"Better" Chicken: Economic, Ethical, and Environmental Implications of the U.S. Industrial Broiler Debate

The US grows over 9 billion chickens yearly yet best production practices are heavily contested. The two central opposing parties — the National Chicken Council and Better Chicken Commitment activists — clash on one critical component of industrial production: which is better, fast- or slow-growth chickens? Yet, the arguments by both sides are rooted in competing incentives and contradictory claims and evidence. I provide three additions to this poultry debate. First, supplementary calculations on how a change in the growth rate of chickens would impact consumer surplus in the chicken market. Second, analysis on the net welfare of slow- versus fast-growth chicken populations. And, third, additional calculations and a comprehensive overview of currently overlooked but relevant environmental externalities of both systems. Through an analysis of such evidence, I argue that widespread adoption of industrial slow-growth chicken production would lead to (1) lower economic welfare for American consumers, (2) ambiguous chicken suffering due to a larger population base of industrially-raised chickens, and (3) substantially higher and critically unsustainable environmental externalities.