12/11/08 Meal Math I

A lot of the time I talk about ways and means of producing food for U.S. citizens and the world. I'm Jeff Keane; today I'll tell you a little about where and what Americans eat. My main interest is producing food products that Americans need, but it is interesting to see in what manner that food is consumed. An article in Drovers magazine by Suzanne Bopp reveals where, what and in which form U.S. consumers like to enjoy their meals. The marketing research group, NDP has studied American's eating habits since 1984 and there are some telling statistics from those years. Restaurant dining rose every year from the beginning of the data collection until 2001 when it started to reverse. Even at that, purchasing restaurant meals uses half the normal food budget and 77 percent of those expenditures are from fast food menus. The price of a restaurant meal is calculated to be $6.25 per eater compared to home prepared at $2.26. But, home-cooked made from scratch or fresh meals have gone down 15 per cent since 1984. While stove cooking has declined, grilling has increased to 39 percent of households using grills at least once every two weeks. That may be happening since the report showed that more men are cooking than ever before. Hey, what can I say, grills are easy to clean. Grilling should also help increase beef purchases to offset the decline in the last 24 years. I'll have more dandy data tomorrow and the study's most important fact for Americans. I'm Jeff Keane. Drover  November 15, 2008