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The Time When The United States Banned Sliced Bread
During a two-month span in the midst of World War II, Americans were prohibited from buying sliced bread
Simple but convenient sliced bread is often used as a metric for the power and impact of progress. Making an everyday staple more easy to use was a truly iconic development when it first appeared on a widespread level in the United States nearly a century ago. However, it wasn’t long after that the country moved to ban it; a prohibition that did not sit well with the people, and as a result didn’t last long.
Bread in some shape or form has been a basic component of the human diet for thousands of years. Even after many people began sourcing their bread from bakers it took a long time for someone to jump on the idea of slicing it before selling it. Using a slicing machine developed by Otto Rohwedder, a jeweler by trade, the first pre-sliced loaves began to be produced in 1928 out of Missouri. Quickly catching on, the portioned bread became an industry standard and expectation of convenience by a majority of consumers.
Despite the explosion of popularity of sliced bread in the United States, the outbreak of World War II threatened to end it. As the country scrambled to stockpile resources and supplies, cutbacks and outright banning of…
