Recently  a  question  was  asked  about  the  changes  in  the  meat  industry  in  the  last  50  yrs....  most  would  answer  this  by  saying  ,,cutting  whole sides  to  box  beef,  but  I  wanted  to  give  a  retail  perspective -  yes  we  could  write  a  book  on  this  and  one  paragraph  only  scratches  the  surface,  but  here  are some  highlighted points,  your  perspectives  are  also  welcome

     The advertising in the 50's and 60's it was to the housewife, most women were not working outside of the house and they knew how to cook they planned more and had the time to prepare and cook....the 70's was the transitional decade that more women went to college , so now you had a two income household in the late 70's going into the 80's and today,,,so,,,with more women working "quick & easy" was the themes...more pre-packaged meats , more boneless meats that take less time cooking,,,,also at this time look at the food dollar in the 60's over 90% of food was cooked at home,,, in the 80's with the two income house, more and more "convenient foods" were being bought...from pizza, to take out, , to sandwiches,...less meats being bought out of a meatcase (being prepared at home) and more meats being bought outside of the home....(because of convenience and again two family income) food companies exploded with more quick foods (the microwave was here in the late 70's/early 80's too) since more foods ere bought that were quick and easy or "processed" the foods were loaded with salt/calories all kinds of preservatives, and as a nation consumers were getting fatter,,,so in the mid-late 80's the lean & low fat craze came in,,,,meat got demonized as being "fatty" and this FAT was going to kill you(or make you fat) because of cholesterol,,,would clog your arteries,,,,so the meat industry went to 1/8" trim,,,went with marketing themes of america's cut pork (40% leaner today than 20 yrs ago) during the 90's the beef companies scrambled to market/advertise their own "Added value" beef/pork/chicken . in the early 90's the food dollar breakdown was 60% was cook at home and 40% was convenient or ready to eat foods, including restaurants. In the late 80's and early 90's ironically as a growing obese nation, more and more focus was on health and meat was being demonized by the Angry vegans, the PETA wackos, and liberal media,,,,sensationalising anything and everything anti-meat,,,at retail the % of meat sales starting going down, produce % was increasing,,,then something unforeseen happened that shook the meat-world the ATKINS diet exploded in the late 90's and early 2000's the high protein low carb diet was incredibly popular,,and guess what? Meat sales started increasing,,, it was now more acceptable and trendy to eat meat again,,,especially beef that had been s demonized ,,,,,meat salse increased the meat Gods had smiled on us! From a decade ago to now more and more scientific and medical news/reports have been published that meat can be very good for you and not the killer it was once reported to be. Meat is STILL the center of the plate for over 90 % of americans,,,if someone fires up a grill, 99% chance meat/protein will  be  cooked. Today customers have more choices than ever on what and how they want to buy meat, whether its grass fed, organic, or conventional (based on price)

-- Edited by Mainemeatman on Saturday 5th of September 2015 09:27:49 AM