Why is chicken so cheap? [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#21

Post by IanCal » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC

Reason077 wrote: post #11

Chickens are one the most successful animals on earth! By evolving to become fatter, more succulent, and delicious, they have convinced humans to feed and house them, and in doing so have multiplied to vast numbers and spread their genes almost everywhere across the globe.

Depends how you define success.

> By evolving to

Being selected to by us

> they have convinced humans to feed and house them

No, humans have constructed chickens to meet our requirements, minimising the amount we need to house them (e.g. killing them at a few weeks old).

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#22

Post by miguelrochefort » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC

When I went to America, I couldn't believe how cheap chicken was. I once found boneless chicken breast for $1.99/pound. Eggs were dirt cheap as well, sometimes less than $1.00/dozen.

I don't remember ever seeing prices like these in Canada.

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#23

Post by gnicholas » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #2

Wow, 39 is much shorter than I expected. I guess it makes sense, because how else could you keep up with demand, but my view of animal lifecycles only has stuff like bugs fully maturing so quickly. Interesting stuff. Now my question is why are bananas so cheap? They come all the way from like Brazil, but they're still cheaper than the apple that is grown just a couple hours from me.

With an impending disease that is wiping out Cavendish (the most popular kind of banana), they may not be cheap for long!

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/bananas/

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#24

Post by semi-extrinsic » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

vbuwivbiu wrote: post #4

That man and his automatic shed. How depressing. I'd much rather pay 3x as much, eat chicken 1/3 as often and actually enjoy it instead of eating it every day and hardly noticing it. All those cheap chickens may as well have stickers on saying "1/3 the enjoyment"

This is what free market capitalism ends up producing. Not just for chickens, but for any product really. And this man is open and honest about it. Why is this any more depressing than a person working two minimum-wage jobs and barely making due?

If you don't like this type of thing, the other option is to change the entire system, pay ordinary people enough for their ordinary jobs that they can afford to care about animal welfare and the environment and all the other things that get de-prioritized when the option is not putting food on the table for your family.

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#25

Post by lostjohnny » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

vbuwivbiu wrote: post #4

That man and his automatic shed. How depressing. I'd much rather pay 3x as much, eat chicken 1/3 as often and actually enjoy it instead of eating it every day and hardly noticing it. All those cheap chickens may as well have stickers on saying "1/3 the enjoyment"

> I'd much rather pay 3x as much, eat chicken 1/3 as often

you wouldn't

You already could right now but you're not doing it

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#26

Post by avar » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:46 PM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #5

I always found it a bit tacky to call it an "achievement" for the animal/plant that humans farm it. Same with "evolutionary" changes due to selective breeding. Both said in the video. Always feels like someone is trying to spin reality on me. "What? The birds love it! Instead of living in nature in a part of Africa, they are suffering worldwide to the tune of billions!" Their hard work paid off!

What sort of lives do you think birds living "in nature" in Africa have?

Instead of being painlessly gassed to death like farmed chickens they'll be eaten alive by some predator, or instead of being provided with antibiotics as hatchlings perhaps worms will eat most of their siblings alive before they leave the nest.

Romanticizing factory farming is ridiculous, but so is romanticizing the lives of wild animals.

From a species interaction perspective the farming of animals could be described as mutualism, but humans tend to break all the rules in traditional species interaction models: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_interaction#Mutuali...

We're not unique though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%E2%80%93fungus_mutualism

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#27

Post by ymolodtsov » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:47 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #2

Wow, 39 is much shorter than I expected. I guess it makes sense, because how else could you keep up with demand, but my view of animal lifecycles only has stuff like bugs fully maturing so quickly. Interesting stuff. Now my question is why are bananas so cheap? They come all the way from like Brazil, but they're still cheaper than the apple that is grown just a couple hours from me.

Bananas are very easy & cheap to transport which led to them becoming a more popular fruit, accelerating demand and supply, etc, etc.

They can be delivered while they are green and sturdy and then they are kept in ethylene atmosphere which makes them ripe so they can be instantly sold to the consumers.

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#28

Post by jolmg » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:50 PM UTC

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#29

Post by lostjohnny » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:50 PM UTC

because chickens are cheap to feed and breed

you don't need automation to make it cheap

My family used to breed any sort of livestock, from chickens to lambs, from cows to pigs, from rabbits to pigeons

High quality meat, just for the family

chickens are by far the cheapest and easiest

(rabbits get sick easily, pigs eat a lot, cows need a lot of work to keep them clean etc. etc.)

Re: Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

#30

Post by nsomaru » Mon, May 27, 2019, 3:52 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #26

hombre_fatal wrote: post #5

I always found it a bit tacky to call it an "achievement" for the animal/plant that humans farm it. Same with "evolutionary" changes due to selective breeding. Both said in the video. Always feels like someone is trying to spin reality on me. "What? The birds love it! Instead of living in nature in a part of Africa, they are suffering worldwide to the tune of billions!" Their hard work paid off!

What sort of lives do you think birds living "in nature" in Africa have? Instead of being painlessly gassed to death like farmed chickens they'll be eaten alive by some predator, or instead of being provided with antibiotics as hatchlings perhaps worms will eat most of their siblings alive before they leave the nest. Romanticizing factory farming is ridiculous, but so is romanticizing the lives of wild animals. From…

Can’t say that comparing the appalling conditions in bird factories with a life lived in the wild really compares here.

At least wild birds get to make a go of it, the factory birds never had a chance. Some of them are too fat to even walk and never even get to leave their cage.

If I was given the choice I’d choose the life of the wild bird over the caged one any day.