Robert Cohen 1-888-not-milk wrote:

> Last year the average American ate 121 pounds of fruit, 193 poiunds of
> meat and chicken, 199 pounds of flour, grains, cereals, 394 pounds of
> vegetables and 586 pounds of milk and dairy products.  All of this
> information is taken from the FOOD CONSUMPTION, PRICES & EXPENDITURES
> ANNUAL DATA book published by the United Stated Department of
> Agriculture, edited by Judith Putnam and Jane Allhouse.

Well, that's authoritative enough. I'm still surprised. Maybe it's the ice
cream...<vbg> You Americans really like dairy stuff. I used to <sigh>. My
wife works for the Canadian equivalent of the US Census Bureau. I'll ask her
for the comparable data. They are responsible for collecting this
information north of the border, as far as I know. If I get the numbers,
I'll publish them here.

> The USDA has miscalculated.  The actual consumption numbers are over 900
> pounds of milk and dairy per American!  If you eat one pound of butter
> it actually took 21.2 pounds of milk to make that pound of butter.  Work
> out the numbers for each dairy product consumed (ice cream, cheese, etc)
> and the actual number is 932 pounds per American!

I'm not sure I agree with your logic. A pound of butter is still only a
pound, unless your measure is lactose content in mg's or some similar
measure.

Don Marcotte
Toronto