From Dinner to Dynamite: Fats and Oils in Wartime America

Abstract

This article focuses on the vital significance of fats and oils for dietary and industrial purposes in World War II and pays special attention to the supply in the United States and among its Allies. It argues that the war led the US government to intervene drastically in important segments of the fats and oils commodity chain. Further, it examines government policies to rationalize usage, conserve the supply of stocks, recycle materials, and increase domestic oil crop cultivation. It also addresses US efforts to coordinate the global commodity chain with Allied powers, especially the UK. All these measures combined resulted in profound short- and long-term transformations in the national as well as global commodity chain of fats and oils.

Keywords:

• Fats and oils
• commodity chains
• World War II
• Combined Food Board

Acknowledgements

I greatly benefited from the comments and criticisms of Deborah Fitzgerald, Kevin Hall, April Merleaux, Jeffrey Pilcher, and two anonymous reviewers. My colleagues at the German Historical Institute listened to a talk based on this article and I am grateful for their suggestions. Special thanks goes to Patricia (Casey) Sutcliffe for her extensive editorial help.

Notes

¹ Sharpsteen (dir.), Out of the Frying Pan.

² For example Brandt, “Production and Consumption of Fats,” 210–15; Brandt, Fats and Oils in the War. Karl Brandt (1899–1975) was a German émigré who fled Berlin from the Nazis in 1933 and became a professor at Stanford University in 1938. Brandt was a consultant for the US Office of Strategic Services, the World Bank, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Besides issues in global agriculture, one of Brandt’s professional specializations lay in the worldwide supply of fats and oils. His concerns were shared by other experts; see, for example, Walsh, “Far Eastern Fats and Oils,” 201–202.

³ Claude R. Wickard, USDA, to Donald M. Nelson, WPB, March 16, 1942 NARA RG 16, General Correspondence, 1942, Box 643, Fats–Oils–Waxes.

⁴ Clarence-Smith, “The Battle for Rubber in the Second World War”; Marshall, To Have and Have Not. For numbers on the fats and oils situation, see Brandt, “Production and Consumption of Fats,” 212, Table 1.

⁵ Bowman, “‘Legitimate Commerce’ and Peanut Production,” 87–106; Olukoju, “The United Kingdom and the Political,” 105–25; Péhaut, “The Invasion of Foreign Foods,” 457–570.

⁶ Prodöhl, “‘A Miracle Bean:’ How,” 111–29; Prodöhl, “Versatile and Cheap: A Global,” 461–82; Roth, “Magic Bean: The Quests”.

⁷ Collingham, The Taste of War: World War II.

⁸ Corni, Hitler and the Peasants: Agrarian; Corni and Gies, Brot, Butter, Kanonen: Die Ernährungswirtschaft; Reith, “‘Hurrah die Butter ist alle!’: ‘Fettlücke’,” 403–26; Sparenberg, “Segen des Meeres”: Hochseefischerei; for contemporary assessments, see Brandt, The German Fat Plan; Brandt, Whale Oil: An Economic Analysis.

⁹ For conservation campaigns in wartime America, see Strasser, Waste and Want: A Social History, 229–62. On the consumption of fats and oils in beauty products, see Jones, Beauty Imagined: A History.

¹⁰ Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten; Collingham, The Taste of War: World War II, 75–88; Milward, War, Economy and Society, 245–93.

¹¹ Jacobs, Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship; Jacobs, “‘How About Some Meat?’: The Office,” 910–41; Conkin, A Revolution Down on the Farm; Winders, Politics of Food Supply; Bentley, Eating for Victory: Food.

¹² Bruice, Essential Organic Chemistry, 517–19.

¹³ Memorandum, Karl Brandt to Thomas C. Blaisdell, Jr., February 10, 1942 NARA RG 16, General Correspondence, 1942, Box 643, Fats–Oils–Waxes.

¹⁴ Brandt, “Production and Consumption of Fats,” 210.

¹⁵ On the history of margarine, see Pelzer and Reith, Margarine: Die Karriere der Kunstbutter; William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, “History of Soy Oil Margarine,” Part 1 (a chapter from the unpublished manuscript, “History of Soybeans and Soyfood, 1100 B.C. to the 1980s”), available online at: http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/margarine1.php (accessed October 15, 2015).

¹⁶ Jones, Beauty Imagined: A History, 71–93; see also Dyer, Dalzell, and Olegario, Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years.

¹⁷ Bowman, “‘Legitimate Commerce’ and Peanut Production”; Olukoju, “The United Kingdom and the Political”; Péhaut, “The Invasion of Foreign Foods”.

¹⁸ Hille, “Der Weltmarkt der Ölfrüchte,” 15–26; see also Pelzer and Reith, Margarine: Die Karriere der Kunstbutter, 32.

¹⁹ Brandt, “Production and Consumption of Fats,” 211.

²⁰ Collingham, The Taste of War: World War II, 66.

²¹ In 1942, the Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering conducted experiments on vegetable oils for use as motor and aviation fuels; see several relevant letters within the USDA in NARA RG 16, General Correspondence 1942, Box 643, Fats–Oils–Waxes.

²² Brandt, “Production and Consumption of Fats,” 211.

²³ Ibid., 214; Walsh, “Far Eastern Fats and Oils,” 201–202.

²⁴ Marshall, To Have and Have Not, x. Marshall also gives more details on shipping and trade routes between the United States and the Far East, which were eventually interrupted.

²⁵ See Fats and Oils Situation, no. 52 (June 1941): 4; Office of Price Administration, 178.

²⁶ “Priority Order M-71: Fats and Oils, December 29, 1941,” in Priorities in Force. https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=10909&recCount=25&recPointer=0&bibId=7388649

²⁷ On the WPB, see Koistinen, Arsenal of World War II.

²⁸ See Priority Orders M-40, M-57, M-66, M-50, M-58, M-59, M-60, M-71, as well as the relevant amendments, in Priorities in Force. “M” orders covered the distribution of materials, usually raw materials. For more details on the orders regarding fats and oils, see Fats and Oils Situation, no. 60 (February 1942), 7, and no. 61–62 (April 1942), 5–8. A general overview of the nature of all orders and their categories is in Industrial Mobilization for War, 308–11.

²⁹ The best contemporary account of all US agencies involved in the distribution of food in World War II is Clayton and Black, “Wartime Food Administration – U.S.A.,” 96–105.

³⁰ Program for Consumption and Utilization of Fats and Oils [March 1942], National Archives and Record Administration [hereafter referred to as NARA] RG 16, General Correspondence, 1942, Box 643, Fats–Oils–Waxes.

³¹ NARA RG 16, General Correspondence, 1942, Box 643, Fats–Oils–Waxes, 2.

³² “National Drive to Salvage Fat Begins in July,” Chicago Daily Tribune (June 18, 1942), 9.

³³ “Bacon Drippings to Help Grease Skids for Axis,” Chicago Daily Tribune (January 16, 1942), 15.

³⁴ “Fats Salvaged by Housewives Make Shells,” Chicago Defender (October 17, 1942), 17.

³⁵ D.C.W., “Home Use of Fats,” Chicago Daily Tribune (May 3, 1942), 18.

³⁶ Wilcox, The Farmer in the Second, 193; Strasser, Waste and Want: A Social History, 253.

³⁷ Winders, Politics of Food Supply, 69–70; for production goals, see Fats and Oils Situation, no. 56 (October 1941), 8–9, and no. 59 (January 1942), 8–9.

³⁸ For more details on this change, see Prodöhl, “Versatile and Cheap: A Global”.

³⁹ The Story of Soybeans, 23–24.

⁴⁰ Brandt, “Production and Consumption of Fats,” 210. Fats and oils for food consumption were rationed, effective April 1, 1943. Lard, shortening, and oils were removed from rationing on March 3 and April 19, 1944, respectively. Butter and margarine remained rationed until November 23, 1945.

⁴¹ Strand, Soybean Production in War, 24.

⁴² Numbers reflect only harvested acreage; see Agricultural Statistics 1956 (Washington, DC 1957), 119; see also Stephan, “Peanut Production in Southeastern,” 183–91.

⁴³ “Peanut Butter Can Be Used as Cooking Fat,” Washington Post (January 20, 1939): 15; “More Peanut Products Assured Civilians,” Wall Street Journal (September 2, 1943): 2; “The Peanut: It Wins a Place as a Major Wartime Food,” Wall Street Journal (September 27, 1943): 1–6.

⁴⁴ Wilcox, The Farmer in the Second, 184, 188.

⁴⁵ Finlay, Growing American Rubber; Strasser, Waste and Want: A Social History; Jacobs, “‘How About Some Meat?’: The Office”; Winders, Politics of Food Supply.

⁴⁶ Wilcox, The Farmer in the Second, 193.

⁴⁷ The crop’s cultivation continuously expanded, from 13.8 million acres in 1950 to 83 million acres in 2014. In 1970, soybeans’ value of agricultural production in America ranked second behind corn for the first time and has remained there ever since. Data are available online through the National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA, http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_Subject/index.php?sector=CROPS (accessed June 15, 2015).

⁴⁸ Rosen, The Combined Boards of the Second, 191–92. Rosen dates the government interest in the global supply of food back to the late 1930s.

⁴⁹ Rosen, The Combined Boards of the Second, 197.

⁵⁰ The subcommittee on fats and oils was formed in February 1942; see “Commodities within the Purview of the CFB,” leaflet issued March 27, 1946, published in Roll, The Combined Food Board, 325.

⁵¹ “Memorandum of Understanding,” NARA, RG 16, Entry 215, Box No. 1, Records Relating to World War II and Related Activities, Food Requirement Committee, General Correspondence 1942, Fats–Oils–Waxes; see also Roll, The Combined Food Board, 44–47, 346.

⁵² War Cabinet, Combined Boards, Note by the Minister of Production, December 15 1942, The National Archives CAB 66/32/11.

⁵³ On the idea of the CFB, its terms of reference, organization, and working methods, see Report of the Combined Food Board.

⁵⁴ Rosen, The Combined Boards of the Second, 232.

⁵⁵ The recommendation for a trade agreement in 1943 is significant; see “Recommended Allocations and Purchasing Arrangement for Fats and Oils in 1943,” NARA RG 16, Records Relating to World War II and Postwar Activities, Combined Food Board, Minutes 1942–1944, Entry 213, Box No. 5.

⁵⁶ The War Food Authority was established on March 26 1943, to aid in securing the necessary production of food in the United States. The CFB with its focus on organizing food allocations abroad became part of the WFA on October 28 1943; see Rosen, The Combined Boards of the Second, 223–32. For the various agencies that continued to deal with the international procurement and allocation of food, see The Food Program for 1944, 28.

⁵⁷ Woodbridge, ed., UNRRA: The History of the United, 409–33.

⁵⁸ The Food Program for 1944, 78–79; Report of the Combined Food Board, 8. In both countries, production of peanuts doubled in only one year – in Argentina from 106,000 to 219,000 tons, and in Brazil from 29,000 to 46,000 tons from 1943 to 1944; see Agricultural Statistics 1947, 134.

⁵⁹ Niblo, War, Diplomacy, and Development, 130–32.

⁶⁰ The following calculations are based on tables regarding USDA and WFA purchases in Agricultural Statistics, 1943, 522–26; 1944, 560–65; 1945, 578–83; 1946, 706–11. I worked with the numbers given in the fats and oils category, which in itself is unfortunately not clearly defined. For instance, statistics for 1942 and 1943 list lard under the fats and oils, but for 1944 and 1945, it is listed under meat. This makes a tremendous difference because lard was among the most important commodities. For the purposes of comparison, I calculated lard as a fats-and-oils commodity, a practice many contemporary statistics followed as well.

⁶¹ Strand, Soybean Production in War, 23.

⁶² Marshall, “The Lend-Lease Operation,” 183–89.

⁶³ Jasspon, “Outlook for World Fats and Oils,” 325–30.