Historically chickens have been small and scrawny because their diet was table scraps, bugs, and grass seeds, but feed them grain in bulk and they get yuuuge. Some criticize the American chicken industry for the mass use of enclosures, but if the goal is to keep chicken as the cheapest of the animal proteins, that is the only way to raise them. (True free-range chickens cost more per pound than most steaks, with boneless/skinless chicken breasts costing more per pound than all steak cuts save filet mignon itself.*) Those American enclosures explain why the United States is the only significant
...more
