h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Dig for Victory! Campaign - A2228906
Author: Frenchbean - Still the Answer to the Ultimate Question. - U236943

Here's one for Peering please

It'll link nicely to the Women's Land Army on A2116478, once that's in the EG (nearly there).

It was the Dig for Victory campaign which first inspired my Dad to grow his own in 1939. He dug up his mother's roses! I inherited his passion.

Let me know what you think...


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Didn't like the title once I looked at it... So it's changed


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Excellent entry, Frenchbean.

I am very uncertain on this, but are you sure that before the war imported food came 'mainly from Canada and the USA'? At that time, the British Empire was still extensive, and countries such as Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and New Zealand may have made a larger contribution in total, particluarly as Canada was (I think) part of the Empire.

Immediately after the war (my childhood), there was quite extensive dietary supplementation, with malt extract ('Virol' was yummy) and cod liver oil (revolting stuff). The populace may have been fitter, and eating more healthily than today, but I doubt that their overall health was better. Food was rationed after all, and T/B was common due partly to that and partly to poor housing exascerbated by the bombing, and Polio was still common. Furthermore, not everyone would have had access to a garden or allotment.

I will not be unhappy if you ignore these personal opinions. It really is a good entry.

Hello Old Hairy

Thanks for the comments. The bumph I read certainly said that most food imports were from US and Canada, but even as I wrote it I was wondering about the rest of the Empire. I'll double check that.

You're right about the health issue. We were eating more healthily, but weren't necessarily healthier than today. Polio too of course. I'll reword it...


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OH: Yup - you're right. Imports from Canada, Australia outstripped those from USA. Then African countries and NZ. So I've changed the wording in that paragraph.

Also amended the bit at the end about health...



Frenchbean

Having seen the title for this, I guessed it would be you Fb.

There was some relevant stuff here:

http://society.guardian.co.uk/publichealth/story/0,11098,1116301,00.html

Very good!

Hello ZSF I am sooo predictable. My challenge now is to find a topic which will fool you, oh wise one

Thanks for that link. There's a similar on in the entry, to the BBC News report about that experiment. Very interesting.

Thanks Six


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Really interesting article f/b

I love the idea of potato Pete with his own theme song, but can't fancy crow pie...

I sort of wondered whether you might get some anecdotes to illustrate the individual impact of Dig for victory, if you put a message on the WWII site (a sister site of H2G2)?

Not essential though

sprout

Snails were gathered and eaten during the war, by my grandmother if noone else.

Cracking entry FB

Style suggestion: you might enhance your links by including the TITLE tag in the LINK.

This would mean that instead of the link being listed as 'ate so well' you could have it say 'BBC News: The WW2 Diet' by amending the link to read:
ate so well

The revised entry title is good

Pimms

I guess you'll be voting for Dad's Army in Britain's best sitcom then! How on earth do you get hyperlinks to work! My ones keep disapearing!

I don't think my Mum ever had an allotment (Dad was in the R.A.), but I sort of remember rationing. Chitterling sausages (use every bit of the pig except its squeak), horse meat, whale meat and I still don't like rabbit, as it was always full of buckshot and guess who found it!
I still have a copy of Farmhouse Fare, recipes from the Country Housewives collected by the Farmer's Weekly (3/6d), but no idea of the year of publication. This was published to enable the ordinary housewife to cope with the produce of the back yard.


Watermusic

Pimms: I tried that <LINK... thing and it didn't work at all - nothing came out when I updated the entry So it's back to where it was before...

Hi Shadowbane I've already voted for Dad's Army!! Oh crikey: I really am horribly predictable

I find the trick with hyperlinks is to copy them from the actual address box on the site, not type them in by hand.

Watermusic - I've been walking a bit of a tightrope on this entry, to try to avoid straying into the awfulness of rationing, because there's already an entry in the EG on rationing. So I've strictly stuck to domestic food production

Thanks for all the comments... keep 'em coming


Fb

Yes, well it wasn't really about rationing as such, that was me rambling..
just
the Farmer's Weekly giving people ideas on what to do with the 60 lbs of beans they had produced and how to preserve them.

FB naturally what I suggested wouldn't work - I didn't provide the hyperlink reference! I was just pointing out where the TITLE attribute would fit into the LINK tags

In 'full' (which of course I should have written) the link should read:
ate so well

Pimms

Thanks Pimms, I'll give that a go later on
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It worked thank you Pimms


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Any more????



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I can't bear watching this disappearing further and further back into the PR lists!


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