Joyika
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Chickens have grown 364% over the last 60 years.
In the 1940s, chicken was expensive. The average chicken was $3....that's $30 today when adjusted for inflation.
A&P, the country's largest supermarket at the time, wanted to turn this delicacy into a staple.
So, they devised specialized breeding and feeding to grow bigger chickens, faster.
It worked...
The average chicken now grows 2X as fast and weighs 3.5X more.
Chickens are meant to eat a wide range of foods such as grass and bugs, but now they are primarily fed corn and soy to fatten them up as fast as possible.
This not only fattens them, but changes their fat.
The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of modern chickens can be as high as 20:1, 3X that of pasture-raised chicken.
And, just as A&P wanted, we are eating A LOT of it.
The average American eats 65 pounds of chicken per year.
I recommend sourcing it from a farm where the chickens get to move out in the pasture, consuming a more natural diet.
pm1001
When I was a kid (1960s) we had chicken for Xmas, as a treat
B3N15
My grandma makes something called city chicken, it's pork and veal breaded to look like chicken wings, she always laughed because the meal her parents made because they didn't have money for fancy food became a special meal her kids and grandkids only get at Chrismas.
CaptainProcrastinaut
I ve been told going to a reputable butcher and not your local supermarket is ideal because they know where their meats and poultry are sourced. Not sure the truth in that. But what I do know is to be mindful that there are a lot of misnomers and asterisks on buzzwords. It may say "cage free" but that may only mean the bare legal minimum, and that may only be an additional sq ft (0.09sq meter), just as an example
sugarsharkshack
Supermarkets know where the meat is coming from. Corporate has contracts w/ huge agri farm suppliers like Perdue. They might have small amounts of high quality meat tho. Independent & reputable butcher shops might also buy from those places. But most make their money by being specialized for higher quality & happily tell you the source. They will also occasionally supplement from huge agri farms when supply is low. You can always see the difference in quality, esp with poultry.
JayDeeDubs
If people are going to eat meat, and they mostly seem pretty set on it, this isn't really a bad thing. Chickens grow quickly, their food sources are cheap and plentiful, take little space, and produce much less greenhouses gases than cattle, for instance. Animal welfare is a serious concern, even animals raised for food should be treated as humanely as possible, but the issues raised here are a net positive
nightripper
I mostly agree until diet. Corn subsides led to an obesity epidemic and their gut biomes are much more prone to things like E Coli. Corn is in everything because it's so cheap.
It's also rarely brought up that livestock are typically on antibiotics and this is contributing to bacteria resistantace.
PatrickMcChunky
Now do cows
ApocalypseTheory
Wait a minute.. those maths don't math.. 905g to 4202 grabs is about 400% not 364% It would be 464%. You divide 4202 by 905
SayRamrod
also, where on earth do you buy a 10lb chicken. theyre all 2-5lbs at the store.
notifybay151
FeloniousMonk13
I never knew chickens lived for 60 years
RuBisCO1
They can't even walk anymore!
sv1rr
This is a bit of a side note, but I lived upstate NY for a few years, about 2 hours from the city. There was this water spring next to the road that had incredible water, so I filled my (water) jugs there whenever I drove past. One time this really skinny dude was standing there filling some 5 gallon buckets. The stream basically trickled, so we got to talking. He told me he lived in Harlem. I used to live on 122nd street, so we talked a bit about that. Then he told me he once bought a goat 1/2
imreallyjusthereforthecats
Cornwall?
sv1rr
Not too far. Near Washingtonville.
imreallyjusthereforthecats
Probably similar spring water.
sv1rr
Probably.
sv1rr
I asked him what butcher he used, because he was all about sourcing the meat. "None of that industrial shit".
He didn't use a butcher. He had bought a whole goat from a farm, raised it in his apartment (i can only imagine the conditions that poor goat suffered), he had then brought it to a local park, found some bushes, and slaughtered it with a bowie knife.
Top 100 odd conversations I've had. End of story.
justfiguredoutimc4azyanddumbb
Imagine falling asleep every night being eye basted by some dude
Blud4BludGod
I've got an adjacent story. I lived in Harlem for a few years, while I was going to culinary school. There was a granaria just down the street from me (121st and Fred Douglas) that sold live poultry and small game of all kinds. I bought several chickens during that time and butchered them in the garden of my apartment complex. Probably wouldn't do it again, but as a young cook it seemed appropriate to understand the process start to finish. Always felt horrible wasting any meat since, at least.
MagmaCarta
.....you met RFK Jr?
sv1rr
Maybe?
GreyKnightTemplar666
jbrightmans
That's like the story this guy told me when he was at bible camp, he carried a girl that used a wheelchair to the side of a pond and they ended up fucking. They heard people looking for them and he ran away and left her there.
keystotheairlock
☹️
BobWeAdaBabyEetsAboy
There is an episode of the show “Explained” on Netflix about the “Future of Meat” that was really interesting and used this graphic to show how much chickens have changed since the 50’s. It’s pollo loco.
Grimmrog
well, can you calculate the average food intake of a chicken back then and now, and also the costs of food production compared to back then vs now? because food production massively imporved with the help of chemics and also breeding.
fformulaa
TheLookAndFeelMUSIC
I don't think broiler chickens can "move" to the pasture. Their bodies are too big and heavy to stand so they just lie there until it's time be put in the crate. We hatched some in Ag class at school and they couldn't stand after their chick phase.
oozabooza
i always updoot birbs
Ree81
If they can do it, I can do it! *hits gym*
AtmaDarkwolf
OMFG in 60 more years they will be as big as t-rex's adn take over the earth again!
VodkaReindeer
Surely getting normal chickens and buying omega fats separately in a capsule is cheaper than buying old fashioned chicken.
PartaVictoriisPax
The Rosharans did this...
UnitConversionBot
65 pounds ≈ 29.5 kilograms or 4 stone, 9 pounds
IndigoThursday
Thanks unitconversionbot
OfficialTrollInspector
There's also the human cost. industrial meat packing and other agricultural work in the united states is relatively cheap because workers who fear deportation and have no legal rights have no other choice but to work in horrible conditions for slave wages. Until we treat everyone who lives and works here as human beings, it's only going to get worse.
Woestkonijn
A Dutch journalist once got his hands on a meatchick and let it grow for longer than they grow for slaughter. I think he got to 3 months before he thought it was unethical to keep it alive. They don't stop growing and literally can't support their own weight. We call them exploding chicken.
Winterturtle
Meat chickens are really sad creatures. By the time they are butchering age they are too big to comfortably be able to walk, and they grow so fast their feathers can’t keep up and they are half bald. It’s a mercy killing really. Not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing but also don’t feel too bad for eating chicken because the animal that it came from is not what you imagine when you think about chickens.
expectnothingstillletdown
I came to the opposite conclusion. Now that I know what we do to them, I can't be a part of it anymore.
Starbase80
People worry about microplastics or PFAS, but the thing that's giving people cancer is probably the high levels of omega-6 in our diet from industrial meats and ultra-processed foods.
GoToTheZoo
Cheap easy to access protein sources that we are able to mass produce using things most people don't want to eat is a staple of agriculture though? Also telling people to buy the more expensive and more difficult to find chicken is kinda pointless when most people eating chicken are doing so BECAUSE it is ubiquitous in supermarkets and cheap as fuck.
lightfoot2
yum!
Vonmonj
They outgrow their own hearts, if you don't slaughter them on time they'll start dying from lack of circulation. Crazy bioengineering.
IDontKnowWhatToDoAnymoreAndImTired
No, not really. Even modern turkey breeds, which are much more meat-heavy than chickens, don't do this. They can get clumsy due to their own size, but that's probably also partly due to the fact that they're about as stupid as a living thing can get.
the9mm
Many of these chickens (and especially ducks) are bred in a way that when they reach peak size they can no longer walk... As in their legs won't support them. Pekin ducks especially. It's... Not great if you're not planning to eat your animals specifically
Winterturtle
Yup. If they aren’t butchered in time they can die under their own weight.
FelixTheAnimator
I raise Jersey Giants. Big birds but not weird mutant crosses. They take 'too long' to grow to be marketable, but they are delicious.
IDontKnowWhatToDoAnymoreAndImTired
For those who don't know, Jersey Giants are a kind of "compromise" breed of chicken. Most breeds are specialized either for egg laying, or for meat. Jersey Giants are a breed used by a lot of hobbyists because they're good for both.
RondomGuy
I was reading a book from 1904 and they talk about a carton of eggs being 25 cents. Using an online calculator it came out to about $8
sutasafaia
This size is also causing Wooden Breast, making the meat tough and crunchy because it has to be stronger to support their size. It's nasty.
newsguycraigevans
Dr. Temple Grandin talks about things like this in her lectures.
IslaNublar
God yes that shit's nasty. I got some Tyson frozen, boneless breasts and they were tough and chewy with a weird grainy texture and little flavor. Couldn't even tell that it was chicken. Thought maybe I got a bad batch or something. Found out it was wooden breast syndrome, and Tyson's downplaying it saying that the meat is still perfectly edible and safe. Yeah, but it tastes like shit. When your chicken tastes like you're chewing on a soggy piece of particle board, who the hell wants that?