11/87Black-market price of ten pounds of lean meat in Romania (in cartons of Kent cigarettes): 1
12/87Price of a pound of reindeer meat at Lobel’s Prime Meats in New York City: $14.98
5/89Percentage of American barbequers who combine microwave cooking with outdoor grilling: 48
11/93Rank of cola, breakfast cereal, and ground beef, among the groceries Americans spend the most on each year: 1,2,3
3/95Number of hamburgers thrown at a man attempting to rob an Oklahoma City McDonald’s last July before he fled: 1
5/95Number of Britons seeking medical care each year for injuries sustained while attempting to open cans of corned beef: 8,000
1/96Number of L.A.’s Mo’ Better Meaty Meat Burger restaurant specials that are named for O.J. Simpson trial participants: 4
4/96Number of times Bob Dole said “Bob Dole” during a speech to the Iowa Pork Producers Association in January: 12
7/97Number of buffalo-meat hot dogs sold per baseball game at Atlanta’s Turner Field last summer: 2,350
4/00Estimated portion of whale, dolphin, and porpoise meat consumed in Japan last year whose pollution levels were toxic: 1/2
6/02Barrels of oil required to raise U.S. cattle for beef each year: 155,000,000
10/03Chances that farmed salmon contains PCB levels that are 4 times higher than those found in beef: 7 in 10
7/04Ratio of ambient fine-particle emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles to those from cooking meat in Houston in summer: 5:4
6/08Estimated percentage of the 143 million pounds of U.S. beef recalled in February that had already been eaten: 50