Food Fights for Freedom

Creamer
Author Photo

By 1942, in addition to feeding its citizens at home and its troops overseas, the United States was supplying food to the allies in Europe and the Pacific under the Lend-Lease program. Rationing only went so far, and the need to grow more food was apparent. However, the estimated two million male workers who had left the farms created a severe labor shortage.

In an effort to solve the problem, the American government turned to its southern neighbor, Mexico, and in August 1942, the two countries signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement creating the Bracero Program (Spanish for manual labor) that offered employment to five million Mexican men, “braceros,” in twenty-four states. The program also allowed for laborers to be brought from Guam.

That same year, Eleanor Roosevelt had been to England and toured the farms where women worked the fields as part of the Women’s Land Army. At the time, the first lady was the assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense, and upon her return, she touted the benefits of using women for the same purpose in the United States. Farmers and government officials were not convinced women had the requisite skills or strength to be effective and rejected the idea. Instead, prisoners of war, mostly Italian and German, were daily transported to farms to provide the labor. Conscientious Objectors were also used.

Mrs. Roosevelt was not the only one to acknowledge the benefit of using women on farms. An article in the Farm Journal posited, “women and children already on the farms of American must be ready to train small town and city women for summer, seasonal, and vacation jobs in the poultry, truck and fruit farms of the country.” Articles in other periodicals soon followed. The public agreed, and letters to the editors of both small and large newspapers began to appear with regularity.

Eventually the government got on board, and a press release was issued on April 10, 1942 announced

the establishment of the Women’s Land Army (WLA) and Florence Hall, Senior Home Economist was appointed as director two days later. To qualify for consideration women had to be eighteen years old and physically fit with “dexterity, speed, accuracy, patience, interest, curiosity, rivalry, and patriotism.”

The national WLA handled promotions, conferences, and propaganda encouraging women to become farmerettes (the term coined during WWI), and the state and local organizations placed the women. Initially, farmers had no interest in using urban women, but as the labor shortage worsened, a variety of methods were used to recruit women from all walks of life.

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Training for the women was handled through colleges and universities such as Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science that offered a 25-day intensive course on milking, egg grading, food packing, maintaining horses, and operating machinery. Workers were paid and “unskilled worker’s wage” ranging from $0.25 to $0.50 per hour. From that wage they paid for their denim overall uniforms, meals, and lodging.

An accurate count of the women who worked American farms through the Women’s Land Army is difficult to ascertain, but an estimated two million seemed to have answered the call to “rescue the crops” as one newspaper article proclaimed.

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War’s Unexpected Gift

Love and war don’t mix. Or do they?

Eager to do even more for the war effort, nurse Gwen Milford puts in for a transfer from a convalescent hospital outside of London to an evac hospital headed across Europe. Leap-frogging from one location to the next, nothing goes as expected from stolen supplies to overwhelming numbers of casualties. Then, there’s the handsome doctor who seems to be assigned to her every shift. As another Christmas approaches without the war’s end, can she find room in her heart for love?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/4jG2wl

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves.

Whether you choose her books set in the Old West or across the globe during WWII, you will be immersed in the past through rich detail. Follow the journeys of relatable characters whose faith is sorely tested, yet in the end, emerge triumphant. Be encouraged in your own faith-walk through stories of history and hope. Visit her at http://www.LindaShentonMatchett.com