
Butter, Beef, and the Battle Over America’s Food Story
New Zealand agriculture voice Damian Buckley joins Trent Loos on Across the Pond to examine how food narratives reshaped rural America. They trace how the 1980s farm crisis and college education pulled young people off family farms, and how Ancel Keys–era health claims pushed consumers from beef and butter toward seed oils and margarine. Trent and Damian explain how a consolidated seed oil industry dominated marketing, why butter is making a comeback through co-ops like Kerrygold, and what farmer cooperatives such as Zespri and Ocean Spray teach producers. They also unpack U.S. lamb imports, production costs, and America’s shrinking sheep industry.







