{"id":1797,"date":"2020-05-07T17:27:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T00:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/?p=1797"},"modified":"2020-05-07T17:29:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T00:29:16","slug":"research-rathole-three-hamburgers-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2020\/05\/07\/research-rathole-three-hamburgers-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Rathole: Three Hamburgers a Week?!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The cover story in the latest issue of STANFORD Magazine, <a href=\"https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/flipping-burgers\/\">&#8220;Flipping Burgers,&#8221;<\/a> talks about the search for plant-based meat alternatives. And the first paragraph throws out some statistics to establish why this is important:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"732\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/screenshot.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/screenshot.png 732w, https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/screenshot-300x97.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 732px) 100vw, 732px\" \/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/flipping-burgers\/\">https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/flipping-burgers\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I had two immediate reactions upon reading that&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Who the hell out there is eating three OR MORE hamburgers every damn week?<\/li><li>Where did that very specific statistic come from, and is it actually true?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Spoiler alert: Nope, it&#8217;s just an estimate<\/strong>, based on aggregate overall beef consumption in the United States. Read on for primary sources!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An internet search on the phrase &#8220;Americans three hamburgers a week&#8221; led me to this video, created by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) in 2012:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ut3URdEzlKQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ut3URdEzlKQ\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ut3URdEzlKQ<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The video description says there&#8217;s an annotated transcript with sources, but the CIR web site changed its name a few years ago. So the old link to <code>http:\/\/cironline.org\/reports\/hidden-costs-hamburgers-3701<\/code> doesn&#8217;t work anymore, and the new page at <a href=\"https:\/\/revealnews.org\/article\/the-hidden-costs-of-hamburgers\/\">https:\/\/revealnews.org\/article\/the-hidden-costs-of-hamburgers\/<\/a> doesn&#8217;t include the source annotations. Boo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, we have the Wayback Machine. Behold, a window into the past! <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120809224746\/http:\/\/cironline.org\/reports\/hidden-costs-hamburgers-3701\">August 9, 2012<\/a>, to be precise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"966\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3-burgers-a-week.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1801\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3-burgers-a-week.png 966w, https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3-burgers-a-week-300x99.png 300w, https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/3-burgers-a-week-768x254.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 966px) 100vw, 966px\" \/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120809224746\/http:\/\/cironline.org\/reports\/hidden-costs-hamburgers-3701\">https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120809224746\/http:\/\/cironline.org\/reports\/hidden-costs-hamburgers-3701<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Using that information, I found the original USDA report from October of 2005, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/webdocs\/publications\/37388\/29633_ldpm13502_002.pdf?v=0\">&#8220;Factors Affecting U.S. Beef Consumption&#8221; by Christopher G. Davis and Biing-Hwan Lin<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"684\" height=\"264\" src=\"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/screenshot-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1802\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/screenshot-1.png 684w, https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/screenshot-1-300x116.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 684px) 100vw, 684px\" \/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/webdocs\/publications\/37388\/29633_ldpm13502_002.pdf?v=0\">https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/webdocs\/publications\/37388\/29633_ldpm13502_002.pdf?v=0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly, there was not actually a survey that asked people specifically how many and what kinds of meat products they ate. The statistic is purely based on actual beef &#8220;disappearance&#8221; by consumers, how much ground beef the average American eats in a year, and the amount of ground beef used in an average hamburger. Here&#8217;s a link to the USDA&#8217;s current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/topics\/animal-products\/cattle-beef\/statistics-information\/\">Statistics &amp; Information<\/a> on cattle &amp; beef, if you want to check the math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;s why I didn&#8217;t do more writing today. \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who the hell eats three hamburgers every week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[54,22,34,23,32,44],"tags":[179,178,180],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hyperbole","category-mathishard","category-procrastination","category-randomresearch","category-sci-tech","category-thecakeisalie","tag-damnedlies","tag-lies","tag-statistics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1806,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions\/1806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}