Wheat for the Allies

Long before the United States officially entered the war, it provided food aid to the Allies and countries like Belgium which was being decimated by the invading German army. 

Europe in the 1910s was primarily a wheat-importing region of the world. Britain in particular imported wheat from the edges of the Empire, including Canada, India, and Australia. Other European nations imported wheat from the breadbasket of the Ukraine and Argentina, in addition to producing some grains domestically. But when in 1914 the Germans launched their secret weapon - U-boats - suddenly trans-Atlantic shipping got a lot more dangerous. 

Cut off by Germany troops from wheat-producing regions in Poland and Russia and unable to import wheat long distances, the European Allies turned to the United States to produce the wheat they needed.

There was just one problem - while 1914 and 1915 had resulted in bumper wheat crops thanks to good weather and improved agricultural techniques, the plunging market price from wheat surplus and unfavorable weather had made the 1916 crop a disappointing one. When the United States joined the war on April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson and soon-to-be-appointed Food Administrator Herbert Hoover faced a dilemma: April was too late to influence the 1917 crop of wheat, so the increased need for wheat for the Allies and American troops would not come from increased production that year. That left reducing domestic consumption, which the President and Hoover immediately tried to do, by asking Americans to voluntarily reduce their wheat consumption.

Other calorie-rich, shelf-stable supplies like lard, butter, sugar, and meat were also under voluntary ration. Like many politicians and wealthy businessmen at the time, Wilson and former mining engineer Hoover both feared the spread of "bolshevism" and socialism - a reaction to the instability in Russia (which would later fall to revolution in October, 1917) and the rise of anarchists and socialists in Europe and the United States. Hoover had also seen the huge bureaucracy (and expense) created by mandatory rationing in European countries during the first several years of the war, as well as the large black market forced rationing created. He was determined to prove that Americans' spirit of voluntarism would prove that the United States was morally superior to an increasingly degenerate Europe. 

By relying on voluntary effort, Hoover would avoid government overreach into the lives of ordinary Americans (or so he hoped) as well as prevent the creation of enormous and ineffective bureaucracies. To that end, he release a series of recommendations to the public, even before he had any real power to regulate the food industry. For while President Wilson had full confidence in him and the decisive role that food would play in turning the tide of war, the United States Congress did not, and many Senators, especially from Midwestern farm states, expressed sincere concern and doubts about the expansion of executive powers under the bill. The Lever Act of 1917 was held up in Congress from April until August, when it was finally passed. 

In the meantime, Hoover enlisted the help of newspapers to help get the word out about food conservation, food preservation, and voluntary rationing to help "our boys" as they prepared to go to war.