Surplus Food

This cartoon originally appeared in the November 2, 1940 edition of Canadian Countryman. It depicts a Canadian farmer shouldering the heavy burdens of two bags labelled “food” and “surplus.” The caption states that “It may change from a burden to a blessing.” The cartoon was intending to say that the burden of surplus and unmarketable crops that Canadian farmers had suffered under for ten years of the Great Depression was coming to an end. This was because the outbreak of the Second World War was beginning to produce an economic recovery at home, and provided for eager markets abroad. The United Kingdom in particular was especially dependent on Canadian agriculture, meaning that the large surpluses produced by farmers in the late 1930s finally had a market for their goods.