The hamburger is a nearly complete reflection of America through the 20th century. Popularized by White Castle and McDonald’s, burgers only became the cheap, fast food we know and love in concert with improvements in food preservation, mass production lines, long-distance freight, and agricultural yields. This efficiency led to excess: Red meat consumption rose through the mid-1900s until it was overtaken by America’s love affair with chicken over the last few decades. Today, U.S. residents…