In this series of who knows how many posts, I'm just going to put out graphs either directly obtained from U.S. Per Capita Food Supply Trends, or constructed from data upon which this report was prepared from the USDA. Now there's no right or wrong data set, but I tend to believe supply data over self-report consumption data, given the plethora of data showing wide discrepancies between reported and actual intake. While we Americans can be a wasteful sort, the USDA has adjusted the supply data to include waste from 1970 forward. And for all the flack over food being big business, we also know that what doesn't get sold (and consumed) eventually doesn't get produced any more. Thus while actual consumption may not be determined with great accuracy, there's little reason to believe that they don't track to the availability/supply.
So, that said, one of the discussions that was going on in comments was about the cost of foods, so I thought I'd put up this graphic for discussion.
