24. America’s food distribution system changed as the country’s tastes changed
Before the American Civil War, beef seldom appeared on American tables other than those of the most affluent. Beef was expensive to raise, and its price in butcher shops prohibited its consumption by the working class. By the time of the Gilded Age, the situation had changed. America’s western lands supported vast herds of cattle, driven to the railheads for shipment east via the Chicago Stockyards. New Yorkers dined on beef raised in the west. Beef became affordable to all, and supplanted pork as the primary source of protein for Americans. By the 1950s Americans consumed more beef per capita than any other country in the world.
Americans also came to consume other agricultural products by eating beef, through the intricacies of the food distribution chain. For example, an Illinois farmer may sell his crops of corn and soybeans to a large agribusiness. After harvest, the crops move to grain elevators in nearby Iowa. From their they move to a Nebraska feedlot, consumed by cattle before slaughter, and shipped as fresh or frozen beef to restaurants or markets. America’s food distribution chain is complex and intricately interconnected, which is why the loss of a corn crop one summer disrupts the supply of ground beef available for backyard grilling the following spring.