Part II.] FOOD COXSERVATIOX. 115 



To this audience the farm bureau, established by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in the counties of the various States, is a 

 familiar neighbor. To many dwellers in cities and to some 

 rural regions this neighbor is unknown. The idea of food con- 

 servation which had been extended in the south through the 

 canning clubs, and all over the country by the home economics 

 workers related to the Department of Agriculture, was never- 

 theless introduced to many citizens of the United States as an 

 emergency war measure. They became aware that they must 

 conserve food because they were told that food must win the 

 war. 



The thoughtful observer will at once recognize the truth that 

 universal conservation of food for the American people involved 

 a complete overturning of habits and ideals. In the first place, 

 the choice, preparation and use of food has always been in this 

 country a personal and private affair. Every individual ate 

 what he liked and when he wanted to eat. The business of the 

 family purveyor was to please the family palate, to tickle the 

 appetite. The mother considered her task performed when 

 every one liked the food provided and the children throve and 

 waxed fat. The essential uses of food were seldom considered. 

 Every one stopped eating when he felt that he had had enough, 

 or when the supply gave out. How much was enough no one 

 could say. 



Think, then, the miracle required to make us all realize that 

 our choice of foods and use of foods was a community affair, a 

 matter of government concern, of national and even interna- 

 tional importance. No campaign of education ever undertaken 

 has come so close to the entire nation, has required of every in- 

 dividual so complete a change of habits and ideals in intimate, 

 personal and family affairs. 



It was natural that Mr. Hoover, coming from the vivid ex- 

 perience of feeding a nation under difficult and bitter conditions, 

 should have had clearly in mind the contrast between the gen- 

 erous food supplies on the American table and the carefidly 

 measured and often inadequate amounts doled out to the 

 starving Belgians. The machinery involved in measuring and 

 distributing the essential foods to an entire people was perhaps 

 for the first time clearly conceived. The directions from 



