Spam Went Around the World in World War II

From the May 22, 2021, Reporter Herald  "Trivially speaking:  Spam went around the world in World War II" by Jim Willard.

Hormel Foods Corp. introduced Spam on July 5, 1937.  Its basic ingredients are pork with ham added, salt, water, modified potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrate (acting as a preservative).

Spam was supposed to increase the popularity of pork shoulder which is not a very popular pork cut.

Would Spam have become as successful and accepted  without the advent of World War II?  Who knows, but during the war some 150 million pounds of the stuff was purchased by the military.

And, of course, military personnel quickly came up with their own names for the stuff like:

Meatloaf without basic training

Ham that didn't pass its physical

Special Army Meat

The Spam brand name was coined by Ken Daigneu (the brother of a company executive) who won $100 in the naming contest.  Supposed it is a contraction for SPiced hAM.

Talk About Your Being In the Right Place At the Tight Time.  --GreSpam