The beef waste was shocking -- about 9 percent of the weight of beef purchased (minus the weight of discarded bones and separable fat). But after the shortage ended, the rate of waste declined to less than 3 percent and has hovered around that level ever since.

After looking at the discard data and after many discussions among ourselves, we believed the answer was "crisis buying." When beef was expensive and hard to find, people bought cheaper cuts than they did normally, and they also bought in quantities that were larger than normal. Not knowing how to prepare the unfamiliar cuts or properly store the larger quantities both led to increased waste.

That's where things stayed until the Spring '75 "sugar shortage".