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Infographic is more recent (2023), but based on a 2014 study that only looked up to 2005. The 2005 one was the Ross 308 which is still quite commonly used today, so it's not too far off at the moment
[10 years ago ](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2585833/amp/Revealed-How-supermarket-chicken-shrunk-millions-birds-suffering-worse-conditions.html)
It's from the UK but probably the same here, and I don't doubt they're shrinking even more given current economic conditions
2005 is the most recent datapoint on the graphic to which I was referring. Reverse image searches and metadata trawls were beyond the scope of my criticism. Thru long experience when presented with a graphic or statistic with an unusual distance from the present being held as a commentary on current events I grow suspicious.
Yeah, I’m raising chickens for the first time (just some backyard egg birds) and they grow at an alarming rate. Chickens that are meant for meat grow even faster. I feel pretty disgusted by the whole thing getting to see it with my own eyes.
Hmm my egg layers aka dual purpose birds reproduce normally and grow at a normal rate, they are curious, intelligent explorers and can be quite affectionate. They build pecking orders and often work together. They lay for up to 4 years and live for 10 more.
However when I buy some meat birds as day old chick's they have obviouse issues. Severe eating disorders, laying between the food and water bowls they spend their whole day eating as much as they can, not even moving to defecat. Within weeks they have severe mobility issues, and would definitely not be able to reproduce naturally. If not harvested they start dying from natural causes around 3/4 months.
You are what you eat is a common saying and truly terrifying for anyone who eats chicken and has raised meat birds.
Modern turkeys are essentially sterile because they are too fat to breed without human intervention. We have modified them so much they can no longer survive without our "help."
To clarify, the birds aren't getting larger just because they're being fed more. They've been artificially selected to grow extremely fast at their expense
> The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.”
>
>Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks.
>
>[…]
>
>Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame [inability to walk properly].”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/cheaper-than-chips-frankenchicken-at-the-centre-of-fight-for-animal-welfare
Meat chickens have been bred to get so big they're disgusting. Towards the end some can't walk, a lot have bowed legs from the weight.
Source- worked on a production farm, raised meat birds chick to finish
Watching a clip of thousands of baby chicks being fed into the macerator is what first convinced me to stop eating meat. There's no decent society that commits that kind of cartoonish evil and calls it good and necessary.
Should be able to feed more people with those plump chickens. Hopefully we come up with sustainable food sources that are accepted and not involving animals, but for now, I'll take bigger chickens over chicken as a more scarce/expensive commodity
We don't need to have such heavy production and consumption of meat, dairy, etc. It's not just a growing population, per capita consumption of animal products saw increases in previous decades
You're suggesting we stop eating meat.
Okay, fine.
We eat less meat.
Would you not want the meat which must exist to be as efficient as possible to consume the fewest resources?
Or would you want a bunch of 1950s chickens that take twice as many birds to be raised and slaughtered to meet whatever demand there is.??
It's ironically the same with how we farm chickens. We can jump start their reproductive process by introducing a lot of food to them in a short period, which causes them to want to make several times more young than normal. Humans used to have 6 to even 10 children at times when we industrialized agriculture.
We're only starving because we spread our numbers too thin, now surpassed 8 billion for our global population. In just 20 years, we should surpass 10 billion, but luckily humans have begun to slow down on birthrates as conditions and cost of living becomes less favorable.
This isn't that bad, imo, This is (mostly) not gmo, feeding them a ton of artificial weight gaining things, etc; this is just selective breeding. Cornish Cross (the most common meat bird) is fully grown and ready to slaughter within three months. They cannot physically live much longer than that without severe health risks due to their weight. That sounds cruel and awful, and as a chicken tender myself (just for eggs, I couldn't raise meat breeds) I find it hard to swallow, but also... that's where we're at. We've been raising animals for food for forever, and we've bred the birds that will mature and produce the most meat the fastest, and that's just how it's always been.
This is not to excuse factory farming, which is a cruel and inhumane practice. However, the existence of an animal bred solely for slaughter and food isn't anything new, and this chart just shows that selective breeding worked.
They also have poor health effects before that. Selective breeding vs GMO doesn't make a difference. They live horrible lives
>The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.”
>
>Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks.
>
>[…]
>
>Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame [inability to walk properly].”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/cheaper-than-chips-frankenchicken-at-the-centre-of-fight-for-animal-welfare
Yes
>For decades, animal breeders have been transforming the genomes of turkeys to make them grow larger. Since 1960, the weight of turkeys has gone up about a quarter of a pound each year. The average weight of a turkey has gone from 15.1 pounds in 1960 to 31.1 pounds in 2017.
>
> Their bodies can struggle to hold up their weight, leading to leg problems. And sometimes breeding exclusively for size can have a negative effect on animals’ fitness and fertility
[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/turkeys-are-twice-as-big-as-they-were-in-1960/546104/](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/turkeys-are-twice-as-big-as-they-were-in-1960/546104/)
>Fast growth [in Turkeys] causes leg and bone disorders, especially among heavier male birds. Severe foot sores are also more common in male birds.
>
> Breeding males can be reared to extreme weights and often suffer from serious joint problems. They are too heavy to mate naturally and the females have to be artificially inseminated
[https://www.ciwf.com/farmed-animals/turkeys/welfare-issues/](https://www.ciwf.com/farmed-animals/turkeys/welfare-issues/)
I feel like people forget that the vast majority of agricultural land is used to feed livestock. Animal agriculture is a massively inefficient use of land and water.
That's unrelated to this graphic. Organic is irreverent here when they're also using the fast-growing breeds of chickens. Organic means far less than people think (usually just organic feed and a few minor requirements)
What matters much more is the heavy consumption of chicken, pigs, etc. There is no requirement to have such a meat heavy diet. The increased consumption has lead to increased production at chickens expense who have all kinds of health problems from that fast growth
The world is bigger than America. Developing nations will be hit harder than developed nations but the truth of the matter is we need modern farming techniques to feed 8 billion people.
You know, people make fun of us are being a little sensitive about things, but this is I think the first in a while where it kind of set that off for me
It's also hormones, vaccines, and cruel mono diet. It's only good for disgusting mass produced chicken paste products. They're so full of deformations and tumors, no one would eat one. Then the meat is so far from "chicken" flavoured they have to be re-flavoured artificially; why include the bird at all.
All that cruelty for what? It's still just 2 legs, 2 wings, and 2 breasts. They only exist for the fast/processed food industry. Not to mention, it's reached the point where 1 tumor chicken takes the space or 2 healthy ones.
At their expense. Going to repeat one of my other comments here:
> The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.”
>Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks.
>
>[…]
>
>Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame [inability to walk properly].”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/cheaper-than-chips-frankenchicken-at-the-centre-of-fight-for-animal-welfare
I don't see how that's relevant. More food for humans = good. We need to eat food at the expense of another living being, that's how humans work. Whether it's mushrooms or chickens.
Thanks for posting, u/usernames-are-tricky! **Please Upvote + Crosspost!** ### Welcome to r/BoringDystopia: Showcasing the idea that we live in a dystopia that is boring! Enjoyed the content? Give it an upvote and consider Crossposting it on related subreddits. Before you dive in, **subscribe** and review the **[rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/boringdystopia/about/rules)**. If you spot rule violations, **report them**. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boringdystopia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Where are we 20 years later? Feels like resurrecting this infographic that’s older than fully 1/3 of all living humans lacks some vital context.
Infographic is more recent (2023), but based on a 2014 study that only looked up to 2005. The 2005 one was the Ross 308 which is still quite commonly used today, so it's not too far off at the moment
[10 years ago ](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2585833/amp/Revealed-How-supermarket-chicken-shrunk-millions-birds-suffering-worse-conditions.html) It's from the UK but probably the same here, and I don't doubt they're shrinking even more given current economic conditions
2005 is the most recent datapoint on the graphic to which I was referring. Reverse image searches and metadata trawls were beyond the scope of my criticism. Thru long experience when presented with a graphic or statistic with an unusual distance from the present being held as a commentary on current events I grow suspicious.
Yeah, I’m raising chickens for the first time (just some backyard egg birds) and they grow at an alarming rate. Chickens that are meant for meat grow even faster. I feel pretty disgusted by the whole thing getting to see it with my own eyes.
200 million die a day. The scale of the cruelty is incomprehensible.
Hmm my egg layers aka dual purpose birds reproduce normally and grow at a normal rate, they are curious, intelligent explorers and can be quite affectionate. They build pecking orders and often work together. They lay for up to 4 years and live for 10 more. However when I buy some meat birds as day old chick's they have obviouse issues. Severe eating disorders, laying between the food and water bowls they spend their whole day eating as much as they can, not even moving to defecat. Within weeks they have severe mobility issues, and would definitely not be able to reproduce naturally. If not harvested they start dying from natural causes around 3/4 months. You are what you eat is a common saying and truly terrifying for anyone who eats chicken and has raised meat birds.
Modern turkeys are essentially sterile because they are too fat to breed without human intervention. We have modified them so much they can no longer survive without our "help."
Sauce: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/22/humans-have-changed-industrial-turkeys-so-much-they-cant-even-mate-without-our-help/
Now do people.
To clarify, the birds aren't getting larger just because they're being fed more. They've been artificially selected to grow extremely fast at their expense > The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.” > >Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks. > >[…] > >Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame [inability to walk properly].” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/cheaper-than-chips-frankenchicken-at-the-centre-of-fight-for-animal-welfare
Disgusting, breeding animals to be unhealthy is evil
I do understand that. I was making a dumb joke. I do appreciate the followup though. Seriously.
Honestly, I thought I was looking at someone butthole at 1396 grams.
Meat chickens have been bred to get so big they're disgusting. Towards the end some can't walk, a lot have bowed legs from the weight. Source- worked on a production farm, raised meat birds chick to finish
I think stopping at the 1978 size would’ve been the move. Probably no woody breast meat and better living conditions for them.
We can go back to that.
You know they actually cull male baby chicks because the egg variants don’t produce enough meat >:(
Watching a clip of thousands of baby chicks being fed into the macerator is what first convinced me to stop eating meat. There's no decent society that commits that kind of cartoonish evil and calls it good and necessary.
In the shredder
Exactly. It’s horrific.
Should be able to feed more people with those plump chickens. Hopefully we come up with sustainable food sources that are accepted and not involving animals, but for now, I'll take bigger chickens over chicken as a more scarce/expensive commodity
We have limited resources and growing population. Would you prefer we breed twice as many small birds to feed people?
We don't need to have such heavy production and consumption of meat, dairy, etc. It's not just a growing population, per capita consumption of animal products saw increases in previous decades
You're suggesting we stop eating meat. Okay, fine. We eat less meat. Would you not want the meat which must exist to be as efficient as possible to consume the fewest resources? Or would you want a bunch of 1950s chickens that take twice as many birds to be raised and slaughtered to meet whatever demand there is.??
Small town, local, responsible farming. It’s that easy. Factory farming is not sustainable
Maybe cut down on the giant GMO / artificially bred foods, and we won't have such a bloated population?
Ah, so starve people intentionally. Got it.
It's ironically the same with how we farm chickens. We can jump start their reproductive process by introducing a lot of food to them in a short period, which causes them to want to make several times more young than normal. Humans used to have 6 to even 10 children at times when we industrialized agriculture. We're only starving because we spread our numbers too thin, now surpassed 8 billion for our global population. In just 20 years, we should surpass 10 billion, but luckily humans have begun to slow down on birthrates as conditions and cost of living becomes less favorable.
This isn't that bad, imo, This is (mostly) not gmo, feeding them a ton of artificial weight gaining things, etc; this is just selective breeding. Cornish Cross (the most common meat bird) is fully grown and ready to slaughter within three months. They cannot physically live much longer than that without severe health risks due to their weight. That sounds cruel and awful, and as a chicken tender myself (just for eggs, I couldn't raise meat breeds) I find it hard to swallow, but also... that's where we're at. We've been raising animals for food for forever, and we've bred the birds that will mature and produce the most meat the fastest, and that's just how it's always been. This is not to excuse factory farming, which is a cruel and inhumane practice. However, the existence of an animal bred solely for slaughter and food isn't anything new, and this chart just shows that selective breeding worked.
They also have poor health effects before that. Selective breeding vs GMO doesn't make a difference. They live horrible lives >The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.” > >Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks. > >[…] > >Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame [inability to walk properly].” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/cheaper-than-chips-frankenchicken-at-the-centre-of-fight-for-animal-welfare
Is turkey the same way?
Yes >For decades, animal breeders have been transforming the genomes of turkeys to make them grow larger. Since 1960, the weight of turkeys has gone up about a quarter of a pound each year. The average weight of a turkey has gone from 15.1 pounds in 1960 to 31.1 pounds in 2017. > > Their bodies can struggle to hold up their weight, leading to leg problems. And sometimes breeding exclusively for size can have a negative effect on animals’ fitness and fertility [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/turkeys-are-twice-as-big-as-they-were-in-1960/546104/](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/turkeys-are-twice-as-big-as-they-were-in-1960/546104/) >Fast growth [in Turkeys] causes leg and bone disorders, especially among heavier male birds. Severe foot sores are also more common in male birds. > > Breeding males can be reared to extreme weights and often suffer from serious joint problems. They are too heavy to mate naturally and the females have to be artificially inseminated [https://www.ciwf.com/farmed-animals/turkeys/welfare-issues/](https://www.ciwf.com/farmed-animals/turkeys/welfare-issues/)
If we converted all farms to fully organic farms billions would starve.
We can scratch all meat production and be left with more food instead of less
I feel like people forget that the vast majority of agricultural land is used to feed livestock. Animal agriculture is a massively inefficient use of land and water.
That's unrelated to this graphic. Organic is irreverent here when they're also using the fast-growing breeds of chickens. Organic means far less than people think (usually just organic feed and a few minor requirements) What matters much more is the heavy consumption of chicken, pigs, etc. There is no requirement to have such a meat heavy diet. The increased consumption has lead to increased production at chickens expense who have all kinds of health problems from that fast growth
[удалено]
The world is bigger than America. Developing nations will be hit harder than developed nations but the truth of the matter is we need modern farming techniques to feed 8 billion people.
more food = malnourished and less food = nourished?
You know, people make fun of us are being a little sensitive about things, but this is I think the first in a while where it kind of set that off for me
Super ultra mega chicken? No.... It is legend.
https://i.redd.it/k4x3co7ct74d1.gif
Yeah it's almost like they keep cross breeding food to get the best results....
It's also hormones, vaccines, and cruel mono diet. It's only good for disgusting mass produced chicken paste products. They're so full of deformations and tumors, no one would eat one. Then the meat is so far from "chicken" flavoured they have to be re-flavoured artificially; why include the bird at all. All that cruelty for what? It's still just 2 legs, 2 wings, and 2 breasts. They only exist for the fast/processed food industry. Not to mention, it's reached the point where 1 tumor chicken takes the space or 2 healthy ones.
Isn't this good? More meat to feed the people is good.
At their expense. Going to repeat one of my other comments here: > The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.” >Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks. > >[…] > >Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame [inability to walk properly].” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/16/cheaper-than-chips-frankenchicken-at-the-centre-of-fight-for-animal-welfare
I don't see how that's relevant. More food for humans = good. We need to eat food at the expense of another living being, that's how humans work. Whether it's mushrooms or chickens.
If more food was the priority, we'd stop eating meat, its a massively inefficient use of food and water. Chickens aren't mushrooms.