The line graph compares individual consumption levels of chicken, beef, lamb, and fish on a weekly basis in one particular European country from 1979 to 2004.
What is most striking when looking at the data is that chicken was the only meat to see an increase in consumption over the period shown, whereas the consumption levels of the rest declined by varying degrees. It is also important to note that fish was consistently the least consumed option among the four surveyed.
Looking first at beef and chicken, they followed contrasting trends. The former was initially the most popular meat, with the average person eating / consuming about 220 grams of beef weekly, which was about 80 grams higher than the corresponding figure for chicken. Thereafter, however, chicken witnessed rapid rising in popularity, overtaking beef from 1989 onwards to become the most consumed meat. By 2004, per capita chicken consumption had reached about 240 grams per week (gpw), slightly down from its peak of 250 gpw in 2002. In contrast, the popularity of beef fell sharply over the period. After peaking at just south of 240 gpw in 1983, individual consumption of beef had halved to around 110 gpw by 2004, relegating this meat to second place on the chart at the end.
The trajectory observed in lamb roughly mirrored the trend seen in beef. Lamb, initially the second most consumed meat with per person consumption of 150 gpw, ended up in third place due to a roughly threefold decline in consumption. This was notably the most significant fall observed during the period.