--- description: Butter is mounting a comeback in the U.S., but it's nowhere near the butter craze of the roaring twenties title: Butter Boom: American Butter Consumption Races Past Margarine image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted2bf3d68ce5d28a/6986999ce8524bea34603a93/482719249.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # I Can't Believe Americans Ate That Much Butter!  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 27, 2014 4:42 PM CUT  A worker packs butter at the production site of the Isigny-Sainte-Mere dairy co-operative in Isigny-sur-Mer, northwestern France, on April 4, 2014. A worker packs butter at the production site of the Isigny-Sainte-Mere dairy co-operative in Isigny-sur-Mer, northwestern France, on April 4, 2014.CHARLY TRIBALLEAU—AFP/Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 27, 2014 4:42 PM CUT Americans have rekindled their love affair with butter. The Wall Street _Journal_ [reports](http://online.wsj.com/articles/butter-makes-comeback-as-margarine-loses-favor-1403745263 "undefined") that the average American downs nearly 23 sticks of butter a year, pulling ahead of margarine for the third year running. The reversal in tastes coincides with a growing backlash against processed foods and new research [suggesting](http://time.com/2912207/info-about-saturated-fat-and-sugar/ "undefined") that fat might have been unfairly singled out for vilification. But don’t call it a comeback. Butter consumption today has got nothing on the roaring twenties, when the average American used to spread, melt and eat it with abandon, downing 18 pounds, or roughly 72 sticks a year.  Stocks were up, butter was booming and nobody saw the crash coming. \[[_WSJ_](http://online.wsj.com/articles/butter-makes-comeback-as-margarine-loses-favor-1403745263 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2933396/american-butter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2933396/american-butter/"},"headline":"I Can't Believe Americans Ate That Much Butter!","datePublished":"2014-06-27T16:42:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:11.272Z","description":"Butter is mounting a comeback in the U.S., but it's nowhere near the butter craze of the roaring twenties","url":"https://time.com/2933396/american-butter/","keywords":["Food"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted2bf3d68ce5d28a/6986999ce8524bea34603a93/482719249.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted2bf3d68ce5d28a/6986999ce8524bea34603a93/482719249.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FRANCE-ECONOMY-FOOD-ISIGNY-STE-MERE","caption":"FRANCE-ECONOMY-FOOD-ISIGNY-STE-MERE","creditText":"CHARLY TRIBALLEAU—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2933396/american-butter/","name":"I Can't Believe Americans Ate That Much Butter!"}}]}] ```