The following blog by NCC’s Tom Super was posted on August 17 on Meatingplace. The original post can be found here.
The closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio is right around the corner and the past week and a half has brought us broken records, photo finishes and great competition. Cheering on our athletes as they go for the gold is a centuries old tradition; however, today’s games are hardly recognizable when compared to the Olympics of even a few decades ago. Small improvements each year have made the athletes and competition better, stronger, faster, and we celebrate this progress.
Yet, as we look down to our plates, the same year-over-year progress in food production is often met with skepticism or downright distrust.
The progress made by chicken producers has led to the “Original White Meat” becoming America’s favorite protein, with per capita chicken consumption now at all-time high – a world record.
The path to that progress in chicken production and the Olympics is more similar than many might think.
Better medical care, nutrition, technology and analytical breakthroughs have ushered in a new era of Olympic athletes. Similarly, in the chicken industry, better veterinary care, animal nutrition, technology and robust analytical data from mapping the chicken genome have been used to improve the health, size, growth rate and quality of the chicken you enjoy.
Chicken producers are the first to admit that chickens today grow faster and bigger than in decades past. They’re also healthier and more sustainable than ever because of the progress made.
Farmers and company personnel take pride in the care of their chickens, and the fact is that our national flock is as healthy as it’s ever been, but we know it’s on us as an industry to do a better job of providing more information on how our food gets from farm to table. Food is an emotionally charged topic, and with conflicting information readily available online and on social media, it’s understandable people might become concerned. NCC recently launched Chicken Check In, inviting consumers to come and take a look at the work the industry is doing to provide safe, healthy and sustainable food.
Images of chickens being genetically modified or pumped with steroids or hormones are far from reality on the chicken farm today – these performance enhancing drugs don’t work on chickens, are unnecessary and are illegal in the U.S.
When comparing chickens from different eras, changes can seem drastic, and they often lead to questions about how this progress is possible, if it is natural, and if these changes are causing stress or harm to the chickens we eat. These unanswered questions can even lead to changes in the market place.
To find the answer – like anything else today – we need to look to the data.
Over the last few decades, nearly every industry has harnessed the power of data and analytics. For Olympic athletes, this has manifested in computers to measure divers’ body angles, overhead cameras to track boxers’ movements, and specialized uniforms to increase aerodynamics.
For the chicken industry, we have similarly harnessed data to add high-tech analytics to traditional breeding methods.
Just like farmers and ranchers have done for centuries, modern breeding farms mate the healthiest and strongest birds to produce a stronger line of offspring.
However, what has changed is how breeding companies identify the healthiest and strongest birds. Rather than relying strictly on observational data like weight, feel and appearance, which can miss underlying traits, today’s breeding companies have implemented scientific data to better understand what makes the best chickens.
Think about it like Match.com for chickens. Or just like a good dog breeder who mates selected dogs with the intent to maintain or produce specific qualities and characteristics. Basically, if we wanted the chickens to be track and field stars, we would find the Jesse Owens of roosters and the Jackie Joyner-Kersee of hens, and mate them together.
Chicken breeders map the DNA of birds to screen for the best possible genes in an effort to help prevent possible health problems down the line. The birds are also given a blood oxygen level test to ensure heart and lung health, an ultrasound to examine the breast muscle, and an x-ray of their legs to measure bone formation and joint health.
These high-tech metrics are combined with traditional observational data to determine which birds should be bred to create the next generation of the healthiest and strongest chickens possible. Once on the farm, farmers have close relationships with veterinarians to ensure the flocks are healthy and properly cared for, just as Olympic teams travel with trainers and a medical staff.
Above all, we realize that any advances in technology and science should never come at the expense of the welfare of the birds or the people that we feed. While the industry both promotes and provides choices as dictated by the market place, strong respect for and adherence to animal care standards are consistent across the industry.
We also realize that these generational improvements can appear drastic. However, just as it took years of small changes to take the Olympics from the Mark Spitz era to the Michael Phelps era, it has taken years of small improvements to breed the bigger, stronger and more sustainable chickens of today.
This slow, safe, and generational progress on our plates should be celebrated, not distrusted.
