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Chickens are the most populous bird on the planet. There are 23 billion of them at any given time, ten times more than any other bird. It is by far the fastest growing meat product, but the price of chicken, pound for pound, has fallen sharply. How did it happen ?
This farm is at the forefront of a technological revolution that has radically changed chicken farming. It is led by David Speller, a pioneer in the use of video surveillance and CO2 monitors in poultry houses. Alongside his own farm, he works as a consultant and oversees the breeding of around 3 million chickens in the UK.
Chickens were first domesticated more than 8,000 years ago, but it wasn't until the 1940s that major efforts were made to create a super breed. America's Chicken of Tomorrow competition would change chickens forever.
Today, the life cycle of broilers, chickens raised solely for their meat, is entirely predetermined. They are growing faster and bigger than ever before and can only live thanks to human technology. Chickens have changed so quickly that they are now four times bigger than they were in the 1950s.
A backyard chicken can live up to 10 years, showing the enormous evolutionary change broilers have undergone. But selective breeding on a global scale comes at a cost. If chickens live beyond their expected lifespan, they develop enormous medical problems. And there are fears that the chicken industry is relying on an ever-shrinking gene pool.
Raising chickens in battery cages was banned in the EU in 2012, but some want to create a better life for broilers. Free-range birds have more access to free range, while organic chickens are generally free of antibiotics, hormones and other synthetic chemicals. Organic chickens live the longest – 81 days, compared to intensively raised birds which live between 35 and 40 days. Free-range chickens have the most access to free range, but when it comes to living space, organic and free-range chickens are much better than intensively raised birds, where up to 17 birds adults live in a single square meter.
Organic farming can offer animals a better quality of life, but consumers are largely driven by cost and in the average UK supermarket, an intensively raised chicken costs several times less than its free-range or organic cousins.
More than 95% of broilers are intensively raised in the UK. Organic and free-range chickens make up the rest. As long as buyers desire cheap and plentiful chicken, chicken farming will continue to intensify.
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