FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION
In this great struggle the food question assumes greater and greater
importance.
The production of food has been affected by the raising of great
armies--more than twenty million men are in arms in Europe--by the
feeding of armies, for which we must, of necessity, provide food in
excess of what these men would need in civil life. The ability to
get the food has been made difficult for us by the submarine warfare.
Thousands of tons of wheat lie in Australia, but we cannot afford
ships to bring it. Tea has been very short in England, though again
there are thousands of tons waiting in India. The most urgent need of
the Allies is for ships and more ships. There has been great loss of
tonnage and the needs of the Army and Navy absorb the service of vast
numbers of the available ships. We have moved 13,000,000 men since
war broke out, and the supplies and munitions they have needed, to our
many fronts. Ceaselessly we move the wounded. We have to bring into
Britain half our food. That we have done this, has been due to the
British Navy and the Reserves--the patrols and the mine sweepers--the
Fringes of the Fleet--and not least, the merchant seaman. About
6,000 merchantmen have been killed by the enemy, some with diabolical
cruelty. These men are torpedoed and come into port, and go for
another ship at once. On the ship on which I crossed there were seamen
who had been torpedoed three times In its submarine warfare the enemy
has broken every international and human law--has used "frightfulness"
to its fullest extent, and the answer of our merchant seamen is to go
to sea again as soon as the ship is ready, and the older men, who had
retired, return to sea. The seaman of our country know the enemy. It
was our Seamen's Union that refused to carry the Peace Delegates to
Stockholm, and it is they and our fishermen who, in the Reserves, man
the patrols and mine sweepers, and who, on our little drifters and
trawlers, have fought the enemy's big destroyers--fought till they
went down, refusing to surrender.
It is not strange that the best-liked poster in our Food Crusade,
and the one people want everywhere, is a simple drawing of a merchant
seaman, and under it the words, "We risk our lives to bring you food.
It is up to you not to waste it."
The countries that can succeed best in solving the food question are
the countries that will win, and the food problem will not cease, any
more than many others, when peace is declared.
Very early in the war, existing organizations, such as the National
Food Reform Association, and newly created ones, the National Food
Economy League and the Patriotic Food League of Scotland, did a great
deal of active work on food saving. They aimed at instructing in
the scientific principles of the economical use of food, and issued
admirable leaflets and Handbooks for Housewives and Cookery Books.
A series of Exhibitions, often described as "Patriotic Housekeeping
Exhibitions" were held in different parts of the country, organized
generally by women's societies. One of the early ones I organized
in Salisbury. Later, the Public Trustee was chairman of an Official
Committee, which organized large Exhibitions in London and throughout
the country. These Exhibitions had stalls showing food values with
specimens, had exhibits of the most economical cooking stoves and
arrangements, and exhibited every manner of time and labour saving
device. They had wonderful exhibits of clothes for children made from
old clothes of grown-ups, of marvellous dresses and little jerseys and
caps and scarfs made from legs of old stockings. There were charming
dresses and underclothing made of the very simplest materials and
decorated artistically with stitching and embroidery. These were made
by school girls of seven and upwards for themselves, and the Glasgow
School of Art's work, done in schools there, was perfectly beautiful.
The cost was shown and it was incredibly small. All sorts of things
for the household in simple carpentry and upholstery, using up boxes
and wood, were shown, and old tins were converted into all sorts of
useful household things. Facts as to waste were made as striking as
possible by demonstration. Every exhibition had a War Savings Stall
and Certificates were often sold at these in large numbers, the Queen
buying the first sold at the first London Exhibition.
The great feature of the Exhibitions was Food Saving and Conservation.
Demonstrations in cooking and in hay-box cooking, were given and these
were attended by thousands of women, Miss Petty, "The Pudding Lady,"
being a specially attractive demonstrator. She was called "The Pudding
Lady," first by little children in London in the East End, where she
used to go into the homes, and show them how to cook on their own
fires, and with their own meagre possessions. When she came there was
pudding, so her title came as a result.
We always included exhibits and posters on the care of the babies
and the children. Lectures on vegetable and potato growing, bee and
poultry keeping, etc., were also given.
There were competitions in connection with the Exhibitions--prizes
were offered for the best cake--for the best war bread--for the best
dinners for a family at a small cost--for the best weekly budgets of
different small incomes--for the best blouse and dress made at a
small cost, etc., and these were extremely popular. The prizes were
generally War Savings Certificates or labour-saving devices.
From the Governmental point of view the Food work is in two great
divisions: Food Production, which is worked by the Food Production
Department of the Board of Agriculture, of which the Women's Branch is
doing the work of placing women on the land. It not only works on the
production of more food but it organizes the conservation of food,
such as fruit bottling, and preserving fruit, and vegetable and fruit
drying, etc.
A very great deal has been done in demonstrating how to conserve
fruit and vegetables all over the country and this has been done to an
extent hitherto quite unreached. Co-operative work has been done and
most interesting experiments made. The glass bottles necessary have
been secured by the Department, and are sold by them to those doing
the conservation at a fixed price. Last summer the Sugar Commission
also arranged to sell sufficient sugar for making preserves to those
people who grow their own fruit. This they succeeded in doing to a
very large extent--which was a most valuable conservation.
The Ministry of Food is the other great body dealing with all food
problems of supply, price, regulations, and propaganda.
Lord Rhondda is our Food Controller. Our first Controller was Lord
Devonport. Food control is the most unpopular work in any country and
a Food Controller deserves the help, sympathy and support of every
good citizen. No Food Controller, no matter how able, and no matter
how great and comprehensive his powers are, can do his work without
the co-operation of the people.
Lord Rhondda's powers are very great as to control of supplier prices
and regulations. The price of the four pound loaf (and it must be four
pounds) is fixed by our Government at 18 cents and the loss is borne
by the Government.
The prices of meat, beans, cheese, tea, sugar, milk, and the profits
on other articles are regulated by the Ministry. When Lord Devonport
was Food Controller we had courses at lunch and dinner limited--a
policy most people felt to be stupid as it meant a run on staple
foods--and it was abandoned by Lord Rhondda. We had meatless days,
which also have been stopped. We found it difficult to do, and
impossible to regulate. We had many potatoless days last spring--by
regulation in the restaurants--perforce by most of us in towns where
they were almost impossible to get, but this year we have the biggest
potato crop we have had.
In restaurants and hotels now supplies are regulated. No one can have
more than two ounces of bread at any meal, and the amount of flour and
sugar supplied is strictly rationed to the hotels, according to the
number served. Not more than five ounces of meat (before cooking) can
be served at any meal. These regulations are strictly enforced, and
the duty of seeing all the regulations are carried out, and all the
work done, devolves upon the Local Food Control Committees which have
been set up all over the country under the Ministry, by the local
authorities. On every such Committee there must be women. They fix
prices for milk, etc., and initiate prosecutions for infringements of
the laws regulating food.
No white flour is sold or used in Britain. The mills are all
controlled by the Government and all flour is now war grade, which
means it is made of about 70 per cent white flour and other grains,
rye, corn (which we call maize), barley, rice-flour, etc., are added.
We expect to mill potato flour this year. Oatmeal has a fixed price,
9 cents a pound, in Scotland, 10 cents in England. No fancy pastries,
no icing on cakes and no fancy bread may be made. Only two shapes of
loaf are allowed--the tin loaf and the Coburg. Cakes must only have 15
per cent sugar and 30 per cent war grade flour. Buns and scones and
biscuits have regulations as to making, also.
Butter is very scarce and margarine supplies not always big enough,
and we have tea and sugar and margerine queues in our big towns--women
standing in long rows waiting. It is an intolerable waste of time--and
yet it seems difficult to get it managed otherwise.
The woman in the home in our country with high prices, want of
supplies, and her desire to economise has had a busy and full time,
but our people are quite well fed. Naturally enough, considering the
hard work we are all doing, our people are really using more, not less
food, but waste is being fought very well.
Waste is a punishable offence and if you throw away bread or any good
food, you will be proceeded against, as many have been, and fined 40/-
to £100. No bread must be sold that is not twelve hours baked. New
bread is extravagant in cutting and people eat more. It is interesting
to note that in one period of the Napoleonic wars we did the same
thing and ate no new bread.
Food hoarding is an offence and the food is commandeered and the
hoarder punished. Several people have been fined £50 and upwards.
The work of the Army in economizing food has been a great work.
Rations have been cut down and much more carefully dealt with. The use
of waste products has become a science. All the fats are saved--even
the fats in water used in washing dishes are trapped and saved. The
fats are used to make glycerine, and last year the Army saved enough
waste fat to make glycerine for 18,000,000 shells. Fats and scraps for
pigs, and bones, etc., are all sold and one-third of the money goes
back to the men's messing funds to buy additional foods and every camp
tries to beat the other in its care and efficiency and the women cooks
are doing admirably in this work.
Officers of the Navy and Army are only permitted to spend a certain
amount on meals in restaurants and hotels--3/6 for lunch and 5/6 for
dinner and 1/6 for tea.
The other side of the Food Campaign is the propaganda and educative
work. Lord Rhondda has two women Co-Directors with him--Mrs. C.S. Peel
and Mrs. M. Pember Reeves--in the Ministry of Food, and they help in
the whole work and very specially with the educational and propaganda
work, and with the work of communal feeding.
A number of communal kitchens have been established with great
success--many being in London. At these thousands of meals are
prepared--soups and stews, fish, and meats, and puddings, every
variety of dishes, and the purchasers come to the kitchens and bring
plates and jugs to carry away the food. Soups are sold from 2 to
4 cents for a jugful, and other things in proportion. These are
established under official recognition, the Municipalities in most
cases providing the initial cost. The prices paid cover the cost of
food and cooking, and the service is practically all voluntary.
The first propaganda work was, as I have said, done by the War Savings
Committees, and our big task was to try to make our people realize how
undesirable it is to have to resort to compulsory rationing. We
are rationed on sugar and we do not want to adopt more compulsory
rationing than is necessary. Compulsory rationing, in some people's
minds, seems to ensure supplies. It does not and where, under
voluntary rationing, people go round and find other food and get along
with the supplies there are, under compulsory rationing there would
always be a tendency to demand their ration and to make trouble about
the lack of any one commodity in it.
Compulsory rationing to be workable must be a simple scheme, and no
overhead ration of bread, for example, is just. The needs of workers
vary and so do the needs of individuals, and bread is the staple food
of our poorer classes. They have less variety of foods and need more
bread than the better-off people. Compulsory rationing may have to
come, but most of us are determined it will not come till it is really
unavoidable and we are appealing to our people to prevent that, and
masses of them are economizing and saving in a manner worthy of the
greatest praise.
The rationing we appealed to our people to get down to, was three
pounds of flour per head in the week, 2½ lbs. of meat and ½ lb. sugar.
The King's Pledge, which we had signed by those willing to do this,
all over the country, pledged people to cut down their consumption
of grain by one-quarter in the household, and the King's Proclamation
urged this, and economies in grain and horse feeding.
An old Proclamation of the 18th century appealed to our people to cut
down their consumption of their grains by one-third and was almost
identical in form, and copies signed by Edmund Burke and other famous
people were shown in our Thrift Exhibitions in Buckinghamshire.
We arranged meetings for the maids of households in big groups to
explain the need and meaning of economy in food with great success.
Every head of a household knows that the maids can make or mar one's
efforts to save food, and we have found many of ours admirable, and
willing to do wonders in the way of economy and saving.
If compulsory rationing in more than sugar comes as it may, the
basis of rationing will, we believe, be worked out with as much
consideration as possible of the needs of the workers.
Our Co-operative movement is, in a simple way rationing its buyers, by
regulating supplies, and it is in voluntary work of that kind, which
is going on extensively, and in the people's own efforts and economies
that our great hope lies.
The Ministry of Food arranges meetings and sends speakers to
associations and bodies of every kind. The schools are very
extensively used for demonstrations to which the parents are invited.
The children are talked to and write essays on food and general saving
and in these, one little girl of seven told us, "If you don't throw
away your crusts, you will beat the Kaiser," and another small boy
said, "Boys should give up sliding for the war, as it wears out their
boots," and another said, "We should not go to picture houses so
much--once a week is quite often enough." One little child who had
been coached at school returned home to see a baby sister of two throw
away a big crust and said, "If Lord Rhondda was here, wouldn't he give
you a row." So the root of the matter seems to be in the youth of our
country and the sweetness and willingness of their sacrifices is very
fragrant. They sing about saving bread and saving pennies, and to
hear a choir of Welsh children sing these songs, with a vigour and
enjoyment that is infectious, is quite delightful.
Most of our big girls' schools have given up buying sweets, and when
they get gifts of them send them to the prisoners and the soldiers. We
have, of course, restricted our manufacture of sweets very much.
Our school children have, in addition, worked enormous numbers of
school gardens and grown tons of potatoes and vegetables.
Our distilleries are taken over by the Government for spirits for
munitions and our beer is cut down very greatly. Travelling kitchens
go out from the Ministry of Food also and do demonstrations in
villages and country districts on cooking and conservation. The
Ministry issues leaflets of recipes and instructions in cooking and
has a special Win the War Cookery Book. Articles are also published on
food values and quite a number of people begin to understand something
about calories, even though they are rather vague about what it all
means.
Naturally most of the Food speaking and work is done by women though
food control and saving is men's and women's work.
This year we saved grain by collecting the horse chestnuts, a work
that was done by the school children. These are crushed and the oil
used for munitions and it was reckoned we could save tens of thousands
of tons of grain by doing this.
A wonderful work in the use of waste materials has been the work of
the Glove Waistcoat Society, to which American women have kindly sent
old gloves. Old gloves are cleaned, the fingers are cut off, the other
big pieces stitched together and cut into waistcoats and backed by
linenette. These are sold to the soldiers and sailors for wear under
their tunics and are most beautifully light and windproof. The fingers
of kid gloves are made into glue, of wash leather gloves into rubbers
for household use. The big pieces of linenette over are made into dust
sheets and the small scraps go to stuff mattresses for a Babies' Home.
The buttons are carded and sold and the making up provides work for
distressed elderly women. It needs no funds--it is self-supporting--it
only needs old gloves.
In preventing waste and in food production and conservation, our
people have learned much, and a very great deal of admirable work is
being done.
THE WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS
"Now every signaller was a fine Waac,
And a very fine Waac was she--e."
"Soldier and Sailor, too."