ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the macro-regional scale, patterns of food consumption in the Soviet Union, to compare the observed differences to Soviet scientifically established norms of consumption, and explains the variations of consumption with a number of independent variables. Soviet researchers have focused either on nutrition and the question of establishing scientifically-based food consumption norms that its population should attain or on the economic relationships between income, prices, and the demand for food commodities, so that predictions in changing demand can be improved. The official Soviet food consumption data are based on a variety of sources, principally on balances of the supply and uses of agricultural products and on periodic family budget surveys. When Soviet-recommended norms for each republic are used as measures of adequate food consumption, and the 1975 levels of consumption are expressed as percentages of their respective recommended norms, a clear regional pattern emerges.
