{"id":36008,"date":"2025-01-19T04:57:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T04:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/the-ridiculous-reason-why-the-u-s-enacted-a-wartime-ban-on-sliced-bread-sales-and-why-it-didnt-last-long\/"},"modified":"2025-01-19T04:57:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T04:57:59","slug":"the-ridiculous-reason-why-the-u-s-enacted-a-wartime-ban-on-sliced-bread-sales-and-why-it-didnt-last-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=36008","title":{"rendered":"The Ridiculous Reason Why the U.S. Enacted a Wartime Ban on Sliced Bread Sales\u2014and Why It Didn’t Last Long"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A 1943 ban\u00a0prohibited bakeries from selling ready-sliced bread, among other directives regarding the baked good\u2019s manufacture and sale.
\n Sujalajus via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a><\/span>
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On January 18, 1943, the Associated Press<\/a> advised readers on a lost art: bread slicing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBakers advise housewives to keep their eye on the loaf and not bear down on the knife,\u201d the wire service declared.<\/p>\n

Food Distribution Order 1<\/a>, which took effect that day, prohibited bakeries from selling ready-sliced bread, among other directives regarding the baked good\u2019s manufacture and sale. The order was a wartime move meant to keep increased flour costs from reaching the consumer. Officials also hoped it would shore up the nation\u2019s supplies of wax paper, since sliced bread required more wrapping to remain fresh.<\/p>\n

Claude R. Wickard<\/a>, the secretary of agriculture and head of the War Food Administration, said<\/a> he was sure housewives wouldn\u2019t mind slicing their own bread at home \u201cif thereby they can contribute toward preventing a bread price increase and at the same time contribute to the war effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

But consumers soon proved Wickard wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cBakery clerks reported that some of the housewives were resigned,\u201d the Chicago Daily Tribune<\/a> <\/em>wrote on January 19. \u201cOthers, still uncomprehending, stalked out of stores \u2026 and a few flexed their cutting arms in a manner one proprietor described as \u2018trouble, and plenty of it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

During World War II, rationing<\/a> measures hit meat, sugar, gas and even shoes<\/a> as officials tried to conserve crucial resources. Trips to the grocery store required ration books, and families had to get creative, whether it meant concocting meatless dinners or planting their own garden<\/a>. Even though the commercial bread slicer<\/a> had only skyrocketed in popularity about a decade earlier, Americans were loath to give up the newfound convenience of sliced bread on store shelves.<\/p>\n

Indeed, from the ban\u2019s outset, critics were doubtful that the measure would achieve its aims. The Tribune<\/em> reported that retail and wholesale bakers didn\u2019t expect any actual time or labor savings. The newspaper also contended that a loaf of sliced bread was known to outlast an unsliced one. (A sliced loaf could remain safe in its packaging, while unsliced bread needed to be opened completely for cutting, making it likely to grow stale sooner.)<\/p>\n

Shortly after the ban went into effect, the New York Times<\/a> <\/em>wrote that American citizens were fed up with irregularly cut bread burning in the toaster and ending up in the trash.<\/p>\n

By mid-February, the Harrisburg Telegraph<\/a> <\/em>reported that the ban hadn\u2019t saved bakers any money, either. In some cases, the order actually made bakers\u2019 jobs harder, since it was incompatible with machines that combined wrapping and slicing equipment.<\/p>\n

The ban was unpopular with elected officials, too. New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia argued<\/a> that the order wasted bread and created demand for steel knives, even as other government agencies declared a steel shortage. La Guardia said<\/a> he\u2019d watched his own wife struggle to cut bread with a dull knife.<\/p>\n

On March 4, Forest Harness, a congressman from Indiana, called<\/a> the ban \u201cwasteful and injurious\u201d on the floor of the House of Representatives, saying there were better approaches that didn\u2019t involve wasting bread. He described the ban as \u201ca dictatorial abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harness and other detractors soon got their wish. Less than two months after instituting the ban, rationing authorities rescinded it. In a statement<\/a>, Wickard didn\u2019t address the measure\u2019s unpopularity directly. Instead, he simply said it hadn\u2019t saved as much as expected and that the nation had sufficient wax paper.<\/p>\n

On March 8, sliced bread went back on sale\u2014a boon, the Times<\/a><\/em> wrote, to \u201chousewives who have risked thumbs and tempers slicing bread at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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