Pushback on leaner birds
The chicken industry pushed back Wednesday against a campaign to move away from breeding larger birds that bulk up quickly, saying the “slow-growth” movement would use more energy, cost shoppers more and possibly result in less protein on people’s plates.
If even a third of the nation’s $48-billion poultry industry switched to svelter chickens, the national flock would need to grow by 1.5 million birds to keep up with current consumption rates, according to an economic analysis released Wednesday by the National Chicken Council, a trade association.
That increase would require an additional 5.1 billion gallons of water and 7.6 million acres of land to raise the feed those chickens would need, the report said.
“It comes with tradeoffs,” said Tom Super, spokesman for the council. “Before it becomes a domino issue like the cage-free eggs, we want our customers to have all of the information on hand while they’re making these decisions.”
The report, prepared by an industry consulting group, comes after a year marked by increased pressure from consumers, retailers and food service companies to transform practices at the nation’s factory farms. Last March, Whole Foods Market said it would require its suppliers to switch to slower-maturing breeds and improve farm conditions by 2024. In November, food service titans Aramark and Compass Group agreed to follow the same standards.
In the 1920s, the average U.S. domesticated chicken was a relatively scrawny bird — weighing 2½ pounds at slaughter, some 115 days after it was hatched. It now averages about 6 pounds and takes only 49 days to reach “market maturity,” according to the council.
Most of that transformation has occurred since 1965. Just since 1990, the average broiler has gained 2 pounds, Super said. Studies have suggested the most common breed in the poultry food chain, the Cornish Cross, has become “an extreme organism” that can’t support its own weight.
“This is causing lameness, broken bones, heart attacks,” said Daisy Freund, director of farm animal welfare for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which has pushed the slow-growth movement. “Birds are obese, and they’re constantly lying in their own waste. That causes open sores .... And of course, all of this requires the use of antibiotics.”
Misuse of antibiotics in veterinary and human medicine has led to the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that kill at least 23,000 people a year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Activists say the European Union’s more aggressive conversion to leaner poultry breeds has halved f lock mortality rates and resulted in a sixfold drop in use of antibiotics. The chicken council disputes those studies.