per capita consumption of beef and chicken

This is actally huge folks. Over fifty years we have lost 40,000,000 pounds of beef consumption and have gained  60,000,000 pounds of chicken production.  All this while the human population has grown from 200,000,000 through 325,000,000.  I never grasped just how much this swing has been.

Yet we will need grass fed cattle ultimately for the whole Mid West to push soil recovery.  This also needs ample sheep husbandry and even managed large goat herds as well.

Our chicken is consistent thanks to broilers which surely led all this.

What really comes home is that our cattle capacity is now deeply underutilized and that chicken production is super mobile upward to consume industrial grains or even insects..

per capita consumption of beef and chicken

Olivia Heller

Holy cow, we’re eating a lot of chicken

In case it wasn’t clear from the chart above, America is an undeniable chick magnet.

The cows are probably happy. Heck, for nearly three decades Chick-fil-A has hired them to paint “Eat Mor Chikin” billboards, infiltrate burger boardrooms, parachute onto fields, and launch into space — all in the name of getting people to eat more bird.

But, for the cows, while some lives may be spared, paychecks probably won’t.

Chickening out

US chicken consumption per capita flew past beef in 1993 and hasn’t stopped since, per Bloomberg. This year, Americans are forecast to eat 100.9 pounds of chicken, on average, compared to 56.3 pounds of beef.

Across the US cattle production industry, 700k+ businesses generated $85B in 2022 revenue; meatpacking accounts for another $300B annually.

As feed prices and drought drive up production costs for beef on one end, competition from chicken is ruffling feathers on the other.

Why the fowl play?

If there’s one thing today that unites Americans across every demographic, it’s chicken.

Four of Grubhub’s 10 bestselling dishes in 2022 were chicken. One was beef.

The average Chick-fil-A store brings in $6.8m in annual revenue, compared to McDonald’s $3.6m, and Popeyes has 3x’d sales in five years.

BTW: While cows and chickens have long had beef, they may soon share a common enemy in cleaner, greener, lab-grown meats — cultivated meat companies raised $896m in 2022, and regulators are keeping the momentum going.