With the exception of the United States, the
present food shortage is almost universal, to some
extent, and in the staple products — grains, meat,
dairy products, fats, sugar— rat least. In the
cotmtries which have been passing through the
crudest realities of the war the food-supply is
particularly low. Even our own fortunate sur-
plus is not over-bountiful. To control, order, and
fairly divide that which our vaster acreage can be
made to produce with those who have less and
need help, and to do this without sacrificing the
health or definite daily needs of our own people,
or entirely destroying the normal balance of food
conditions in our own country, is our big problem
at the moment.
In other words, America must to-day not only
feed her own people, but she must feed to a very
appreciable extent the peoples of Europe, and
^ Cf. Reports from United States Department of Agri-
culture for the year 191 7.
OUR EMERGENCY 5
this must now be done not under the care-free
conditions that prevailed before the war, but in the
face of many disadvantages and with the closest
kind of calculation. With a food-supply scarcely
keeping pace with our growing population, we
must give more than we ever gave when the years
were full. Out of our own none too generous
store, already sorely depleted b}^ over-exportation,
with little help from distant points, we must pay
the tax and toll of war on the world's vSupply of
food. And how shall this be done? The pos-
sible solution lies, as we know if we have learned
our lesson, in increased and more stabilized pro-
duction of food in the country as a whole, in the
wise regulation and control of that food produced,
and in the most intelligent use and conservation
of every bit of food available.
Onto the shoulders of the American farmer and
the American housekeeper has the weight of the
burden of this enormous duty of ours been thrust.
The farmer must produce the needed increase in
the food-supply, he must get the best and the most
out of every acre of soil he tills; the housekeeper
is the final parti tioner of the food available; she
must get the best and the most — both for our own
people and those dependent on us — out of that
food which is produced. She must make it go
just as far as she possibly can, with the very best
results in individual and national health and food
6 FOOD AND FREEDOM
satisfaction. The situation finds the farmer,
both in technical knowledge and organized effort,
and with the many practical mechanical devices
now manufactured for improving agriculture, more
or less prepared. But the housekeeper's task is
not so simple. Before she can get the best or the
most out of the food which the farmer can give
her, she has yet to learn not only how to get it and
how to stretch it, but, first of all, what the best
and the most may be.
Food and freedom
1918Page 4
Presented as published in 1918. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
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With the exception of the United States, the
present food shortage is almost universal, to some
extent, and in the staple products — grains, meat,
dairy products, fats, sugar— rat least. In the
cotmtries which have been passing through the
crudest realities of the war the food-supply is
particularly low. Even our own fortunate sur-
plus is not over-bountiful. To control, order, and
fairly divide that which our vaster acreage can be
made to produce with those who have less and
need help, and to do this without sacrificing the
health or definite daily needs of our own people,
or entirely destroying the normal balance of food
conditions in our own country, is our big problem
at the moment.
In other words, America must to-day not only
feed her own people, but she must feed to a very
appreciable extent the peoples of Europe, and
^ Cf. Reports from United States Department of Agri-
culture for the year 191 7.
OUR EMERGENCY 5
this must now be done not under the care-free
conditions that prevailed before the war, but in the
face of many disadvantages and with the closest
kind of calculation. With a food-supply scarcely
keeping pace with our growing population, we
must give more than we ever gave when the years
were full. Out of our own none too generous
store, already sorely depleted b}^ over-exportation,
with little help from distant points, we must pay
the tax and toll of war on the world's vSupply of
food. And how shall this be done? The pos-
sible solution lies, as we know if we have learned
our lesson, in increased and more stabilized pro-
duction of food in the country as a whole, in the
wise regulation and control of that food produced,
and in the most intelligent use and conservation
of every bit of food available.
Onto the shoulders of the American farmer and
the American housekeeper has the weight of the
burden of this enormous duty of ours been thrust.
The farmer must produce the needed increase in
the food-supply, he must get the best and the most
out of every acre of soil he tills; the housekeeper
is the final parti tioner of the food available; she
must get the best and the most — both for our own
people and those dependent on us — out of that
food which is produced. She must make it go
just as far as she possibly can, with the very best
results in individual and national health and food
6 FOOD AND FREEDOM
satisfaction. The situation finds the farmer,
both in technical knowledge and organized effort,
and with the many practical mechanical devices
now manufactured for improving agriculture, more
or less prepared. But the housekeeper's task is
not so simple. Before she can get the best or the
most out of the food which the farmer can give
her, she has yet to learn not only how to get it and
how to stretch it, but, first of all, what the best
and the most may be.