America’s Ban on Sliced Bread,During World War II there were many shortages of almost everything as

America’s Ban on Sliced Bread,During World War II there were many shortages of almost everything as the nation’s war effort used up raw materials and manpower to fight the Axis Powers.  In order to manage civilian consumption of important resources the Federal Government enacted several laws and regulations to conserve vital goods necessary for the war effort. Important goods were rationed such as fats, oils, gasoline, sugar, metals, papers, plastics, and textiles.  The government also banned several goods that were considered too wasteful or used too many resources to produce.  In 1943 Secretary of Agriculture Calude R. Wickard announced that sliced bread was to become one of those goods to be banned.  Whole loaf bread was legal, but pre-sliced bread was not to be sold anywhere in the country.  The reasons for such a ban were multiple; the resources needed to produce and maintain the slicers, the added cost to the bread itself (bread prices were rising), the energy needed to power electric slicers, etc. However the number one reason for banning sliced bread was that it was packaged in much more wax paper than whole loaf bread to prevent it from going stale. Thus, sliced bread was wasteful, especially since there was a large military demand for paper products.The ban on sliced bread did not sit well with the American public.  Most bakeries simply ignored the order, slicing and selling their sliced bread the law be damned.  The law was also heavily criticized, one American woman wrote to the New York Times,“I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to the morale and saneness of a household. My husband and four children are all in a rush during and after breakfast. Without ready-sliced bread I must do the slicing for toast—two pieces for each one—that’s ten. For their lunches I must cut by hand at least twenty slices, for two sandwiches apiece. Afterward I make my own toast. Twenty-two slices of bread to be cut in a hurry!”Another vocal critic of the law was New York City Mayor La Guardia, a politician who at the same time spearheaded the nationwide campaign to ban pinball. La Guardia believed the bakeries with their own slicing machines should be allowed to slice their own bread.  However John F. Conaboy, the New York Area Supervisor of the Food Distribution Administration refused to budge on the matter stating, "to protect the cooperating bakeries against the unfair competition of those who continue to slice their own bread… we are prepared to take stern measures if necessary.“Stern measures or not, the law was violated and ignored by most.  A law is easy to enforce when a few people break it, but when a law is made which is broken by everyone, well that’s a different story. In addition, there was no shortage of wax paper, and the rugged bread slicing machines of the 1940′s needed little maintenance to operate.  Hence to most, the law was unnecessary and ridiculous. On March 8th, 1943, a mere three months after passage, the law was rescinded, with Wickard stating that only marginal savings of resources were being made. -- source link

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