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Explanation on why these findings are important

These findings are significant because it illustrates the efforts that were made but never heard. I did not know that food was rationed during the Second World war, nor did I know that food symbolized nationalism. Typically when studying the World wars, professors from University and teachers from high school and elementary schools focus on the alliances made, warfare strategies, war propaganda, how many wars and which wars caused a chain reaction, but no teacher emphasized the sacrifices made on the home front. The only thing I knew was that women became increasingly active in the workforce and the economy to be at its peak, proving women to be an asset. Yet, there was never a mention of food during the World wars. These findings are significant because they explain how society survived, how they changed, what policy was implemented, what the government did or did not do wrong, and what foods held value. Essentially, these findings tell us about adopt and adapt practices and tell us about the challenges and problems that occurred. , if scholars did not research these findings, students would have been oblivious to the sacrifices and reforms made by women, they would have been oblivious of the crucial role science played during the Second World war, and we would not have known how families coped. These findings were necessary for us to know that everyone felt the war's weight regardless of class, age or sex. Similar to Covid-19, everyone is involved in this. All of us are lined up at grocery stores like everyone else to ensure safety and fair treatment, but Covid-19, like food rationing, has taught us how to adapt, adopt and conserve.

Sources

Primary sources

“Eat right, Feel Right-Canada Needs You Strong: Canada’s Official Food Rules.” Eat Right to     Work and Win. Toronto: Swift Canadian Co., 1942.

Moore, Henry N, “Chinese Salad Bean.” Illustration. Toronto: Maclean's, January 15, 1942.  From Maclean's Archives. https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19420115#!&pid=32. (Accessed November 15, 2020).

Moore, Henry N. Eat Yeast? Illustration. Toronto: Maclean's, September 15, 1943. From  Maclean's Archives. https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19430915#!&pid=34.  (Accessed October 21. 2020).

Moore, Henry N. GO ON, SPEND IT… what's the difference? Illustration. Toronto: Maclean's,    July 1, 1942. From Maclean's Archives.            https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19420701#!&pid=28. (Accessed October 20. 2020). Poster, Thank you, Mrs. Consumer (1943), War Time Price and Trade Board collection, Library     of Archives Canada.

Secondary sources

Belisle, Donica. Purchasing Power: Women and the Rise of Canadian Consumer Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020.

Braun, Robyn. "Accounting for the Contribution of Vitamin B to Canada's WWII  Effort." Journal of Historical Sociology 23, no. 4 (December 2010): 517–41.            doi:10.1111/j.1467-6443.2010.01382.x.

Broad, Graham. A Small Price to Pay: Consumer Culture on the Canadian Home Front, 1939-45. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013. Accessed October 20, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Fahrni, Magda. "Counting the Costs of Living: Gender, Citizenship, and a Politics of Prices in 1940's Montreal." Canadian Historical Review 83, no. 4 (December 2002): 483–504. doi:10.3138/CHR.83.4.483.

Iacovetta, Franca, Korinek, Valerie J., and Epp, Marlene. Edible Histories, Cultural Politics:Towards a Canadian Food History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. Accessed November 10, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Mosby, Ian. Food Will Win the War: The Politics, Culture, and Science of Food on Canada's Home Front. Vancouver: UBC Press & Kent State University Press, 2014.

Strikwerda, Eric. "'Canada Needs All Our Food-Power': Industrial Nutrition in Canada, 1941-1948." Labour 83 (June 20, 2019): 9–41. doi:10.1353/llt.2019.0001.

Williamson, Mary F., and Sharp, Tom, eds. Just a Larger Family: Letters of Marie Williamson from the Canadian Home Front, 1940-1944. Waterloo ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011. Accessed October 20, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central.

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Personal experience

Brain storm:

When I started this project I did not know what to write on. I figured the easiest thing was to Google “What food products were made in Canada?” I encountered Peanut Butter, Kraft Dinner, poutine etc. If we are being honest, I did not know where to start because I did not have a topic nor did I know what I was truly interested in. How did I think of rationing as a research topic? I did not. My friend recommended I research on food rationing during the World wars. Without a question I started to conduct research but soon after (literally one day into researching) I wanted to give up. It was difficult finding secondary sources. For the first time, I had no problem finding primary sources but secondary sources was a head scratcher.  I struggled to find sources the day the proposal was due and no, this was not last minute. I started researching as soon as the book review assignment was handed in. Nonetheless, the proposal was handed in time with enough sources. 

Writing it:

This was also another stress session. Before writing this essay, I planned out what I was going to do every day. The first day, format the entire paper (font, title page, references). The second day, write introduction. The third day, write historiography. The fourth day, fifth and sixth write claims and conclusion. Obviously that did not work out because I am a procrastinator. Despite having the majority of sources and receiving two additional sources from Dr. Nurse, I struggled to write this essay simply because I did not feel motivated. It took me a week to write an introduction for this essay. I have three drafts saved just for introduction. One is called crap introduction. Another struggle I had was finding creative titles. I am not creative with titles or creative in general. I cannot even think of captions for instagram posts. It came down to me asking my 16 year old friend and my 22 year old boyfriend for titles. 

Here were the possibilities from my 16 year old friend:

- Go find your passion, it’s time to ration! 

- Have a seat don’t eat all the meat! 

- If you tattle you could help save this battle! ( referring to telling on your neighbours who are not rationing)  

Here were the possibilities from my 22 year old boyfriend:

-Save the cheese for the boys over seas!

-Save the meat for the fleet

-Save the cattle, stop the battle!

-Sustain the grain and life will be mundane!

-Rations the tins and the boys won't lose limbs!

-Don't eat the butter, did I fkn stutter?

-Reserve the grain and allies will put to shame!

-Neun to dine (neun is no in German)

** forgive me for the profanity**

 It was only till I realized the deadline was approaching I felt motivated to write. I put on music and I started writing away. But I started an unorthodox way. I started writing and finishing my claim on women mobility then wrote the introduction then wrote the historiography. Clearly, I am a jumper. My problem was that I did not know how to start the introduction which was what literally held me back. It took me a total of three days to write it and reading it back today with the feedback, I made some silly errors but I did enjoy writing it even though writing an introduction was difficult for me. 

End process:

 Bad enough to say but finishing this essay was basically the end of the semester for me. This was the only class I was most intrigued in and the one I had the be the most worried about because grades can easily fluctuate in seminars. Regardless, I am happy with the results. I wish I contacted Dr. Nurse for guidance as it would have strengthen my essay and boost my confidence. The most common mistake in my essay is that I was not clear enough in my writing in which I have made my goal for the upcoming semester. A silver lining of this project was that I learnt active voice. Not to say I did not know what it was before but it became more clear to me that active voice is who is advocating the action or saying it rather than placing the action or person after the subject. Overall, I enjoyed writing about this topic and learned a lot from it. 

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Introduction + thesis

When we think of the Second World war, historians have accounted for arms strength, military alliances, industrial developments, and women's active role in the workforce. With the earliest scholarship dating from 2002, it is only recently that historians have accounted for the silent yet active efforts on the Canadian home front; food rationing. In 1942, four years into the war, the government enforced a food rationing policy on butter, meat, sugar, coffee and preserves due to a shortage of goods (Ian Mosby. Food Will Win the WarThe Politics, Culture and the Science of Food on Canada's Homefront, Pg. 5). Food rationing was not new to Canadians as the government had enforced food rationing during the First World war. However, the Second World war urged the government to enforce a coupon system to ensure shoppers were not over purchasing. The government also took an active role in the media, publishing war propaganda in magazines and cookbooks and issued telegrams warning homemakers if they did not thrift shop, they were German sympathizers. The poster above displaying Hitler whispering to a young married woman was published by Maclean and sponsored by the War Committee, reflects the degree of state intervention.

During the Second World War, food rationing was every bit annoying as it had detrimental effects on health, and the cost of living became suffocating. Nevertheless, food rationing urged the necessary dietary changes and economic reforms to create a healthier and educated population.

My reserch paper focus on the effects of food rationing during the Second World war at the home front. I argue that food rationing during the Second World War elevated scientific research, mobilized women in the political sphere, and integrated different cooking cultures in the Canadian sphere. Overall, food rationing created lasting changes that reconstructed Canadian society's everyday lives that, if not enforced, the population would have lost their identity, automatically giving Germans victory due to sickness and inadequate knowledge of health. 

End Notes:

Henry N. Moore. GO ON, SPEND IT… what's the difference? Illustration.    Toronto: Maclean's,   July 1, 1942. From Maclean's Archives.            https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19420701#!&pid=28.  (Accessed October 20. 2020).

Ian Mosby. Food Will Win the War: The Politics, Culture, and Science of Food on Canada's Home Front. Vancouver: UBC Press & Kent State University Press, 2014.

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Food rationing x anxiety= integration of cultures = larger social sphere 

Consumer magazines and cookbooks were like a bible to women during the Second World war. Meaning, women valued consumer magazines and cookbooks because it served as an avenue for women to express shared anxieties. Also, cookbooks and magazines helped women learn new recipes from other cultures, mobilizing women to use all resources.

a) Women magazines such as Chatelaine was again like a bible to women. It not only gave women how to fashion and thrift but also taught women how to cook. However, rationing provoked anxiety within women when it came to the holidays. Especially Christmas. Christmas was an event and almost a duty where mothers worked hard through decorations and foods to achieve the perfect Christmas for thier family. However, reaching the ideal feast with limited sources seemed impossible until Chatelaine provided recipes for the holiday time. For example, Chatelaine published a feature, "Patriotic Christmas," that proposed serving lobster in a tangy tomato sauce to give it a "Christmas colour (Ian Mosby. Food Will Win the War: The Politics, Culture and the Science of Food on Canada's Homefront  Pg. 135). Also, the women section of Le Devoir offered homemakers to serve "apple and crunchy celery salad, tomato mussels, and Canadian roast turkey" for a patriotic Christmas dinner (Ian Mosby. Food Will Win the War: The Politics, Culture and the Science of Food on Canada's Homefront, Pg. 135). These recipes were not the best, but it provided a good dinner that could help families cope with the holidays during the war.

b) Magazines also published recipes from different cultures, encouraging multiculturalism while expanding cooking skills. For example, Maclean published a Chinese bean salad recipe that is "an all-rounder perfect for soups and salads and is healthy, easy to grow and weigh very little" (Moore, Henry N, "Chinese Salad Bean." Illustration. Toronto: Maclean's, January 15, 1942. From Maclean's Archives. https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19420115#!&pid=32, Pg. 32). Rationing proved to be helpful as it allowed the integration of cultures in the social sphere. Before, women of different cultures, especially cultures deriving from the East, would not have been respected, let alone interact in the social sphere. As we have seen in Aya Fujiwara, “Japanese-Canadian Internally Displaced Persons: Labour Relations and Ethno-Religious Identity in Southern Alberta, 1942-1953,” the integration of Asian cultures were difficult. However, considering the weight of rationing, rationing allowed women to accept recipes readily, allowing a shared and essentially bigger community amongst women.

Though rationing had detrimental consequences during the Second World war, rationing built a network of women of various cultures to cope with their anxieties as a collective while expanding their cooking knowledge.

End notes:

Ian Mosby. Food Will Win the War: The Politics, Culture and the Science of Food on Canada’s Homefront (Vancouver: UBC Press & Kent State University Press, 2014), Pg. 135.

Henry N. Moore. “Chinese Salad Bean”. Illustration. Toronto: Maclean's, January 15, 1942. From Maclean's Archives. https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19420115#!&pid=32, Pg. 32

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Food rationing + unhealthy population = the legitimization of science

During the Second World war, many were malnourished and prone to deficiencies due to inadequate diets. Malnourishment jeopardized the labour force, children and enlisters, causing the government to take immediate action.

a) First, the government took action towards enlisters. In 1942, the military rejected 50,000 recruits because men suffered from foot problems, bronchitis, respiratory problems, heart disease, defective structural growth problems and minor illnesses. The government fearing men would lose thier masculinity through bodily appearances, urged the government to take immediate action. The population needs a dietary change that will comply with the rationing rules while ensuring Canadians know what a sufficient diet is. In 1942, Canada's food rules emerged, educating the population on adequate amounts of foods. For example, Canada's food guide recommended 4-5 slices of Canada approved bread per day ("Eat right, Feel Right-Canada Needs You Strong: Canada's Official Food Rules." Eat Right to Work and Win (Toronto: Swift Canadian Co., 1942), Pg. 13). Canada's food rules influenced men to prioritize their health, children to practice healthy eating and homemakers to practice cooking with available sources. Scientists and the government believed by following this guide prevented deficiencies.

b) As a result of limited sources, the population became incompetent of any form of labour. Workers refused to go to work simply because they did not have the energy nor strength to do intense labour. Unreliable labour force urged the government to employ a cafeteria to ensure men complete their work while getting good meals. By March 1944, canteens were functional at industrial organizations, and sanitation of factories became necessary (Eric Strikwerda. "Canada Needs All our Food-Power: Industrial Nutrition in Canada, 1941-1948", Pg. 10). As a result, this secured the labour force and safeguarded the workers' health.

c) Food rationing also introduced the use of vitamins and Canada's nutrition standards. Scientists recognized that vitamin B deficiency was shared amongst the population. The only viable solution was intaking vitamin B through bread. Scientists recommended that millers fortify bread with vitamin B because bread was a mundane item that everyone could afford, thus ensuring that vitamins were available to everyone. Ads such as "Eat Yeast" from Fleischmann's published on Maclean magazine influenced the population to buy yeast with vitamin B to avoid feeling "glum, down or tired" ([1] Henry N. Moore. Eat Yeast? Illustration. Toronto: Maclean's, September 15, 1943. https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19430915#!&pid=34. From Maclean's Archives, Pg. 34).  

Deficiencies became a site for political, biological machinic and nutrition development that would not have been possible if rationing did not engage the scientific discussion of human sustenance and biochemistry. Rationing was not easy, but it urged the government to take the necessary steps in protecting the labour force, children, and male enlisters.

End Notes:

Robyn Braun. "Accounting for the Contribution of Vitamin B to Canada's WWII Effort," Journal of Historical Sociology 23, no. 4 (December 2010): Pg. 520-523).

Henry N. Moore. Eat Yeast? Illustration. Toronto: Maclean's, September 15, 1943. https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19430915#!&pid=34. From Maclean's Archives, Pg. 34.

Franca Iacovetta, Valerie J Korinek., and Marlene Epp, Edible Histories, Cultural Politics: Towards a Canadian Food History, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), Pg. 416

“Eat right, Feel Right-Canada Needs You Strong: Canada’s Official Food Rules”. Eat Right to Work and Win (Toronto: Swift Canadian Co., 1942), Pg. 13.

Eric Strikwerda. “Canada Needs All our Food-Power: Industrial Nutrition in Canada, 1941-1948”, Labour 83 (2019): Pg. 10-28.

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Food rationing + women + frustration = Mobilized women in the political sphere

a) Providing an adequate meal became impossible because grocers raised the price of everything. It is important to note that Francophone housewives lived different than English housewives. Francophone housewives stored food in iceboxes, had larger families, less income causing them to make daily purchases (Fahrni Magda. “Counting the Cost of Living: Gender, Citizenship and a Politics of Prices in 1940’s Montreal”, Pg. 494). Mundane items accessible to low-income families, such as cabbage and bread, became ridiculously expensive that some families were left to starve. Not to mention, margarine was illegal to purchase. The inflation of price and lack of substitution angered francophone women, urging them to take legal and passive-aggressive action towards the government and grocers. Francophone housewives blatantly boycott grocers forcing grocers to lower thier prices. For example, grocers raised the price of cabbage to 30 cents but dropped the price to 5 cents (Fahrni Magda. "Counting the Cost of Living: Gender, Citizenship and a Politics of Prices in 1940's Montreal", Pg. 493).

b) Francophone housewives also took legal action against the government for restricting the use of margarine. In 1886, Canada banned margarine production because margarine competed with the dairy industry and challenged Canadian morale (Magda. “Counting the Cost of Living: Gender, Citizenship and a Politics of Prices in 1940’s Montreal”, Pg. 496). However, butter was a staple of Canadian diet. Without butter, families were struggling to survive. Seeing the trouble of providing an adequate, francophone housewives pushed for the legalization of margarine as an ample substitute for butter. In 1948, the supreme court ruled that the federal government did not have the right to prohibit margarine manufacture (Fahrni Magda. “Counting the Cost of Living: Gender, Citizenship and a Politics of Prices in 1940’s Montreal”, Pg. 498).

c) Toronto housewives worked alongside the government, specifically Donald Gordon, to monitor price inflation. In contrast to Francophone housewives, English housewives took aggressive actions against grocers. Donald Gordon appointed Bryne Hope Sanders to lead the 'blue book' agents. Under Sanders' leadership, 16,000 women were recruited to write up against grocers (Graham Broad. A Small Price To Pay Consumer Culture on the Canadian Home Front, 1939-45, Pg. 33). As simple as a price difference of 3 cents for pork kidney was reported, forcing grocers to lower their prices and sometimes be fined (Graham Broad. A Small Price To Pay Consumer Culture on the Canadian Home Front, 1939-45, Pg. 33). Whether how little or big the complain was, price control was necessary, and the only one suitable to enforce these laws were housewives.

d) Aside from women taking action against price inflation, women also challenged upper-class women's ideals. During wartime, the government gave upper-class and middle-class women the responsibility of educating low-income families about thrifting. Not to mention, the government also published advertisements that displayed upper-class women as the ideal “Mrs. Consumer.” This supposed "education" and ideal “Mrs.Consumer” infuriated low-income housewives because upper-class women did not know what budgeting was, nor were they complying with rationing rules. Margaret Graham Horton published a pledge card (something that upper-class women handed to low-class women while educating) to attack upper-class women for their ignorance and the government for placing a blind-eye on upper-class families (Donica Belisle. Purchasing Power: Women and the Rise of Consumer Culture Pg. 54).

Women accepted food rationing as a patriotic act, but the ridiculous price inflations and bias actions pushed women to engage in economic and political debates against grocers, the federal government, and women. Nearly, rationing made women realize their economic and political potential, forming pre-feminism.

End Notes:

Fahrni Magda. “Counting the Cost of Living: Gender, Citizenship and a Politics of Prices in 1940’s Montreal”, Canadian Historical Review 83, no. 4 (2002): Pg. 493-498.

Graham Broad. A Small Price To Pay Consumer Culture on the Canadian Home Front, 1939-45, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), Pg. 28-33.

Donica Belisle. Purchasing Power: Women and the Rise of Consumer Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020), Pg. 53.