SPAM Turns 75, Do You Eat It? – Survey of the Day

Ah, SPAM, that most inspiring of foods, nectar of the Gods, hero of the picnic table. 75 years after the ''the Miracle Meat'' hit the U.S. market it seems to be as popular as ever to both eat and joke about. I know we have all made a SPAM joke, but the real question is, do you eat it? 

Hormel developed America's first canned ham (''Hormel Flavor-Sealed Ham'') in 1926, and eleven years later developed the first canned meat product that did not require refrigeration. It was a ''distinctive chopped pork shoulder and ham mixture'' developed by Jay C. Hormel, son of Hormel founder George A. Hormel, and marketed as ''Hormel Spiced Ham'' - not a terribly inspiring name for an innovative product fated to save lives, win wars, and balance diets of people world wide.

Hormel Spiced Ham got off to a slightly rocky start. Other meat packers began to introduce their own canned luncheon meats, and Hormel lost its controlling share of the market. Soon, however, they came up with a cunning plan to rectify this situation - they would give Hormel's luncheon meat a truly catchy name. Toward this end, they offered $100 for a suitable appellation. The winning name was, of course, ''SPAM'', and a legend was born.

• By World War II, Hormel had sold twenty thousand tons of Spam. Then, during the wartime meat rationing, Spam got popular...
• If all the cans of Spam ever eaten were put end-to-end, they would circle the globe at least ten times.
• In the U.S. alone, 3.8 cans of Spam "are consumed every second"(assuming SPAM is eaten 24 hours a day, 365.25 days a year).
• Senator Robert Byrd of West Viginia eats a sandwich of SPAM and mayonnaise on white bread three times a week.
• Residents of Hawai'i eat an average of four cans of SPAM per person per year, more than in any other place on Earth (Elsewhere in the Universe, who knows?).
• By 1959, a billion cans of SPAM had been sold. The two billion mark was hit in 1970, followed by three billion in 1980, four billion in 1986, and five billion in 1993. That's a lot of SPAM!
• In Korea, SPAM is sold in stylish presentation gift boxes of nine cans each. SPAM stolen from army PXs can be found on the Korean black market. And there are Korean imitations called Lo-Spam, Dak, Plumrose, and Tulip, to ensure that no one need go without.
• Nikita Krushchev once credited SPAM with the survival of the WWII Russian army. ''Without SPAM, we wouldn't have been able to feed our army,'' he said.
• SPAM is sold in over 99% of U.S. grocery stores.
• The SPAM luncheon meat trademark is registered in 93 countries.
• Over 60 million people in the U.S. eat SPAM.
• SPAM is made in two U.S. locations - Austin, Minnesota, and Fremont, Nebraska - and seven other countries: England, Australia, Denmark, Phillipines, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
• In 1989, the U.S. armed forces bought 3.3 million pounds of SPAM.
• Over 141 million cans of SPAM are sold worldwide each year.