During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!
Blog post written by Michael Metz.
Ralph Besse served as the assistant director for the School of Agriculture during the war.
When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, nationwide mobilization to contribute to the war effort began. The economy saw rapid changes to meet the needs of the US and its allies in the fight against the axis powers. In 1944, Ernest Wiegand, the director of Oregon State College’s (OSC) Food Industries Department, sent a report to Ralph Besse, the assistant director of the School of Agriculture. This report details the activities of the department’s research station, which included several food preservation methods such as: freezing, canning, and dehydrating. The college was using federal funding to carry out studies related to food preservation.[i] This funding was critical to the college’s contributions to the war effort. During the Second World War, OSC aided the war effort by conducting research on food preservation and production, as well as educating the public on how to increase food production and how to preserve it more efficiently.
The report, released in 1944, provides insight into OSC’s role in food preservation studies. It was written by Ernest Wiegand for Ralph Besse. The report’s purpose was to inform Besse, and likely other department members, on the food preservation research that the department was conducting. This would have been important especially when considering that the school was using federal funding directed towards agricultural research. This includes the Purnell Funds, an agricultural-based federal grant. Wiegand wrote this report in 1944 and it describes types of food the department was freezing, canning, and dehydrating—mostly fruits and vegetables. This document serves as an introduction to OSC’s involvement in the effort to increase the country’s food stock during the war, as it provides readers with information on the type of work the college was doing and introduces important figures in the School of Agriculture.
Wiegand’s report is an example of OSC’s contribution to food preservation and production, but it does not entirely illustrate the school’s agricultural research during the war. Through the Federal Cooperative Extension Service at OSC, the school conducted intensive research on food science. The Extension Service, an OSC program focused on community education, was mobilized during the war and staff were ordered by the college to make the war effort their top priority.[ii] Researching food preservation became a major focus of the extension service and Ernest Wiegand worked with the program to tackle a variety of issues regarding food preservation. A major issue that the country faced was maintaining the nutritious value of preserved food. In fact, according to the Journal of Environmental Studies and Science, when the United States entered the war, “two out of five US men could not serve because of disabilities related to malnutrition, especially rickets.”[iii] This reality prompted the need for better nutrition in the country.
In 1944, Wiegand and other members of OSC extension service studied freezing as a method of preserving perishable food, in particular meat and poultry. Their study, titled “Food Preservation by Freezing,” reports that when freezing food, “a greater quantity of essential vitamins can be preserved; less labor and time are required for preparation; and the finished product more closely resembles fresh food in palatability and appearance.”[iv] A common theme in OSC’s research into food preservation during the war was nutrient retention. Food that wouldn’t spoil and would also maintain much of its nutritious value was not just valuable for soldiers, but also for civilians faced with the challenge of rationing. Wiegand and his colleagues’ report provides the reader with information on how to improve the value of food with proper preservation. Their suggestions include selecting the proper ripeness of a fruit or vegetable, immediately freezing food after picking it, and how to properly blanch foods.[v] A year later, Wiegand and other researchers investigated methods to improve dehydration of berries and cherries grown in Oregon. Their findings include viable procedures for effective dehydration, techniques for retaining higher vitamin content, and different uses for dehydrated fruits.[vi] Despite the war coming to an end, the need for food preservation was not over, as many nations were facing food shortages. While these findings may not be revolutionary, they serve as a valuable educational resource that OSC would utilize in its outreach to communities across Oregon.
OSC’s effort to improve food preservation and production during the war extended out of the lab and into the community. With the nation facing food shortages, many ingredients were subjected to rationing. Products such as sugar were in high demand and in order to obtain them for canning, Oregonians were required to apply to receive an allotment of one pound per four quarts of canned fruit, plus an extra pound for each household member.[vii] This restriction was necessary for the country to keep its armies fed, but it put a strain on Americans who depended on ingredients like sugar to properly preserve much of their food. Extension services played a variety of important roles in order to ensure that people across the state had the knowledge and resources they needed to make an impact in the war effort. The Medford Mail Tribune reported that OSC sent a survey to homemakers, on behalf of the War Production Board (WPB), in 1943 to assess their knowledge of food preservation and the need for preservation equipment in Jackson County.[viii] Surveys such as this were useful in assessing the needs of Oregonians and were just one way the college provided community support during the war. Another task the college faced was increasing the state’s food production. OSC Extension Service reported that in 1943, for the third straight year, Oregon’s total crop acreage harvested and total livestock was at an all-time high. However, the state’s farmers had been tasked by the government with increasing that acreage to 151,000 acres in 1944.[ix] This was a major challenge for Oregonians, as labor was already hard to come by since many of the state’s men were deployed overseas.
The task largely fell on Oregon’s youth. OSC Extension Service, as well as other extension services across the state, was directed by the state to mobilize Oregon’s 4-H clubs. 4-H clubs are youth clubs that provide children with leadership opportunities in their community. Across the country, 4-H clubs tasked their members with a variety of projects aimed at increasing food production. Their efforts earned the recognition of President Roosevelt who, in 1944, called them the “shock troops of food production.”[x] OSC was essential in organizing Oregon’s 4-H clubs. Extension services were tasked by the state with organizing the state’s clubs, as well as increasing club membership from the 25,000 youth members serving in the club at the start of the war. State leaders had identified 80,000 children across the state as eligible to join.[xi] However, this was not a program unique to Oregon. Across the country, 4-H clubs were mobilized with the help of local and federal governments, and were given the goal of increasing food output. In Utah, two teenagers and 4-H members, ages 13 and 15, received awards for producing and preserving the most food from their victory gardens. Their gardens turned a combined profit of $208.[xii] From victory gardens to farm labor, the nation’s youth were essential in winning the war at home and in Oregon, OSC’s effort to rally teenagers to the cause was invaluable.
During World War II, Oregon State College played a critical role in improving food production methods and community outreach to increase knowledge of food preservation and to increase production. From breakthroughs in the lab, to community engagement, the college was a key player in Oregon’s contribution to the war effort. However, OSC was not alone in this endeavor. Educational institutions across the country were vital in keeping the nation afloat during the war and continued to aid the country well after its conclusion.
[i] Ernest Wiegand, “Report Station Activities – 1943-44,” Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC), Annual and Biennial Reports: Farm Crops, Farm Management, Fish and Game Management RG 25 – SG 1, Box 1.
[ii] Frank Ballard, “The Oregon State University Federal Cooperative Extension Service: 1911-1961,” 21, Scholar’s Archive at OSU, https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/technical_reports/c821gq42j.
[iii] Alesia Maltz, ““Plant a victory garden: our food is fighting’: Lessons of food resilience from World War,” Journal of Environmental Studies and Science 5 (2015): 392-403, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-015-0293-1.
[iv] Ernest Wiegand, et al, “Food Preservation by Freezing,” Scholar’s Archive at OSU (1943): 2, https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/administrative_report_or_publications/0g354k10d.
[v] Wiegand, et al, “Food Preservation by Freezing,” 16.
[vi] Ernest Wiegand, et al, “Development of a commercially feasible method of producing dehydrated berries and cherries,” Scholar’s Archive at OSU (1945): 42, https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/technical_reports/bv73c8011.
[vii] Glen Schaeffer, “Housewives Given Canning O.K.,” Oregon State Barometer, April 22, 1943, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj813.
[viii] Richard McMillan, “Jackson County Pantries, Lockers Bulge with Food,” Medford Mail Tribune, November 16, 1943, https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071090/1943-11-16/ed-1/seq-10/#words=food+preservation+preserved.
[ix] William Schoenfeld, Oregon Food-For-Victory Objectives, Scholar’s Archive at OSU (1944): 3, https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/administrative_report_or_publications/h415pf30f.
[x] Katherine Sundgren, “Feeding Victory: 4-H, Extension, and the World War II Food Effort,” Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy 14, no. 3 (2019): 7, https://doi.org/10.4148/1936-0487.1098.
[xi] “Youths of Oregon to be Mobilized for Victory,” Beaverton Enterprise, January 1, 1943, https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088480/1943-01-01/ed-1/seq-1/#words=Extension+OSC+service+Service.
[xii] Sundgren, “Feeding Victory,” 16.
