Re: The craving for beef.

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 25 Apr 1996, Matt D. wrote:

>
> During the late seventies in Poland, beef consumption rose
> to an all-time high -- 70 kg per person per year!!!, more than
(clip)
> state.  This was during the period where Poland was courting
> -- and receiving -- massive Western capitalist investment, and
> presumably was being exposed to the concomitant cultural
> influences.  What was beef consumption in East Germany during
> this period?

"For years Western journalists described in
mournful tones the scrawny and costly pieces of meat available in
Moscow's shops, associating the lack of meat with backwardness and
the failure of Communism. But after 1950, meat consumption in the
Soviet Union tripled. By 1964 grain for livestock feed outstripped
grain for bread, and by the time the Soviet Union collapsed, livestock
were eating three times as much grain as humans. All this required
greater and greater imports of grain until precious foreign exchange
made the Soviet Union the world's second-largest grain importer,
while a dietary 'pattern' based on excellent bread was vanishing."

(Alex Cockburn in the Nation magazine)

Louis: My guess is that what was true in the USSR was also true in Poland
and East Germany, but that would require a trip to the library, wouldn't
it?




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