United States Army Signal CorpsPresident Harry S. Truman was the first United States president to give a televised address to the American people on Oct. 5, 1947. In his speech, he asked Americans to cut back on eating meat, poultry and eggs in an effort to help the people of Europe.Historic Headlines
Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.
On Oct. 5, 1947, in the first televised White House address, President Harry S. Truman and several cabinet members, including Secretary of State George C. Marshall, asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays, and poultry and eggs on Thursdays, to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe.
The New York Times reported the next day that the goal was to create a surplus of grain which, instead of being used to feed
animals, could provide emergency food relief to Europe: “Food from the United States,” Secretary Marshall said, “would deter the march of hunger, cold and collapse, not only enabling Europe
to recover its economic stability, but also contributing to the resolution of a crisis that could mean the difference between the failure or attainment of world peace and security.”
The program did not have a long-term effect on the European food crisis. Even President Truman’s secretary of agriculture, Clinton Anderson, admitted a day before the speech
that the program was mostly a “symbol of sacrifice” that would “get the public in the frame of mind to conserve food.”
The program was part of America’s large-scale postwar relief effort in Europe, preceding the passage of the Marshall Plan, which provided $13 billion in aid from 1948 to 1951 and had a more lasting effect on Europe’s recovery.
Connect to Today:
The Food Prices and Supply Times Topic discusses the contributing factors of today’s high food prices. Its overview notes, “[I]n 2008, food riots broke out in developing countries around the world, as the prices of staples, particularly rice, jumped sharply” and that “some food experts thought the increases could have been a factor in the unrest that swept the Arab world in early 2011.”
Most of the efforts to control the rising costs of food worldwide have focused on increasing food supply rather than reducing consumption. Do you think it is possible for people, particularly in the United States, to reduce their consumption or to make other changes for the common good? Why or why not?
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