In 1965, the world consumed 8 billion chickens. In 2020, it was 70 billion. This article from Vox unpacks how the global chicken industry emerged, and how it was sparked by a clerical error that saw 500 chickens delivered to a small family farm.
And it is not just the number of chickens that has changed. The size of the birds have as well. In 1957, the average chicken was 905 grams. By 1978, it was double that to 1.8kg. Fast forward to 2005 and it has more than doubled again, up to 4.2kg.
As chicken has risen to become the dominant meat of our time, beef consumption has fallen. In the US, per capita beef consumption was down 28% between 1970 and 2019. In that same time, in the US, per capita poultry consumption was up 173%.
This article takes a look at the rise of the chicken, how it started and where it may go from here.
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