<story><title>Today we’re eating the winners of the 1948 Chicken of Tomorrow contest</title><url>https://modernfarmer.com/2014/05/today-eating-winners-1948-chicken-tomorrow-contest/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seanwilson</author><text>&amp;gt; And that life keeps getting shorter and shorter – four to seven weeks, to be exact. In the 1950s, a broiler chicken lived a full 16 weeks. The faster and heavier method that won the contest was amplified by confinement, and while the chickens come out of those cages fatter, they tend to get sicker, too. They have insatiable appetites, which leaves them stressed, as evidenced in their poor reproduction capabilities, cardiovascular failure and skeletal problems. They’ve been pumped with so many antibiotics, they’ve developed resistances. The chickens’ weak legs and overworked hearts strain every week their lives are extended.&lt;p&gt;Chickens are meant to be able to live to around 10 years old as well which makes this even worse to me. There&amp;#x27;s nothing humane or natural about it. I think consumers need to take more personal responsibility in what kind of practices their wallets are supporting.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brutal_chaos_</author><text>&amp;gt;  I think consumers need to take more personal responsibility in what kind of practices their wallets are supporting.&lt;p&gt;Consumers aren&amp;#x27;t making the choice to treat the animals that way, the business are. And (most likely) without regulation, that will not change. Not enough people&amp;#x2F;consumers have enough discretionary spending to make a change (I believe). I for one don&amp;#x27;t even know where I can buy meat from well-treated chickens. Sure I can look it up, but most consumers will need to as well, which will probably not happen. It&amp;#x27;s about high time we stop putting things on the consumer (see recycling) and make the businesses do better for our ecosystem. I hope not to add too many more regulations, the fewer the better IMHO, but damn, there still needs to be some.</text></comment>
<story><title>Today we’re eating the winners of the 1948 Chicken of Tomorrow contest</title><url>https://modernfarmer.com/2014/05/today-eating-winners-1948-chicken-tomorrow-contest/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>seanwilson</author><text>&amp;gt; And that life keeps getting shorter and shorter – four to seven weeks, to be exact. In the 1950s, a broiler chicken lived a full 16 weeks. The faster and heavier method that won the contest was amplified by confinement, and while the chickens come out of those cages fatter, they tend to get sicker, too. They have insatiable appetites, which leaves them stressed, as evidenced in their poor reproduction capabilities, cardiovascular failure and skeletal problems. They’ve been pumped with so many antibiotics, they’ve developed resistances. The chickens’ weak legs and overworked hearts strain every week their lives are extended.&lt;p&gt;Chickens are meant to be able to live to around 10 years old as well which makes this even worse to me. There&amp;#x27;s nothing humane or natural about it. I think consumers need to take more personal responsibility in what kind of practices their wallets are supporting.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tlarkworthy</author><text>Chicken is relatively friendly to climate. I would consider it a good thing if people ate more chicken and less red meat. They are our top animal protein source at scale for least greenhouse gas emissions [1].&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;extension.uga.edu&amp;#x2F;publications&amp;#x2F;detail.html?number=B1382&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;extension.uga.edu&amp;#x2F;publications&amp;#x2F;detail.html?number=B1...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>