MEAT+POULTRY - March 2015 - 64

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

TUMULTUOUS

TIMES
The 1970s marked a period of
inflation, unemployment and
challenges for the US meat industry
BY M AU R E E N O G L E | M E AT P O U LT RY@ SOSL A N D.CO M

This 'decade snapshot" is
Part 2 of MEAT+POULTRY's
commemoration of its 60
years in publishing. Founded
in 1955, what was then
known as Western Meat
Industry, ran under the
tagline of "The Monthly
Business Magazine of the
Western Meat Industry."
It has evolved through the
decades, and its content,
title and design have
been refined to reflect the
sophistication and interests
of today's processing
industry. In this issue, we
commissioned the expertise
of Maureen Ogle, who
studied the meat industry for
seven years before writing
and publishing "In Meat We
Trust: An Unexpected History
of Carnivore America,"
in 2013. Focusing on the
1970s, Ogle's journey
taught her that this was
a decade of economic
challenges for processors
who faced some of the
issues that are all too familiar
to processors in 2015.
Look for the next "Decade
Snapshot" in the June issue
of MEAT+POULTRY.

he 1970s marked a period of
extraordinary turmoil in the American
meat industries. The upheaval, which
spared no one, took many forms: A small but
ambitious troop of maverick meatpackers;
global famine; unemployment; relentless
inflation; consumer crusades; and new dietary
ideals that threatened meat's role in the diet.
In hindsight, the tumult was inevitable.
Over the previous 30 years, and thanks to
World War II, the US had forged a school of
diplomacy that consisted of one part guns to
(at least) one part food: The US had both and
would use either as necessary anywhere in
the world. Food, however, was the preferred
weapon. Policymakers and politicians
believed that when it came to stopping the
spread of communism, calories and protein
worked better than guns. For the rest of the
century, the American food system would be
linked, inextricably, to global stability and,
of course, to government policies aimed at
stabilizing the agricultural sector.
Fast-forward to the 1970s. The decade
opened with a dire warning from the United
Nations: Thanks to a recent spate of crop
failures, famine was inevitable in many

MEAT+ POULTRY | 03.15 | www.meatpoultry.com

parts of the world, and hunger would,
of course, provoke political and social
instability globally. US officials promptly
sold most of the nation's grain harvest to
the highest hungry bidder - none other
than the Soviet Union. As US food prices
soared, furious consumers staged protests
and boycotted pork and beef. But that was
only the beginning of the decade's woes. The
American plan to rebuild world economies
after World War II had been so successful
that by the 1970s, Europe and Asia challenged
US manufacturing supremacy. As US exports
dropped, unemployment, inflation and
interest rates soared.

BIG MEAT
For the meat-processing-related industries,
escape was impossible. Inflation hammered
anyone and everything in its path, from cattle
ranch to corn field; from packing plant to
grocery store. In the western US, a handful of
meatpacking mavericks seized the moment
and challenged the clout of the century-old
behemoth known as Big Meat. Upstarts like
Ken Monfort built sleek, ultra-automated, onestory facilities outfitted with electronically

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MEAT+POULTRY - March 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MEAT+POULTRY - March 2015