Though food costs have been increasing steadily in recent years, the sudden and dramatic rise in retail prices of meat in the first months of 1973 (13:88) caused an immediate and drastic reaction among consumers. Unwilling to wait for the Administration's efforts at increasing supplies of meats and other foods to take effect, housewives across the nation organized to protest meat price increases in "the biggest consumer rebellion since the Boston Tea Party" (31:1). Hoping to bring prices down by curtailing demand, they encouraged meatless Tuesdays and Thursdays during March and scheduled a meat boycott for April 1-7. Mounting consumer pressure and the report of an exceptionally large increase in food prices for February convinced the President that stronger action was required to halt further increases. On March 29 a retail price ceiling on beef, pork, and lamb was ordered to take effect immediately for an indefinite period.
