A Chicken in Every Pot

It tastes just like chicken. Why do people repeat that idiom about so many foods? Because most of the time, what they’re eating is chicken. When humans are feeling a little peckish, bird is almost always the word. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? That’s one of the many philosophical questions humans like to consider over a couple orders of wings. And chicken’s rule of the roost is only getting more dominant as more people worldwide can afford to add meat to their diets. It’s cheaper to produce and it has a reputation for being healthier than others meats. All this adds up, bigly, and when it comes to this one issue, people across a divided world are increasingly birds of a feather. “Humanity currently raises and slaughters a staggering 74 billion chickens each year, which will jump to around 85 billion annually by 2032 … We eat so much chicken that some archaeologists believe their bones will define our modern age.” Vox counts the chickens before they hatch. Chickens are taking over the planet. I hold the bias of a lifelong vegetarian, but killing 85 billion of anything in a single year sure sounds like a kick in the nuggets.