Genetic Modification

Why has Costco kept its price for rotisserie chickens at $4.99 since they were first sold in 2009, despite inflation? Costco knows that cheap chicken helps to bring customers through the door, who then spend money on other products with greater profit margins. Costco capitalizes on this trend by selling rotisserie chickens in the back of the store. However, the low price point comes at a high cost for the welfare of the chickens, the environment, and public health.

The high price of eggs is just one outcome of bird flu. Far more worrying is the possibility that the disease could adapt to human bodies and lead to the next global pandemic. Though eating chicken or eggs is unlikely to lead to illness, experts agree that the pandemic risk of avian flu is real, stemming largely from the way birds are raised on factory farms and the particular breeds of birds that have come to dominate the supply chain.

Modern-day chickens raised for meat, called “broilers,” are a far cry from chickens just a few decades ago. They consume less food, grow more quickly, and reach a much larger size. As a result of all the ingenuity and invention that has gone into their genetics, chickens suffer immensely during their short lives, and today’s massive scale of chicken production wreaks havoc on the environment.

Bird flu is making global headlines. As an H5N1 outbreak ravages the U.S. poultry industry and egg prices reach record highs, scientists are ringing alarm bells that the virus could soon enter a new, more dangerous phase of its evolution.

GAP’s “better chicken” is better for business, but consumers, public health, the environment, and, of course, the chickens themselves are not necessarily better off when factory farmed products are viewed more favorably.

Global Animal Partnership (GAP) seems dedicated to passing off low welfare standards as the gold standard, thus helping the purveyors of factory farmed products deceive shoppers.

Industrial poultry farms are infamous for the commonly known “bird flu”, yet agribusiness continues being the breeding ground for pandemics.

Commendable efforts by Perdue Farms to progress poultry farming on an industrial scale. See how they are committing to animal welfare here.

As consumers have grown more conscious about how their food is produced many have signaled their willingness to pay a premium for birds with less severe health problems raised on higher welfare farms.

In an effort to increase transparency, Perdue Foods, one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S., has announced revolutionary animal welfare standards that will impact more than 600 million birds per year.

Every Thanksgiving, we gather with our family and friends to celebrate what we’ve been thankful for in the past year. Thanksgiving, more than any other American holiday, also invites us to reflect on the food we put on our table.

Chickens, while sentient and with individual personalities, have been genetically modified solely for higher meat yields. Learn more here.

One third-generation poultry farmer is raising the floor on American commercial poultry farming. Learn more on how here.

George Marich, owner of Butterfields, the world’s first heritage-only poultry-serving restaurant, visits Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch for a real look into heritage farming excellence.

With hen housing debates in full swing and the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of birds at stake, Farm Forward wants you to have the facts about how America’s egg supply is produced.