As we begin 2017, Americans can look back at 2016 as yet another year with record-high chicken consumption—an average of 89.6 pounds per person. That’s more than three times as much as our grandparents ate.
Chickens we eat today are twice as big as they were 60 years ago. In 1955, the average weight of chickens sold on market was 3.07 pounds, while the number for the first half of 2016 was 6.18 pounds, according to National Chicken Council, a nonprofit trade organization based in Washington, D.C.
Firstly, chicken breeds today are more cost-efficient than 60 years ago. In order to shorten production cycle and cut cost, the selective breeding for broilers — chickens raised for meat rather than eggs — prefers faster growth rate and higher feed-to-meat ratio — meaning the pounds of feed it takes to gain one pound of meat.
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