Why There's Enough Chicken for Every Pot

摘要

Beef and pork have been pricey and, at times, scarce in the U.S. this spring amid outbreaks of the coronavirus at slaughterhouses around the country. Chicken has remained widely available and cheap. Why the difference? One reason is that most slaughtering of chickens, unlike that of cattle and hogs, is automated. Deboning and cutting chicken into pieces is often done by hand, which is why there have been some shortages of boneless chicken. But machines are now available to do that work, too, and processors will surely buy more of them in the coming years. Chicken farming has long been the most industrialized of American agricultural operations, and it keeps getting more so. The birds are bred for maximum meat production and raised in a matter of weeks in controlled indoor environments by farmers under contract to the likes of Tyson Foods Inc. and Pilgrim's Pride Corp. The animals' small, uniform size lends itself to factory-style slaughtering and processing.