Hormel Foods Company
In 1937 the Hormel Foods Company looked for new ways of selling pork shoulder, a generally unpopular cut compared to its canned ham. The result of their research and a company sponsored competition to name the new product (for which the winner received $100) was a canned meat product called SPAM. SPAM came into being at an opportune time for Hormel. In a few short years it was being shipped as Lend-Lease product to the United Kingdom, where rationing of meat led to its immediate popularity. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union Lend-Lease was extended to the Russians as well, and SPAM was soon being devoured on the Eastern Front.
On the Eastern Front in Europe, the scorched earth policy of the retreating German Army meant that Soviet infrastructure was utterly destroyed as its forces moved forward. Russian troops needed to be fed by close order logistics trains, providing food and other supplies to the front line from trucks (also Lend-Lease supplied, and often American Studebakers). SPAM was easy to transport, required no refrigeration, and although most believe it to taste better when heated, it required no further cooking. Years later Nikita Krushchev, who served in the Soviet Army throughout the war observed, “Without SPAM we wouldn’t have been able to feed our army.”
It wasn’t just the Russian Army where SPAM was ubiquitous. American troops carried it across the Pacific where it eventually became part of the local cuisine in places like Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines. The British introduced it to Hong Kong where it remains a popular meat source. American troops occupying the Korean Peninsula introduced it there, where it became part of the local economy as a trade item.
Besides SPAM American food companies produced rations to be carried by the troops and eaten in the field when other food sources were unavailable. Chief among these was the C-Ration. C-Rations were packed in round metal tins affixed with labels which usually fell off, making the meal about to be eaten a mystery to the consumer. These contained a meat and vegetable meal of varying options, and almost universal unpopularity, but they provided nutrition to troops in the field necessary to health and survival, and most combat operations would have been impossible without them.
The American food industry fed American troops, as well as those of Australia, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and other allies. While their products were almost unanimously reviled by the men forced to sustain themselves with them, they nonetheless contributed to the ability of the Allied armies to retain combat readiness in the field throughout the war. After the war, they fed the populations of the former belligerents, helping to stave off starvation in the rubble of war torn territories.