Excerpt on Home Food Preservation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1945
The Facts about HOME FOOD PRESERVATION in 1945
War Food Administration
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Home canners in the coming season face the challenge of at least matching their efforts in 1944, when they accounted for nearly half of the total civilian supply of canned vegetables and two- thirds of the canned fruits available to civilians. Nearly 25 million households put up an estimated 3,400,000,000 quarts of home preserved food.
In addition to this home canning, commercial production was also at record high for fresh fruits and vegetables, and at near record levels for canned fruits and vegetables.
But military requirements have been advancing even more rapidly. The amount of processed foods set aside for government use jumped from 25 percent of the 1943 pack to 41 percent of the 1944 pack (pack year beginning July l).
Because of heavy military requirements, coupled with strong civilian demand arising from larger wartime incomes, the supply of commercially canned fruits and vegetables available to civilians is now less than at any time during the war. In the current pack year, civilian supplies of canned fruit are only about half of pre-war (the 1941 pack year), with canned vegetables down more than one- third.
There will not be enough canned fruits and vegetables available to meet civilian demand at least until after the 1945 pack is marketed, even if the war in Europe is won before then. After that time, the outlook is still uncertain.
HOME CANNING ACCOUNTS FOR SUCH A LARGE SHARE OF CIVILIAN CANNED GOODS THAT THERE MUST BE NO LET-UP UNTIL AN ADEQUATE SUPPLY IS ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN. HOME CANNING IS ONE OF THE NATION'S MOST IMPORTANT WARTIME PROGRAMS ON THE HOME FRONT IN I945.
Use the excerpt about home food preservation to answer the question.
The excerpt BEST illustrates which of the following?
A.
the lack of recovery from the Great Depression during the war
B.
the willingness of the American people to do unpleasant tasks
C.
the dire economic conditions present on the American home front
D.
the importance of home-front mobilization to the American war effort