Demand and Prices for Meat, Factors Influencing Their Historical Development

This bulletin records the trends in production, consumption, and price of the several meats and meat animals from 1921 to 1960.It seeks to ascertain values for economic factors affecting prices of meat such as supply of meat, income, and price level.The formulation for measuring the effect of these fadors places primary emphasis on the record of growth during almost <1 decades-a gro'wth that encompasses both economic and institu tional forces always jointly at work and interacting.Benefits of the bulletin to farmers ,,"ill come chiefly through its use br Fe(leral and State Extension al1rl other Government workers as well as officials of cooperatives and representatives of prinlte Arms who ""ork directly with farmers.This studr can be of value to procl 1 .1cersand marketers in interpreting-the.past ancl in anticipating .{duretrends in meat prices.Factors affecting the clemand and production of beef, pork, and lamb are analyzed for three subperiocls as well as the total period_ Changes and similarities among these shorter periods are com pm•ed for a better understanding of short-term developments.A cross-sectional analysis using data from the 1955 household food survey shows the effects of income, region, and urbanization on meat consumption in that year.Information and assistance were obtained from many special ists of the Uniteel States Department of Agriculture.Special acJ,::nowlec1gment is made to Arthur A. Harlow and Anthony S. Rojko for their counsel on technique for analysis and for their critical re"ie\\" and preparation of the manuscript f01" publica tion.Data were assembled and statistical computations were made, for the most part, by Charlotte K. Tucker.Extensive USE' was made of both published and unpublished material in the files of the Economic Research Service.consumption --"------.Technology in pronuction _..