Food Will Win the War by Rae Katherine Eighmey

Author:Rae Katherine Eighmey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-87351-797-3
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
Published: 2010-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Raising more pigs was one of the fastest ways to increase the nation’s meat supply. They can be fed on kitchen waste, and they grow to market weight in less than a year. Although some towns allowed backyard piggeries, the real growth market was among farm boys and girls. In “pig clubs” children learned the best ways to raise a healthy hog.

After hogs had been fed during the summer, they could be turned into food. Minnesota food administrator A. D. Wilson reassured home farmers that they could cure meat for their own use and that they would not be charged with hoarding, even if they kept the meat from a whole hog or more. “Any family has the right to put up meat in the fall for winter use as long as they do not keep quantities in excess of normal needs. Meats of all kinds should be salted and stored.”60

For those who preferred to sell their home- or farm-raised pork, there were local markets. For example, J. O. Melby of Oklee’s meat market paid 18 cents a pound for dressed hogs in 1918. The previous spring he advertised that “nice dressed hogs weighing from 125 to 200 pounds will be paid for at 14 cents per pound when delivered to the meat market.”61

Children living on farms had an impact on the Minnesota meat supply, too. By the end of the war Wilson reported that “the Boys and Girls Clubs of Minnesota, through their pig and calf clubs, have added 540,000 pounds of meat production to the state. One thousand boys and girls have produced an estimated number of 1,500 pigs representing 300,000 pounds in production and a money value at present market prices of $51,000.”62

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