day-to-day American lives and how this hundred-year-old propaganda continues to affect Americans today.

In 1917, the United States leadership realized they would be forced to lower domestic food consumption to continue supplying Allied troops in Europe. However, rather than passing legislation or mandates to force Americans to decrease their consumption of war-front staples (like wheat, sugar, and red meat), President Woodrow Wilson established the U.S. Food Administration and the Committee on Public Information. The U.S. Food Administration was responsible for supplying the army with food via price changes, commandeering of transportation services, and other strategies while the Committee on Public Information worked on creating propaganda to encourage Americans to adjust their eating habits voluntarily by bolstering their sense of national pride and servitude((McCowan, David. “How WWI Food Propaganda Forever Changed the Way Americans Eat.” The Takeout, March 15, 2017. https://thetakeout.com/how-wwi-food-propaganda-forever-changed-the-way-america-1798259481. )).

This exact print encourages the rationing of wheat by Americans to save starving French civilians. The European food supply was severely undercut because the continent was an active warzone and farming was a primarily male undertaking. Healthy, of-age European men were sent to serve (and potentially die) in the war, leaving farms not in active warzones unattended((Kosmerick, Todd. “World War I and Agriculture.” NC State University Libraries. North Carolina State University Libraries, August 23, 2017. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/special-collections/world-war-i-and-agriculture.)). The sentiment imposed onto and adopted by American civilians (who were primarily women and children) was that food would win the war((McCowan, David. “How WWI Food Propaganda Forever Changed the Way Americans Eat.” The Takeout, March 15, 2017. https://thetakeout.com/how-wwi-food-propaganda-forever-changed-the-way-america-1798259481.)). They were called upon to voluntarily “serve” alongside their male family members and fellow allied soldiers by consuming less of the desperately needed grain and other short-supply products. Wheat substitutes introduced by the United States Government via the Committee on Public Information and U.S. Food Administration included potatoes, corn, oats, rice, and any other non-wheat grain((Winadmin, “Food Conservation during WWI,” Together We Win, December 1, 2016, https://togetherwewin.librarycompany.org/food-conservation-during-wwi-post/#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20Food%20Administration,and%20starving%20civilians%20in%20Europe.)).

This hundred-year-old print may seem like a relic of propaganda remembering a specific, unremembered piece of American history, but the intersectional shift of government control, agriculture, and American economics and consumption reflected in the piece continues to leave breadcrumbs even today. The greater trend of alternative consumption for the war effort have become health alternatives today with the tokens “Meatless Monday” or “Wheatless Wednesday” being coined today or even furthered with trends like vegetarianism or eating gluten free. Low fat and low sugar diets can also be traced to WWI voluntary food rationing((Winadmin, “Food Conservation during WWI,” Together We Win, December 1, 2016, https://togetherwewin.librarycompany.org/food-conservation-during-wwi-post/#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20Food%20Administration,and%20starving%20civilians%20in%20Europe.)). Additionally, the food science field was given its first serious breakthrough onto the market by helping identify meat, wheat, and sugar alternatives for the American public including the first versions of marketable pea protein beloved today by vegans, vegetarians, and health-enthusiasts alike((McCowan, David. “How WWI Food Propaganda Forever Changed the Way Americans Eat.” The Takeout, March 15, 2017.https://thetakeout.com/how-wwi-food-propaganda-forever-changed-the-way-america-1798259481)). Notable advances go beyond food production and nutritional science and into technology. With a lack of men to tend to American farms, technological advancements and the wide adoption of tractors were adopted nationwide to increase agricultural productivity((Kosmerick, Todd. “World War I and Agriculture.” NC State University Libraries. North Carolina State University Libraries, August 23, 2017. https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/news/special-collections/world-war-i-and-agriculture.)).

In terms of greater themes of self-sacrifice and patriotism, Penfield’s print reminds Americans of far different times. Because of technological advancements and the development of war, American civilians remain mostly unaffected by wars and certainly do not have to sacrifice day-to-day staples such as wheat and sugar. One could argue this separation is negative because local communities no longer bond during wartime, nor do they fully appreciate the sacrifices of front-line soldiers. One could also argue this separation as a reward of the joint effort of previous Americans and establishes the United States as a hegemon because of its modern, wartime domestic stability. Questions of American solidarity and the shared American experience remain relevant in times of alienation and divide…wartime or not.