Beef is no longer what’s for dinner; Americans now consume so much chicken, it has actually changed the physiology of the domestic fowl. Over the last 60 years the birds have more than quadrupled in size.
In 1957, a fully-grown chicken averaged about two pounds. Now an average full-grown chicken weighs in at over nine pounds. Americans ate an average of 16 pounds of chicken per person per year back in the 1950s; now that figure has jumped to over 80 pounds per person per year!
It is not only American households gobbling up these birds; the fast food industry is a large consumer as well. In fact, McDonald’s is the second largest purchaser of chicken in the United States.
Not only is the sheer volume of chicken consumption unsustainable, Americans’ preference for white meat has resulted in chickens with proportionally larger breasts. Much of the remaining dark meat from these birds winds up being exported to foreign markets.
“Now everything is white meat. And that’s forced the industry to shift toward birds with proportionally larger breasts,” Dr. Michael Lilburn of Ohio State University’s Poultry Research Center told idealistrevolution.org. “I don’t think we’ve seen the limit. We’ll probably see a limit when we start getting into product quality issues, when the side-effects are too burdensome. But we aren’t there yet.”
If demand and industry practice continue in this vein, we can expect to see even larger, top-heavy, and unhealthy chickens.
its halfy to clikur ur licks 😛 ? just kiding i belife in u gys u can change the world !
Your an idiot.
You’re an idiot*
Your grammar sucks- *you’re
Actually, the correct written form is “you are”.
“You’re” is a contracted form, intended for the spoken language 😉
you’re*
You are all idiots
I agree with this completely. But please be careful with what image is used to compare. The chicken portrayed in 1957 is a hen while the chicken portrayed in 2005 is a rooster….. Their body size in comparison will be significant…. >.< which then makes me doubt this articles statement even though I myself know it to be true.
But others might not.
That’s not a rooster darling… definitely not.
I do not see spurs on the larger chicken which leads me to think that it is a hen, or at the very least, could be a hen. Hens also have combs and wattles, and at times, they can become brightly colored and fairly large; although, they do not usually grow as large as those of the males. This is just what I see from my own backyard flock.
Rooster https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=rooster&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGHP_enCA577CA577&q=rooster&gs_l=hp
Did you now that the US Turkey can’t even reproduce the natural way! Without a human intervention there will bn no longer US Turkey on the planet …
les coqs fermier peuvent peser jusqu’à 2.500 kilos à 3 kilos.
en taille adulte et en ne mangeant que des produits naturel.
They’re also bigger due to use of growth hormones which probably accounts for most of the abnormal size. This article seems to be kind of misleading because it makes it seem as though simple breeding for size is responsible for the growth when, in fact, it is most likely the drugs that are being used. Breeding for size, while not necessarily good for the chicken, is not nearly as bad as injecting it with growth hormone, which affects everyone from the chicken to the human(and anything else) that consumes it.
Chicken produced in the US is not injected with growth hormones. It is not physically possible to inject poultry with hormones the way it is produced here. They are raised in a climate controlled environment with food and fresh water available 24/7. If all you did was eat and drink 24/7 then you would grow extremely fast also. If you really to know what goes into raising poultry for the US market, find a contract poultry grower and ask them.
Antibiotics and growth hormones are added to the food !
There is a growing resistance to the used anitibiotics, so less and less antibiotics are effective, also for humans !
isn’t there such a topic in everyday political discussions in the US ?
In othere countries it is.
Be careful, industry will some day ruin all of our lives !
chickens are dirty, filthy, stupid creatures not fit for human consumption.
and the poor critters from factory farms don’t even taste like real chicken.
All i’m taking away from this is we like big boobs in our chickens…
Antibiotics and growth hormones are added to the food !
There is a growing resistance to the used anitibiotics, so less and less antibiotics are effective, also for humans !
isn’t there such a topic in everyday political discussions in the US ?
In othere countries it is.
Be careful, industry will some day ruin all of our lives !
That’s why I hunt for all my meat or raise it myself. Prefer it to store bought food, and don’t have to worry about hormones.
I have heard a rumor that Monsanto’s livestock division are working on producing a breed of genetically modified chicken which will actually ask to be eaten.
Not only a talking rooster with a death wish but also one which wants to be consumed.
Just like they say about crime in a multi-storey parking lot – this is just wrong on so many levels.