Freakonomics provides a graph showing the US consumption of beef, chicken, pork, and turkey since 1909. They highlight the drop in beef and rise in chicken, suggesting that chicken is faster to prepare and the rise relates to the rise in female employment (as well as the health concerns of red meat versus white).
What I see is a steep rise in beef consumption from about 1953 to 1976 or so. I guess that was a reflection of American prosperity, where eating steak was a sign one had arrived. (Except for cube steak, which was sort of our staple steak when I was growing up. Not sure you see much cube steak these days.) I'm curious, though; the rise in female employment surely started earlier than 1975.
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