Page 71 - Winter2017

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How of Big Chicken focuses on how industrial and
Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture scientific advances that began in the 1920s
and Changed the Way the World Eats reengineered the chicken. Specifically, this sec-
By Maryn McKenna tion of the book explores the unfolding overuse
National Geographic and abuse of antibiotics in chicken production.
McKenna nicely sums up her book’s central
A decade ago, I remember picking up The thesis on page 31: “Antibiotics have been so
Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan for the difficult to root out of modern meat because,
first time. A few short hours later, I had finished in a crucial way, they created [modern meat].”
the book, immersed in a world of words care- Although many other factors also have played
fully crafted to move my mind and body to bet- a part in creating the massive mess that is mod-
ter food choices. It worked. For myself and many ern meat production—including the advent of
others, Pollan’s book helped create significant artificial animal nutrition and industrial crop
and lasting changes. production as well as changes in animal breed-
As I dug into Maryn McKenna’s new book, ing methods—all of these would be for naught
Big Chicken, it reminded me of the power that without antibiotics.
great books can have in propelling needed Animal production currently uses 80 per-
changes. Poultry is an area where America and cent of antibiotics in the U.S. and makes use of
the world desperately need big change, and over half of the antibiotics produced globally.
Big Chicken is the kind of book that can help McKenna observes (p. 27), “What slows the
create it. emergence of resistance is using an antibiotic
The book is exceptionally well crafted. conservatively: at the right dose, for the right
McKenna weaves between real-life stories, length of time, for an organism that will be
history, statistics and science with a skill and vulnerable to the drug, and not for any other
deftness that only the most experienced dancers reason. Most antibiotics used in agriculture
could muster. The writing is crisp, the storytell- violate those rules.” McKenna shows time and
ing engaging, and the information easily digest- time again how little restraint or forethought
ible, with facts peppered throughout the narra- governed what the burgeoning chicken industry
tive to thoroughly educate but not overwhelm was doing. This is partly understandable—post-
the reader. Actually, there is a great deal to be war cultural tides and an unshakeable belief in Animal
overwhelmed by—it is not only the complexity science and chemistry (at a time when we had
of the story but also the nature of the problem a very limited understanding of both) laid the production
that is overwhelming. The world’s quest for big groundwork for the deification of “better living currently uses
chicken involves billions of animals—cheap, through chemistry.” Or at least, “better, cheaper 80 percent of
convenient blocks of “meat cash” as a farmer chicken.” This set the stage for what we see in
once called them. These billions of animals the antibiotic resistance epidemic. antibiotics in
consume hundreds of millions of pounds of Why, when all modern industrial animals the U.S. and
antibiotics each year. The overuse of antibiotics routinely receive antibiotics, is chicken the makes use of
has dire consequences not just for animal health, main character in this story? The answer is,
but for human health as well. because chickens were first. Almost all modern over half of
The book explores how chicken became industrial meat production is based on what the antibiotics
big and discusses the related consequences of producers learned about, and did to, chickens. produced
“big” for the invisible world of mostly friendly, Raise animals on synthetic diets? Use confine-
but sometimes deadly, microbes. The first part ment and incredibly crowded living conditions? globally.

WINTER 2017 Wise Traditions 71