I was watching an old episode of Good Times on a cable channel last night and Florida Evans made a joke referencing “the meat shortage”. The kids were complaining about having to eat oatmeal for breakfast and Florida said, “Be grateful you have that! During the meat shortage this family didn’t even realize there was a meat shortage.”
What was she talking about? Was there a meat shortage in the seventies at some point and time? The show was set in the mid to late seventies in Chicago if that has any relevance.
Also, what impact would a meat shortage have on America in this day and age? What would happen if all commercially grown Fowl were eliminated by disease in America? Would we turn to soybean production for protein sources? Ramp up other livestock production?
I grew up in Chicago at that time, and I seem to vaguely remember something around then about a spike in beef prices. It was probably one of the first in-depth newspaper articles I remember on an economic topic; apparently there is such a long lead time for raising beef cattle that once the supply chain gets out of whack, it can take a couple of years to readjust. Sorry for the vagueness, but it’s late and I am too lazy to poke around for sources.
No, this did actually happen. I remember it. I forget all the details, but I think that at one point there was a consumer boycott protesting rising prices or some such thing, which caused the producers to cut back drastically on the amount of stock, which in turn did lead to an actual shortage and IIRC still higher prices.
It was not a shortage in terms of standing in line for a food, though, just less availability as compared to what we were, and are, used to. I think it was mostly beef that was a problem, not poultry.
During the ill-starred Carter Administration, the price of meat rose to a point that provoked a consumer boycott. The farmers responded by withholding meat from the market. One thing lead to another and there was a meat shortage.
I reacall ‘Meathead’ on All in the Family feeding Archie some horse meat. Hilarity ensued.
William Rathje in his book Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage has discovered something surprising about the results of the meat shortage. In excavating garbage dumps from that time period, he found that people wasted more meat during the shortage. He hypothesizes that people were buying meat in bulk and also buying unfamiliar cuts which were cheaper. Due to improper storage and preparation, the meat wasn’t good and people ended up throwing more of it away.
Hah! While I was blissfully unaware that the boycott led to an actual shortage, I do remember the boycott. IIRC, during that time, we ate a lot of breakfast for dinner. A pound of bacon goes far if you have pancakes and eggs with it.
In 1970 and 1971 a corn blight caused a huge drop in the supply of feed. Cattle producers cut back on their herds and the price of beef shot up. I remember as a reporter in 1973 researching that some of the city’s better restaurants had stopped serving steaks.
There’s another contemporary reference in the opening credits for the Mary Tyler Moore Show, where Mary is shown shopping at a grocery store, picking up a package of meat, rolling her eyes at the price and tossing into the cart anyway.
