The Role Of Food In The United States

Conserving resources for soldiers became a big deal, especially since a great majority of the people went through the depression before the war. The idea of Victory Gardens came about, growing your own food and saving to conserve food for the brothers, husbands, and sons fighting in the war. Many advertisements included products to help buy supplies for the gardens that women could keep. (Document 1) People on the homefront really believed in conservation to help the soldiers, which is how the idea of rationing began. Rationing helped families get their fair share of everything to conserve supplies and food for the people they knew fighting in the war. (Document 3) Some items that Americans rationed were sugar, coffee, chocolate, oil, rubber, metals, or anything that would be a shortage due to the pause in international trading. Even though the U.S. was in the Great Depression as the war started, the wartime economy helped to pull it out and rationing became a new normal for Americans during the

The monograph Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the politics of Domesticity by Amy Bentley centers on the American mindset concerning food that changed during World War II; her thesis maintaining that the Roosevelt administration’s decision to institute legal rationing, proven in its ethical rightness in that this choice ultimately bettered the average American’s diet. Bentley justifies it through the apparent constraints of the massive undertaking the World War would require through the cultural and social approaches, which suited the gendered approach the author applied to this matter. And while she mentions economic and military approaches as well, a deeper analysis of the propaganda towards women in families is the central emphasis in many chapters of the book. Bentley collected information from many archival records such as the “United States Food Administration” and information contained within the “Office of War Information (OWI).” Her final conclusion is that the rationing process on the American home front during World War II had a positive outcome. Through these conclusions, however, develops a contrasting opinion from other historians; as her near overgeneralization of American unity

Consumers have become increasingly detached from their food as America’s food system grows larger and continues to ruin the environment. The main problem is that most consumers do not know how their consumption habits affect the ecosystem around them. Nor do they know about how their food was produced. Information about how and where the food is being produced and wasted is essential, so people can shop responsibly. Short of legislation, Americans make choices at the grocery store. It is essential for all Americans to cast in a vote with their dollars to change the way that food is produced in the United States resulting in more sustainable food being more accessible in the aisles of the grocery store for all Americans.

After the Great recession, hunger has become a more prevalent problem but not much has been done about it. Solving the issue of hunger has lagged behind other issues like education. This has to do with our tradition of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism places emphasis on individualism and less government intervention. In addition, the divided political nature of the United States keeps its populations split as to whether or not government should get involved and spend money to help the poor. In this essay, I am going to first discuss the issue of hunger. Then I will talk about about American Exceptionalism. Then I will explain classical liberalism and how that influences institutions and policy and then I am going to talk about the divided political nature and the two party system.

Most Americans start the morning with the most important meal of the day, breakfast. Their breakfast usually contains fruit and dairy. Do they ever stop to think where their food comes from, or who works so hard to provide us with these foods? No, they don’t. Every day before the sunrise farmers are out doing their job to help Americans get the protein, vitamins, and fiber they need to start the day off. Feeding Americans isn’t the only thing farmers do.

Pollan points out how World War II brought about a lot of changes that led to our current relationship with food. Many American women left their homes to work while men were overseas. Because these women joined the workforce, no one was home to do the cooking. Once the war ended women still wanted the freedom of being able to work and the owners of the food companies needed

While the food given to slaves were mostly leftovers or undesirable, the style of food that slaves ate has become known as soul food and has become quite popular in today’s society.

“Dietary patterns of Americans differ widely, but most Americans eat a diet that could best be described as in need of improvement”. Compared to other countries, the American diet is very different. I have first hand experienced how much different Americans eat from other countries. For a brief, but very beneficial and productive time, I lived in Barcelona, Spain with my host family. Over in Spain, they eat much more fresh, organic food. There was a lot more seafood in the average diet. The meal configuration over there is also different than ours. Lunch is the largest meal eaten every day; different than America, where dinner is the largest.

Feeding the American military has been a global challenge through the ages. As long as there are wars, there will be armies, and as long as there are armies, there must be food. The need to provide sustenance to our soldiers and troops hasn’t changed since the time of the Revolutionary War. Without the efforts to bring fuel to our troops, the military output would come to a grinding halt (Ryan, 144). During World War I, trench warfare began and hot food and drinking water were delivered to troops in milk cans carried on a pole by other soldiers making it the first time hot meals were served on the front line (“Food Distribution”). Demand for food technology to protect food from gas, spoilage, and dampness resulted in the reserve ration. The special reserve ration contained smaller tins of the same foods, sealed in metal containers to be opened only in the event that no other food was available (DoD Combat Feeding).

The food conservation program installed by the government effectively persuaded the public that rationing food was necessary for our soldiers survival and our nation’s safety (World War I: The American Home

The past sixty years have been revolutionary in the way the food industry has progressed, particularly after the Second World War, when rationing and the conservation of materials was no longer a priority. New technologies that had sparked from the industrial revolution brought modern ways to consume calories, and food became another form of entertainment for Americans. With these new factors, came health problems that had been shown in countless studies, as well as the effects that new technologies in terms of food production had on America, and major changes in American attitudes towards food. These realities raised a question that Americans never had to consider in the past: how were these factors shaping America’s

The United States prides itself on its freedoms and the many rights it guarantees to its citizens. A person has the right to religious freedom, to a trial by jury, to free speech, to free expression – but what about the right to healthful food? At this point, no right in the United States explicitly guarantees citizens access to nutritious, affordable food. A possible reason for this is that guaranteeing equal access to food across the nation is a daunting task. How does one even begin to accomplish such a goal? But despite its difficulty, this is an end to which the nation must work. It is too important an opportunity to miss because of indolence. Access to healthful, affordable food should be a right of citizenship in the United States because the nation recognizes such access as a basic human right and because such access is arguably a more important right than many that we currently enjoy. While practically, realizing this goal will be a challenge, the United States can do so by simply protecting other human rights, such as the

The federally assisted meal program was created to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation’s children and to encourage the consumption of American-grown commodities. The federal government would reimburse schools for student who qualified for free or reduced meals. Students who didn’t qualify were able to purchase lunch, and their money was used to off-set the costs of building new facilities for the expanding program. The program started to expand because of the increasing number of women working outside the home during the war (Winchell, 2009).

Since the 1900’s the food industry has genetically modified and added supplements to our foods in order to provide big companies year long produce and products. Although the food industry is technically part of the real estate industry; these politician should step down from businessmen to conscience human beings. Most scholars in the field believe that the Western diet has the worst combination of nutrients, and is the main cause in the rise of premature death and illnesses. In the United States, every one in three people are affected from E. coli disease or some other stomach diseases which can potentially lead into death. Also the techniques used for agriculture and raising livestock have adequately changed to GMOs and unsanitary cultivation in order to make mass production much easier. As a result of the tremendous amount of revenue being made annually, politician endlessly ignore the controversial issue of death caused from contaminations. Although a major small steps we can all contribute to is start a change in our community; by influencing others to research what they are consuming and to stay active.

At the beginning of World War II, the United Kingdom began to import most of their foods annually that would last their population of 50 million throughout the year. It was one of the principal strategies of the Germans in the Battle of the Atlantic to attack shipping bound for Britain, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission. Due to shortages, the civilians of the United Kingdom were forced to ration their food. They were given a ration book with coupons and had to register at chosen shops in order to buy the rationed food. This made providing three full meals a day for your family nearly impossible for the British.