Page 58 - Winter2017

Technology as Servant

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THE CHICKEN: A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICA S MOST CONSUMED MEAT
By John Moody

A Fifty years ago, chicken found its way to of Georgia were its own country, it would rank
prediction the dinner table once a week at most, and of- as the fourth-highest country in the world for
ten even less frequently as a special occasion poultry production. As a result of this large-
made in the meal. How, in under five decades, did chicken scale production, chicken has become the most
1940s—that go from being the most expensive meat to the affordable animal protein source at the grocery
chicken would least expensive? What happened that took the store, at times on sale for less than one dollar
chicken from Sunday dinner to the “dollar menu per pound. In contrast, beef and pork sell for
become special”? Let’s take a look at how science and around three to four dollars per pound. A pre-
“meat for technology transformed chicken into America’s diction made in the 1940s—that chicken would
the price of most consumed meat. become “meat for the price of bread”—has
come to pass.
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bread”—has ONCE UPON A CHICKEN
come to pass. For most of American history, poultry and A CHICKEN’S LIFE FOR ME
eggs were luxury foods. Chicken traditionally A lot had to change for chicken to become
was far more expensive than beef or pork—after such a production powerhouse. Up until the mid-
all, you needed grain to 1900s, the majority of
feed chickens, but cows chickens were raised
could grow on grass in small flocks (one to
and pigs could grow three hundred birds)
on garbage. For the on small family farms.
first half of the twen- When old laying hens
tieth century, the aver- retired, they became
age person ate twenty “stewing hens.” Excess
pounds of chicken or young males were sold
less per year (approxi- as “spring chickens.”
mately six chickens). With very little breast
By 1964, chicken had meat, neither of these
become more of a sta- resembled the chick-
ple and people were consuming over a half ens we cook today. The stewing hens were tough
pound per week—up to twenty-five to thirty and required long, slow cooking to make them
pounds per year. Since then, we have continued palatable. The spring chickens, although easier
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to increase our chicken consumption almost to prepare, produced a paltry two to two-and-a-
every single year. As a result, chicken is now half pounds of dressed bird for the dinner table.
the number-one meat in the nation, with the Both were extremely expensive.
average person consuming an estimated two On the family farm, chickens provided,
pounds per person per week, or roughly one at best, a little bit of side money for a farmer's
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hundred pounds (thirty chickens) per year. In wife and kids, but the farmer certainly never
2015, the average household ate chicken three considered them an enterprise of economic
to four times per week. significance. In part, this was because mor-
In 2016, America’s poultry industry pro- tality for chickens was high. Reduced winter
duced over nine billion chickens. If the state forage, predation and other problems made for

58 Wise Traditions WINTER 2017