"What's Cooking..." at the National Archives?

FOOD - that's what!

Through January 3, 2012, the National Archives in Washington, D.C. have an exhibit called "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?: The Government's Effect on the American Diet".  This is a must-see for any foodie; if there's one thing the Archives are good at, it's documentation.  I found that they presented the information in a non-biased, impartial way (well, as non-biased as they could be when you see who their sponsor was at the end of this post...).

The exhibit is broken down into four main areas: Farm, Factory, Kitchen, and Table.  They cover so much information in so little space - we spent a good two hours reading literally everything they had to offer.  The records cover the time period between just after the Revolutionary War to the late 1990's.  Here are some of my personal highlights of the things I learned:

• A poster touting the health benefits of Vitamin B-fortified "Vitamin Donuts"  The poster says it all.
  
  
• Thomas Jefferson smuggled rice seeds from Italy, a crime punishable by death.  Boy, did he like his seeds.  Have you been to Monticello yet?  Another great foodie destination - the gardens are amazing.
• When oleomargarine (a butter substitute) hit the market in 1870, butter farmers were so threatened that they convinced Congress to pass the Margarine Act of 1886 - which placed a hefty tax on the oily impostor.   Enter organized criminals, who peddled the product illegally and, when caught, served lengthy sentences in federal prison (example: one man spent nearly a year in prison when he was convicted of selling margarine without a license!)
• A six-page letter to President Theodore Roosevelt from Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, the groundbreaking 1906 novel which uncovered the corruption and horrible conditions in Chicago's meatpacking stockyards.  The President had previously written to Sinclair, asking him his opinion on what the President should ask the government to do to regulate the meatpacking industry.  Sinclair, even back then in the early 1900's, recognized the deep-set corruption, and basically told the President that he needed to have a man "on the inside", working with the meatpackers, gaining their trust over several weeks, before they would really get an idea of what it was like.  Ew.
• A memo from Margaret Mead, renowned anthropologist, to the U.S. Government, who hired her as a consultant when they were researching the anticipated impact new nutritional guidelines would have on the racially-divided South.
• A WWII-era poster urging children - the "Little Americans" - to do their part for the war effort by, among other things, joining the Clean Plate Club.  If you listen carefully, you can hear the compulsive overeating settling into the minds of that entire generation.
• My new favorite nutritional guidelines (circa 1945):  Butter gets its own food category?  And we can eat as much as we want of any other foods in addition to the Basic 7?! Where do I sign up?

 All images: Copyright 2011, Foundation for the National Archives.  For more information on the exhibit, go here.

P.S. - The "mystery sponsor" I told you about at the beginning of the post?  Mars, Inc. makers of M&M's, Snickers, and Dove Chocolates, to name a few.  Come to think of it, I didn't notice any documents on display about the Big Sugar's presence on Capitol Hill...interesting...I'm not taking any sides here, folks, I'm just tellin' ya what I saw...

P.P.S. - Number one lesson learned: Don't mess with butter - Big Dairy will come and get you if you try!

P.P.P.S. - I love butter.