Trends in the per Capita Consumption of Foods in the United States since 1920

Abstract

Nothing concerns the health of a people more fundamentally than an adequate, well-balanced food supply, which we in the United States have, thanks to the world's most scientific and efficient agriculture. But the rest of the world, by and large, is not so fortunate. An inadequate volume of low quality, starchy foods is the lot of the great mass of mankind today. Before World War II, 17 per cent of the average annual diet in Europe was represented by the expensive highly nutritious meat, eggs, and milk; in Asia, 3 per cent; and in the United States, 25 per cent' plus a more favorable ratio of the vitamin foods, fruits and vegetables. Since about seven pounds2 of feed are required to produce a pound, compositely, of meat, eggs, and milk, the proportion of total food requirements represented by these products stands as security against starvation. Only a small part of the feed thus required would be satisfactory for human food under very serious conditions but even so the margin is considerable in the United States. In Europe the margin represented by these livestock products was to a great extent eliminated by the war, so that Europe is now apparently lacking a safety margin in available food, which Asia has been without for a very long time. When population pressure eliminates the livestock margin in a country's food, survival for those in the lower income ranges becomes most precarious, being greatly dependent upon the vagaries of weather in providing relative plenty or scarcity of the means of subsistence. Trends in food consumption have implications for production adjustments by farms and by regions and therefore concern agricultural policy formulation and programs. In this paper changes in food consumption in the United States will be studied during two periods, currently and over the 25-year period since 1920; and the major tendencies thus isolated will be examined from the standpoint of their relationship to occupational, income, and nutritional trends and shifts in the supply price of competitive products. Statistics3 of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics indicate that the per capita food consumption4 has been fairly constant in the United States since 1909 at around 5 pounds daily. From 1909 to 1939, per capita consumption rose only slightly, and showed very little variation from year to year. In no year did