Food tracking by the Feds
 

An excellent article about how the availability of food has been tracked by the Federal Government since the beginning of WWII. How changes in production, processing, shipping and social changes, have changed our eating habits over the last century.

Lot's of graphics on consumption like this;

Beef, chicken, and turkey are fickle, while pork abides.

Looks like all those "Beef, It's What's for Dinner" ads in the 80s and 90s didn't do a damn bit of good.

Neither did the 'Other White Meat' ads for pork. Those started in 1987. I wonder what cause the spike in the late seventies?

What's interesting to me is that overall meat consumption didn't change much during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Pork dipped at one point and was offset by beef rising, but meat was still eaten just as much as in the 1920s.

Also, if you look at the amount of total meat eaten a century ago, it's far less than the amount of total meat eaten today. And with today's understanding of nutrition and the role meat plays in coating our arteries in fat, chicken and turkey consumption has risen, but pork and beef haven't really fallen. We're eating more total meat than ever.

Does anybody know the timing of mad cow disease outbreaks?

fondue

Once a month?

I kid. I kid.

:lol:

First reported in 1996, but it was a few years before the news stories were peaking.

Snorted coffee - I'm sending that to Mrs. Z!

Less meat a century ago, and more grain/potatoes.

I'm pretty sure it was in a Michael Pollon book where I read about the systematic lobbying of the FDA by the dairy and meat industries in the 50s and 60s. The general gist of it was, based on obvious study results, the FDA wanted to advise Americans to "eat less meat and dairy products," but the lobbyists convinced them to instead say "eat more fruits and vegetables." Even today, you rarely hear health instructions to stop eating anything. It's always 'choose these healthy snacks' and 'try these 12 superfoods with antioxidants' and 'make sure you eat enough whole grains'...