Why is chicken so cheap? [video]

Post by stefanfisk » Tue, May 28, 2019, 3:22 AM UTC

senorjazz wrote: post #89

agumonkey wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe, people still buy cigarettes as much as before even though they're generic and covered with morbid pictures of various gruesome diseases.

Not sure any body is actually addicted to chicken in the same way

Post by _hardwaregeek » Tue, May 28, 2019, 6:47 AM UTC

deschutes wrote: post #104

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #97

Whenever I travel outside the US, I'm always struck by how different the chickens look. Chickens in the US have a pale appearance, with flabby, almost mushy meat. They look as if they were grown on a tree, never alive and running. While chickens in say, Italy or Mexico tend to look like they were alive at some point. There's color in the meat, often a yellow tint. Their skin and muscle look used and not atrophied. I…

The bulk of the video is a british chicken farmer explaining the economic realities. I don't think bad chicken is unique to the US; I suspect cheap meat is about the same everywhere.

Post by asdf21 » Tue, May 28, 2019, 7:53 AM UTC

froindt wrote: post #45

miguelrochefort wrote: post #22

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.

My record for a dozen eggs was $0.37/dozen in summer of 2017 at an Aldi in a town go about it 30,000 in Iowa. It was roughly that price the whole summer. From my understanding, that was below the price of production. 2017 was a very tough year for chicken farmers, with a huge oversupply. The chicken rendering (killing) operations were backlogged by many months. Farmers often had no choice but to raise the chickens th…

Post by michaelt » Tue, May 28, 2019, 9:02 AM UTC

evgen wrote: post #112

michaelt wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I would say they "were bred" rather than they "evolved" because it's the result of artificial selection, rather than natural selection.

Once again, humans are a part of nature. Chickens exist in a symbiotic relationship with humans. Would you describe the fungus grown by certain ant colonies as having been 'bred' by the ants or as co-evolving with them? Chicken evolution is only artificial if you consider human desires and motivations as being outside of nature.

Post by lostjohnny » Tue, May 28, 2019, 10:25 AM UTC

toasterlovin wrote: post #113

avar wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason has little to do with any of that, but just historical inertia. There's a lot of species that could have potentially replaced the chicken if we unwind human history and started anew, but it's not a competition between wild species of birds today, but chickens with at least 5000 years of human-guided domestication v.s. most other species. The same can be said about pretty much anything people eat and f…

I think your #2 is a pretty good insight. Separately, I’m more interested in why chickens are more economically efficient than, say, pigs or cows than why they’re more efficient than other birds. Any thoughts there?