1942 - Food Availability

Food Availability

Famine kills some 1.6 million Bengalese as fungus disease ruins the rice crop near Bombay (Mumbai).

Oxfam (initially Oxford Committee for Famine Relief) is founded by Oxford University classical scholar Gilbert Murray, now 76, and others to help families whose lives have been destroyed by the war. Groups in towns all over the United Kingdom collect parcels of food and clothing, and Oxfam will become a worldwide organization aimed at fighting hunger.

Millions of Europeans live in semi-starvation as German troops cut off areas in the Ukraine and North Caucasus that have produced half of Soviet wheat and pork production. Food supplies fall to starvation levels in German-occupied Greece, Poland, and parts of Yugoslavia.

U.S. sugar rationing begins in May after consumers have created scarcities by hoarding 100-pound bags and commercial users have filled their warehouses. One-sixth of U.S. sugar supplies have come from the Philippines, now in Japanese hands. Ration boards ask householders to state how much sugar they have stockpiled and ration stamps are deducted to compensate; the weekly ration averages eight ounces per person but will rise to 12 ounces. Soft drink companies are allowed enough sugar to meet quotas of 50 to 80 percent of the production attained in the base year 1941, but with no limit on sales to the armed forces. Coca-Cola Co. will set up small bottling plants overseas to keep servicemen supplied with 5ยข bottles of its beverage.

Britain begins rationing sweets July 26.

U.S. hoarding of coffee leads to rationing, which begins in November with consumers limited to one pound every 5 weeks (enough for one cup per day).