When European settlers arrived in North America, they enjoyed a level of meat consumption that was absolutely unimaginable in the Old World. An average European was lucky to see meat once a week while even a poor American consumed about two hundred pounds a year. Ten years after the starving Plymouth colonists subsisted on wild game and Squanto's help, the Massachusetts Bay Colony found the environment so favorable for pigs and cows they didn't know what to do with all the extra food. A man who visited Pennsylvania in the 1750s marveled at the abundance of beef cattle. “[E]ven in the humblest or poorest houses, no meals are served without a meat course.”
Today's guest is Maureen Ogle, author of The Price of Plenty: A History of Meat in America. We look at how a single cow acted as a compounding asset, allowing a farmer to turn free pasture into immediate capital that could be reinvested into more land and larger herds. This cycle of expansion triggered a massive supply surge that crashed the price of beef, transforming meat from a high-status luxury into a foundational calorie source for the growing working class. Meat spread with refrigerated railcars that undercut local butchers to create a national market and then government subsidies for cheap corn and soy after WWII killed off remaining retail butchers while creating the modern paradox where Americans want ethically raised meat but won't pay the high prices such a system requires.
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