"By the immediate preservation of eggs for home consumption through the use of water glass or lime water, larger supplies of fresh eggs may be made available for marketing later in the season, when production is less and prices higher"
About this Quote
A sentence about eggs that quietly doubles as a manifesto for managing the home front. David F. Houston, a politician and cabinet-level steward of agriculture in an era of war and volatile markets, frames domestic kitchens as miniature supply-chain hubs. The diction is technocratic but intimate: "immediate preservation", "home consumption", "water glass or lime water". It’s not poetry; it’s policy smuggled into pantry practice.
The specific intent is pragmatic price-smoothing. Preserve surplus now, sell later when hens slow down and prices rise. But the subtext is more pointed: households are being recruited to stabilize the nation’s food system. By directing families to store eggs for themselves, Houston effectively asks consumers to step aside in the marketplace during peak production, freeing "fresh eggs" for commercial channels at a moment when distribution mattered as much as production. It’s a soft form of rationing without the politically radioactive language of rationing.
The quote also reveals early 20th-century faith in expert guidance and standardized behavior. "May be made available for marketing" turns a private habit into a public good, a neat rhetorical trick that aligns thrift with patriotism and self-interest with economic order. Even the promise of "prices higher" is candid: the government isn’t pretending markets won’t market; it’s teaching citizens how to live with that reality and, crucially, to cooperate with it.
Contextually, it sits at the intersection of progressive-era administration and wartime mobilization: agriculture as national infrastructure, and the American household as an adjustable valve in the machinery.
The specific intent is pragmatic price-smoothing. Preserve surplus now, sell later when hens slow down and prices rise. But the subtext is more pointed: households are being recruited to stabilize the nation’s food system. By directing families to store eggs for themselves, Houston effectively asks consumers to step aside in the marketplace during peak production, freeing "fresh eggs" for commercial channels at a moment when distribution mattered as much as production. It’s a soft form of rationing without the politically radioactive language of rationing.
The quote also reveals early 20th-century faith in expert guidance and standardized behavior. "May be made available for marketing" turns a private habit into a public good, a neat rhetorical trick that aligns thrift with patriotism and self-interest with economic order. Even the promise of "prices higher" is candid: the government isn’t pretending markets won’t market; it’s teaching citizens how to live with that reality and, crucially, to cooperate with it.
Contextually, it sits at the intersection of progressive-era administration and wartime mobilization: agriculture as national infrastructure, and the American household as an adjustable valve in the machinery.
Quote Details
| Topic | Food |
|---|
More Quotes by David
Add to List
