When you next bite into a chicken sandwich, consider this: 2,400 of these birds are being slaughtered somewhere in the world every second. From street stalls in Mumbai to supermarkets in Beijing, chicken has become the world’s most consumed meat. In 2023 alone, humans slaughtered an astonishing 76 billion chickens.
This didn’t arise naturally. It is the result of a system of industrial efficiency, designed by corporations to maximise profits from the birds.
The industry’s complexity often obscures who actually pulls the strings. But our new research maps, for the first time, the previously unpublicised architecture of chicken production, revealing an industry dominated by a handful of firms and their financial backers.
