{"id":330,"date":"2020-11-04T20:38:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T20:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/americanhistory\/?post_type=project&p=330"},"modified":"2020-11-24T14:51:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T14:51:22","slug":"corn-the-food-of-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/americanhistory\/project\/corn-the-food-of-the-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Corn: The Food of the Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"
Corn: The Food of The Nation<\/em> was an American propaganda poster created by Lloyd Harrison for the United States Food Administration in 1918, during the Great War.<\/h6>\n

The Great War was a time in which President Wilson needed to shape the nation in a way to encourage national spirits yet focus on the needs of soldiers overseas fighting the war. One of Wilson\u2019s efforts to do so, was to create the Food Administration. Both American and European soldiers were in need of food, so Wilson assigned Herbert Hoover to head the administration [1]<\/a>. The intention of the Food Administration was to \u201cincrease agricultural production while reducing civilian food consumption\u201d in order to feed the 4.3 million American soldiers[2]<\/a>.\u00a0 Some of the tactics used by the Food Administration were encouraging students to grow their own crops called liberty gardens, implementing \u201c\u2018Wheatless\u2019<\/a> Mondays\u201d and \u201c\u2018Meatless\u2019 Tuesdays,\u201d[3]<\/a> and creating vibrant posters directed towards women and children to conserve their food and find alternatives for sugar, wheat, and meat[4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Corn: The Food of The Nation <\/em>highlights the emphasis of food conservation and alternatives during World War I, specifically corn. The poster depicts a woman standing near jars filled with corn meal, grits, and hominy. Evidently, the poster is aiming to catch the eye of a woman, since they were predominantly the chefs in the homes during this time period, staging what the women should be doing during the war. While the men were fighting in the war overseas, the women should be pitching in their war efforts by at least conserving and using the food they have at home, so the rest can be sent to troops abroad. Moreover, the role of women during the war expanded from the home front to overseas.\"\" Most women took up tasks at home to contribute to the war effort, such as taking the role of previous male workers in factories and raising money through liberty loan drives, yet others went overseas to serve as nurses for the soldiers. The connection between women\u2019s contributions to The Great War and women\u2019s suffrage fundamentally swayed the country and President Wilson to understand that women deserve the right to vote. These endeavors ultimately promoted the 19th<\/sup> Amendment being passed the next year, giving women the right to vote. The details of the poster also display pancakes and muffins laid out on the table, showing that the use of corn and grits can be cooked and baked in several different ways. Furthermore, the image includes the words \u201cappetizing,\u201d \u201cnourishing,\u201d and \u201ceconomical.\u201d The importance of these words being on the poster allows the woman viewing the image to understand that by using corn in her cooking, she is feeding her family tasty food that provides health benefits yet is the economically wise choice to do.<\/p>\n

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