For centuries, a delectable steak or pork loin has been the preferred top of the food chain for diners as societies grew more affluent and improved their diets. No longer. In 2022 chicken consumption is expected to reach 98 million metric tons, double the amount eaten in 1999. That’s more than three times the growth rate of pork and 10 times that of beef, according to US government data. Global chicken consumption is on track to account for 41% of all meat-eating by 2030. And in less than a decade, for better or worse, humans will for the first time consume far more chicken than any other kind of protein.
Thanks to genetics and other innovations, the cost of rearing chickens has been pushed down repeatedly over the years. Modern birds are ready for slaughter just six weeks after they’re hatched. During that time, they prodigiously convert feed into protein like no other animal can.
“Somehow we continue to find ways to increase the amount of meat per bird and bring down the time that’s involved there,” says Jayson Lusk, an agricultural economist at Purdue University. “One might imagine that there are some biological limits to these things, but we haven’t found them yet.”
