How beef became a marker of American identity

American diets have long centered around beef, with the U.S. consuming almost 30 billion pounds of it in 2022. Beef’s iconic status in American culture can be traced back to settler colonialism, which brought beef-heavy diets and massive land use for cattle grazing. The rise of the American beef industry coincided with the near-elimination of bison populations, as the U.S. Army actively encouraged their slaughter to make way for cattle ranching and settlement expansion.

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