Per Capita Consumption of Selected Food, 1980 and 2006 (in Pounds or Gallons)
| Food | 1980 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|
| Red meat, total | 126.4 | 109.9 |
| Beef | 72.1 | 62.7 |
| Veal | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| Pork | 52.1 | 46.0 |
| Chicken | 32.7 | 61.3 |
| Turkey | 8.1 | 13.3 |
| Fish and shellfish | 12.4 | 16.5 |
| Eggs | 271 | 251 |
| Egg in Shell | 236 | 177 |
| Processed Egg | 35 | 73 |
| Dairy products, total | 543.1 | 606.3 |
| Yogurt (excl. frozen) | 4.6 (1/2 pints) | 20.4 (1/2 pints) |
| Fluid cream products | 10.5 (1/2 pints) | 24.1 (1/2 pints) |
| Cheese | 17.5 | 32.5 |
| Cottage cheese | 4.5 | 2.6 |
| Total, fat content only | 56.9 | 84.5 |
| Butter | 4.5 | 4.7 |
| Margarine | 11.3 | 4.6 |
| Lard | 2.3 | 1.7 |
| Shortening | 18.2 | 24.9 |
| Salad and cooking oils | 21.2 | 44.5 |
| Flour and cereal products | 144.9 | 192.8 |
| Wheat flour | 116.9 | 134.5 |
| Rice, milled | 9.5 | 20.7 |
| Corn products | 12.9 | 31.9 |
| Oat products | 3.9 | 4.6 |
| Caloric sweeteners, total | 120.2 | 138.9 |
| Sugar, refined cane and beet | 83.6 | 62.3 |
| Corn sweeteners | 35.3 | 75.0 |
| High-fructose corn syrup | 19.0 | 58.2 |
| Cocoa beans | 3.4 | 6.5 |
| Coffee | 10.3 | 9.5 |
| Peanuts | 5.1 | 6.5 |
| Tree nuts | 1.8 | 3.4 |
Eating habits have obviously changed over the last twenty five years. What sticks out for me?
13% less red meat, 12% less pork and twice as much poultry.
Fewer eggs. Twice as much cheese. 50% more fat, mostly from shortening and cooking oils.
25% less cane sugar but 200% more high-fructose corn syrup.
What the heck? Did McDonalds invent pig mcnuggets or something, someone re-edit the Koran? Those pork numbers are wild.
On a side note, my wifes dad is a farmer and often has hogs. He was telling me the reason McDonalds only does McRibs for a few weeks/months at a time is because it absolutely crushes the pork industry. They can’t handle the sustained productions requirements for McDonalds without the prices raising significantly (rendering the mcrib unprofitable). Perhaps these numbers will help “beef” up the pork infrastructure so we can enjoy that delicate McRib flavor year round.
Oops. Looks like I had a little transcribing error. Its currently 46 pounds of pork per capita, not 446.
That said, personally I love me some pork. You don’t see many people buying 3 foot long pork loins anymore but I’m one of them.
And I love me the McRib. And the Ribwich:
“Like a rib, it tastes like liberty,
Like a rib, with a bun of sesame”
“We start with authentic letter graded meat, and process the hell out of it, until it’s good enough for Krusty!”
2 mill workers heave a mature cattle and hurl it into the furnance. Animal-like screaming can be heard in the chamber as the hapless bovine is toasted to ashes. Molten ingot containing the burnt cow flows down the pipe and into a mold. Krusty the clown puts the contanminated metal into a sandwich bun and bites…
“Try my new Krusty Ribwich.. mmmmm! I don’t mind the taste!”
“Bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste goood.”
I love the mcrib!!!! Can’t get enough of it when they do have it.
For the bacon lovers in the audience…
Is it just me or does that sausage look green?
I’m reminded of a hilarious bit in a Chris Rock performance. He’s talking about how Americans are overly conscious about what they eat, so much so that we as a people have actually be allergic to FOOD.
He says something along the lines of “You think you’ll many kids in Rwanda who are lactose intolerant?”
Then goes on to scoff at advice of the medical community as being too strict.
“They say, don’t eat red me. That’s nonsense, you can eat read meat, no, better advice would be don’t eat GREEN meat!”