The Home Front Call to Arms
Food Administrator Herbert Hoover urges Kennewick farmers to maximize crop production to defeat the global food crisis during World War I.
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Since his return from Washington, D. C., where he conferred with Herbert G. Hoover, Mr. Hebberd has received a letter from Mr. Hoover on the subject of increased feed production. 'While necessarily the determination of policy on production is in the hands of the department of agriculture, I feel that it is a prime duty of the food administration to inflame the imagination of the farmers to the national necessity. The particular crop which the farmer raises is of secondary importance to the food administration as compared to production, so long as it yields an increase in human and animal food. Practically any crop of this character will assist in reducing the world shortage. The main thing is to get planting and breeding on a larger scale than hitherto. I know his feeling about labor is discouraging, but I still believe a super-effort by our farmers will get the greater crop planted. Given that it is planted, we can find a solution to its harvest somehow, if we have to turn our town population into the fields.'
“The main thing is to get planting and breeding on a larger scale than hitherto.”
During World War I, Kennewick's agricultural economy was mobilized as a front line of defense. The pressure to produce food amid severe labor shortages echoes contemporary struggles to maintain local food security in the face of climate change and supply chain instability.
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