Meat consumption drops, and more
The Department of Agriculture has found that meat consumption in the U.S. has dropped 12.2 percent over the past five years.
Meat consumption drops
Consumption of meat in the U.S. dropped 12.2 percent over the past five years, according to the federal Department of Agriculture. Rising costs are one reason, but consumers are also eating more meat-free meals for health and environmental reasons.
The New York Times
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Health care's 1 percent
Just 1 percent of Americans accounted for 22 percent of $1.26 trillion spent on health care in 2009, according to a new federal study. That’s about $90,000 per person. The most expensive 5 percent of the population accounted for 50 percent of health-care costs.
USA Today
Cocaine cultivation moves southward
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
An $8 billion U.S. campaign to combat cocaine cultivation in Colombia has cut production of the drug there by 65 percent over a decade. But in the same period, cocaine production soared more than 40 percent in Peru and more than 100 percent in Bolivia. Peru is now the world’s biggest cocaine producer.
The Wall Street Journal
Homicide takes a back seat to pneumonitis
For the first time since 1965, homicide is no longer one of the top 15 causes of death in the U.S. The murder rate dropped enough in 2010 that it was overtaken at No. 15 by pneumonitis, a respiratory illness mainly seen in people age 75 and older.
Associated Press
The TSA's piggy bank
Passengers left behind a total of $409,085.56 in change when they passed through U.S. airport security checks last year. The unclaimed money goes into the coffers of the Transportation Security Administration.
The Hill
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's opposition
The Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
How the woke right gained power in the US
Under the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
-
Codeword: April 24, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
By The Week Staff
-
Very rich and very poor in California, and more
feature California is home to 111 billionaires, yet it also suffers the highest poverty rate in the country.
By The Week Staff
-
Arctic cold kills tree insects, and more
feature This winter’s arctic temperatures have had at least one beneficial impact: They’ve killed ash borers, gypsy moths, and other tree-eating insects.
By The Week Staff
-
Congress's poor record, and more
feature The 113th Congress is on course to pass less legislation than any Congress in history.
By The Week Staff
-
Gender differences in employment, and more
feature
By The Week Staff
-
A first for West Point, and more
feature For the first time, two male graduates of West Point were married at the military academy’s chapel.
By The Week Staff
-
A God given land?, and more
feature More white evangelical Protestants than U.S Jews believe that Israel was “given to the Jewish people by God.”
By The Week Staff
-
Jailing the mentally ill, and more
feature American prisons have replaced state mental hospitals as a place to warehouse the mentally ill.
By The Week Staff
-
Treating Internet addiction, and more
feature Treating Internet addiction; Freshman virgins at Harvard; A salary handicap for lefties; Prices for vintage automobiles soar; Gun permits for blind people
By The Week Staff