Sunday Spectacle CCXXIV

American Diet from 1971-2014

Here are some interesting facts about food consumption in America. Several other Western countries probably have similar trends, although the actual foods may differ somewhat (I expect Canada to be at least 90% identical to USA). The following charts depict various types of food consumption from 1971 to 2014 (there is also some data for Britain here).

I'm sure there are investment implications but I'm not sure how easy it is to predict such trends. When reading these charts do keep in mind that comparisons are complicated given that there is quantity but there is also price (not shown) i.e. some item may cost 2x what something else does.

Some trends are driven by changing economics of the business. For instance, Americans used to consume less chicken (in terms of weight) in 1971 than beef but now they consume 2x as much chicken. Consumption of chicken has gone up around 2x while beef has declined and this is mostly due to cheaper cost of producing chickens. I'm guessing that the increase in consumption of strawberries, bananas and a few similar things are driven by cheaper production costs as well (including cheaper imports from Mexico and central America). A few trends are probably driven by changing demographics and introduction of new foods/diets (increase in avocado is probably driven by increased Hispanic population and food types).

source: "The Changing American Diet:See what we ate on an average day, for the past several decades" by Nathan Yau, FlowingData, May 17, 2016