ABSTRACT
Cattle, hogs, and sheep are the primary sources of red meat in the American diet. Red meats are often cast as the culprits in at least two components that are widely presumed to be deleterious to the health of Americans; namely fat and cholesterol. For centuries, the pig was bred and fed for the dual purpose of producing fat for lard as well as lean meat. The advent on the market of relatively inexpensive edible vegetable-source oils during the 1930s and 1940s created a serious price/value adjustment in the relationship between fat and lean meat. Thus, by the late 1940s, a significant economic impetus was underway to reduce the relative proportion of fat in the pig. The pork industry responded decisively to those signals to improve the leanness of their animals. Most would agree, however, that lean skeletal tissue is the primary component of meat consumption.
