Hansel and Gretel remind me of
breadcrumbs and here is a crumb about sliced bread. Claude R.
Wickard, the head of the War Foods Administration as well as the
Secretary of Agriculture, got the idea to ban pre-sliced bread in
America, which he did on January 18, 1943.
He said it was about conservation of resources, such as to conserve
wax paper and secondary goals of conserving wheat and steel.
However, there was no shortage of wax paper at the time the ban was
put in place. He also thought that by banning pre-sliced bread, the
amount of bread consumed would go down and reduce the demand for
flour and wheat, and thus, decrease prices of those products while
increasing stockpiles of wheat. However, at the time of the ban, the
US had already stockpiled over 1 billion bushels of wheat, which
would be enough to meet the United States’ needs for about two
years, even if no new wheat was harvested.
After a severe consumer backlash, the ban was rescinded three months
later on March 8, 1943. Upon rescinding the ban, Wickard stated,
“Our experience with the order, however, leads us to believe that
the savings are not as much as we expected…”