Big Chicken : : the Incredible Story of how Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the way the World Eats

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Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Animals / Birds
On Shelf At: Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Animals / Birds	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Part 1. How chicken became essential -- Illness, and a bad year -- Better living through chemistry -- Meat for the price of bread -- Resistance begins -- Proving the problem -- Part 2. How chicken became dangerous -- Epidemics as evidence -- The triumph of the hybrids -- The cost of containment -- The unpredicted danger -- Part 3. How chicken changed -- The value of small -- Choosing cooperation -- The view from the barn -- The market speaks -- The past creates the future -- Epilogue.
"In this eye-opening exposé, acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributer Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity -- and human health threat -- uncovering the ways we can make America's favorite meat safer again." -- Amazon.com.

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Big Chicken submitted by leighsprauer on May 18, 2023, 4:10pm Admittedly, I like chickens and agriculture and ecology more than most people, but I thought this was a fascinating book. McKenna gives the history of modern chicken as we know it, from small birds raised on small farms to be eaten only on special occasions, to the cheap, ubiquitous food we know. This is due largely to the use of antibiotics, which not only increased the growth rate of the chickens, but allowed them to be housed in tighter quarters and in greater numbers. It is also due to selective breeding that gives us today's typical broiler chicken, which is a much different bird than its forbears. McKenna rightly raises the alarm about the use of antibiotics, especially, and chronicles the changes that led to the push toward antibiotic-free poultry.
All in all, it's a very well-researched and readable book.