How The Government Shaped What We Eat

By Matthew Long-Middleton

Published January 16, 2014 at 11:41 AM CST

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Charles Wille, 1918. Charles Wille was sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary for breaking the Oleomargarine laws.

National Archives, Records of the Bureau of Prisons

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War Food Administration Poster, 1944 In its early years, school lunch was a child welfare program. Later it became a matter of national security.

National Archives, Records of the Office of Government Reports

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School lunch recipe for 100 children

National Archives, Records of the Agricultural Research Service

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World War II nutrition chart, ca. 1945

National Archives, Records of the Office of Goverment Reports

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This inventive store display ca. 1917 -18 promotes the potato as a “good soldier” and recommends people eat it “uniform and all."";s:3:

National Archives, Records of the United States Food Administration

Try as we might, Americans can’t seem to get Uncle Sam out of our kitchens. Government policies have a hand in just about everything we buy, cook and eat. An exhibit at the National Archives in Kansas City puts all of this into focus. It’s called What’s Cooking Uncle Sam? The traveling exhibit was first shown in Washington DC and it chronicles the history of the government policies that effect the food we eat.

Government involvement with food began as early as the American Revolution when volunteering soldiers were offered government food rations. Government involvement with food produciton and consumption dramatically increased in early 1900s as mechanized farming meant more food, but also more exposure to food risks. On Central Standard we explore this complicated and surprising history.

Guests:

Dee A. Harris, Exhibits Specialist at the National Archives at Kansas City
Dr. John Herron, associate professor of history at UMKC