Performing the Promise of Plenty in the USDA's 1933–34 World's Fair Exhibits

Abstract

The New Deal Department of Agriculture maintained that reducing agricultural output would create stable access to desirable foods and economic prosperity. This essay elucidates how the food displays in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) exhibits at the 1933–34 World's Fair in Chicago promoted this argument by creating the impression that the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) would restore the land of plenty. To accomplish this objective, narratives of advances in the food system were constructed in ways that stimulated visitors to perform as American consumers; fair-goers engaged in an embodied experience of food security as provided by AAA.

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