ADVERT URGED COUNTRY’S POPULACE TO EAT POTATOES RATHER THAN WHEAT TO STAVE OFF ILLNESS AND ‘USE FEWER SHIPS’
A WAR-TIME advert from local newspaper, the Stamford Mercury
The advert featured in an August 1940 issue of what was then a broadsheet (A3) newspaper and was placed by the Ministry of Food .
It urged readers to eat more potatoes, stating that they offered ‘energy and protection against illness’.
Because the potatoes were produced in the UK, eating them in higher quantities meant fewer ships were required to bring wheat from overseas as they could be consumed in place of bread, it went on to add.
The ‘On the Kitchen Front’ advert was discovered by Nicky Rogers, who works for British Potato Review’s publishing company, Warners Group, while she was looking through archives.
Vegetable protein was Great Britain’s main source of protein throughout WW2 and potatoes made a substantial contribution to the wartime diet, according to ‘The Urban Working-Class Household Diet 1940-1949 ‘, the first report of the National Food Survey Committee, part of the Ministry of Food.
Although they provided less than 10% of the calorie intake by urban working class people, potatoes supplied between 40% and 50% of their vitamin C quota, as well as significant quantities of vitamin B1 and Niacin , also known as nicotinic acid, an essential human nutrient.
Most people ate around 4.5 lbs of spuds per week.
The situation for potatoes was more bleak just after the war, when severe weather conditions led to intense crop damage and shortages in the UK.
The winter of 1946–1947 was harsh all over Europe, and noted for its adverse effects in the United Kingdom. It caused severe hardships in economic terms and living conditions in a country still recovering from the Second World War.
Cold spells brought large drifts of snow to the country. Towards the end of February, there were fears of a food shortage as supplies were cut off and vegetables were frozen into the ground. Many could not be harvested, and in some areas pneumatic drills were used to excavate them.
Between 10 and 20% of potato crops were lost. In total, frost destroyed 70,000 long tons (71,000 t) of potatoes and, as a result, potatoes were rationed for the first time.
