Broiler Chickens
 Chicken production and consumption has obviously increased dramatically in the US over the last 40 years (or more); about 8 billion broiler chickens are raised in the US each year.  Broiler chickens are typically grown in large metal barns with automatic feed and water systems.  The chicken feed is very rich, to speed weight gain and reduce time to market; the average chicken at slaughter weighs about 3.7 pounds.  There is concern among environmentalists that high quality foodstuffs such as corn, wheat and rice, which can be consumed directly by people, are being fed to chickens instead.

Large chicken barn.  Photo:  Grace Farm Project

 The feed can be spiked with various  antibiotics (to control certain diseases, which can sweep through the barns) and/or growth hormones, to also speed weight gain; the growth rate of a modern chicken is about twice that of chickens 30 years ago.  In fact, many chickens grow heavier than their leg bones can properly support.  There are a large number of chicken diseases that must be controlled, and new pathogens appear all the time; avian leukosis subgroup J virus, for example, is a new variant that appeared just a few years ago.  Environmentalists are concerned about the long term, cumulative affects of people, particularly young children, ingesting antibodies and hormones that may still reside in the processed and cooked chicken.  Unfortunately and not surprisingly, there is very little concrete information about this issue.  "Organic" (sometimes called "free range") chicken has recently come onto the market, however there is an ongoing struggle between organic farmers, agribusinesses, the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture over labeling.

 Broiler chickens have huge amounts of tissue at key areas like the thigh, leg and breast; choice parts that consumers favor.  Chickens are genetically engineered through the classical approach of selective breeding for these meaty characteristics.  While genetic engineering today is often focussed on direct genetic manipulation, such as gene splicing, classical genetic engineering has been going on for thousands of years.  It's important to remember that every food product that we consume, both animal and vegetable, has been genetically engineered.

 Chickens produce a lot of waste, approximately 1 pound of litter (manure, feathers, uneaten food and bedding) per pound of chicken, which equals about 8 billion tons of chicken waste per year in the US.  Treatment and disposal of this waste, which is extremely rich in nitrogen and phosphorous, is an important environmental issue.  Typically, chicken litter has been spread on agricultural fields as a fertilizer, however both groundwater and surface water (wetlands, lakes and streams) can become polluted from rainfall runoff from these fields.  Nitrogen and phosphorous will create algal blooms that can seriously alter and degrade freshwater ecosystems.

Barn waste, etc. spread on fields.  Photo:  Wash. Post, see link below           Assembly line processing of chicken.  Photo:  Wash. Post

 Chickens are often shipped some distance to centralized butchering and rendering facilities, whose automation and economy of scale can keep processing costs low.  The state of the art rendering plant can process up to 140 birds per minute on a single inspection line.  Much of the leftovers after the choice parts are extracted are used; meat, viscera and entrails are often processed into animal food for cows, pigs, cats, dogs, etc.

 Contamination of both chicken parts for human consumption and processed animal food is very common; salmonella, E. coli, listeria and campylobacter are some of the more notable pathogens.  These pathogens can pose grave risks to children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, and can cause serious illness (such as Guillain-Barre syndrome) among even healthy adults.  Contamination of raw chicken is routine; for example, one survey of 15 processing plants revealed that anywhere between 3 and 77% of the carcasses were infected with salmonella bacteria.  Despite the widespread contamination of raw chicken, the incidence of salmonella infection in people is extremely low.  In 1985, for example, the Center for Disease Control reported about 57,000 cases of salmonella infection.  Consider that at least 5  billion servings of chicken were consumed in 1985.  Proper handling and cooking of raw chicken is essential.

INDUSTRY GROUPS

Alberta (Canada) Chicken Producers
 http://www.chicken.ab.ca/producers/index.html
  information in both Research and Facts section.  Also a consumers section.

Chicken Farmers of Canada
 http://www.chicken.ca/wwa.htm
  best set of links to other sites

Alberta Poultry Research Center
 http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/livestock/aprc/index.html

National Chicken Council (US)
 http://www.eatchicken.com/statistics
  mostly recipes at this site but a few stats, especially comparing chicken
 

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
 http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/trends/broiler.htm
  an interesting though short summary of the history of chicken production
 

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS

United Poultry Concern
 http://www.upc-online.org/fouling.html
  how poultry operations "fowl" the environment. links to animal rights

GRACE Factory Farm Project
 http://www.factoryfarm.org/poultry.html
  many good links
 

NEWS ORGANIZATIONS

Washington Post
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/aug99/chicken2.htm
  about a half dozen articles in a series
 

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