According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in 2023 the consumption of chicken meat increased by 14% and continues to be one of the meats most chosen by the omnivorous population , partly due to its low price compared to other species. Precisely, the increase in demand and this orientation towards lower prices have seriously affected the way in which chickens are treated in industrial farming, which is increasingly committed to producing more with fewer resources and, well sure, in less time. This is how, over the years, they have generated And hybridizing chicken breeds to create ultra-fast growing breeds, such as broilers. The price of a broiler chicken in a supermarket can be around 4 euros/kg, while an organic free-range chicken would cost almost 12 euros/kg. In Spain there is a clear predominance of broilers compared to other slower growing breeds.
Fast-growing chickens reach their maximum weight in 45 days on average. This would be equivalent to a human baby reaching 300 kilos in its first two months of life (Poultry Science Journal). And this, as would happen with humans, obviously has negative effects on the health, both physical and psychological, of the birds. Indeed, it has been shown that the genetic selection to which these chickens have been subjected leads to malformations and serious animal welfare problems. Added to this are the conditions of overpopulation, which mean that chickens are constantly subjected to antibiotics, in a preventive rather than curative manner, with the negative effects that this has on public health, such as antibiotic resistance, which is estimated that it will cause 70% more. death in 2050.
We cannot forget the 42,000 chickens drowned at the height of the recent DANA, as it passed through Granada or the 600,000 chickens died in a fire last April in Cuenca, without an established eviction or emergency management protocol that could save them. Although Royal Decree 524/2023 of June 20, which approves the basic standard of civil protection, envisages the creation of this type of assistance and emergency management protocols, delegated to the autonomous communities. The number of victims in these two cases makes the overcrowded conditions in which these birds live very visible. Which, unfortunately, also permeates the egg industry, not just the meat industry.
But, realistically, the The malformations and pathologies that chickens victims of the industry develop only seem to interest the general public when they pose a public health problem, a risk for human health. We forget the worst face of factory farming: the mistreatment and systematic exploitation that chickens suffer day after day simply because of being considered “consumer products”.
According to data collected by organizations such as the Human League and the Animal Welfare Observatory (OBA), there is a pathology easily detectable on supermarket shelves: white streak muscular myopathy. This muscular disease affects between 50 and 90% of intensively raised chickens. This condition is associated with mobility problems and extreme suffering in animals, who spend their short lives immobilized in crowded spaces. A life designed to maximize profits at the expense of bird welfare.
White stripes are the result of unnatural growth, which causes fatty deposits in the pectoral muscles of chickens, reducing their muscle mass and nutritional quality. Therefore, white streaks are not only a sign of poor animal welfare, but also an indicator of poor quality meat. These lines represent fat accumulated in the muscle due to the metabolic imbalance caused by accelerated growth. The difference has been quantified to be up to 224% more fat, increasing morsel calories between 7% and 21%, 10% less collagen and up to 9% less protein.
The report published by the Animal Welfare Observatory (OBA), based on the analysis of more than 6,000 trays of chicken in Lidl supermarkets throughout Spain, confirms that 98% of this chain’s products present a some incidence of white streaks, and that more than 20% show serious signs. Miriam Martínez, head of animal welfare at OBA, warns that “the sale of fast-growing chickens or macrochickens is a scandal for consumers, who are very aware of animal welfare and who demand quality products.”
The question we must ask ourselves is whether there really are alternatives to this system. On the one hand, there is the European Chicken Commitment, which is a voluntary minimum agreement that advocates the implementation of welfare standards that improve the conditions of birds and allow a gradual transition towards a more extensive breeding model. environmentally friendly. and animal welfare. On the other hand, the use of birds for production, breeding and sale would cease, although I suppose this is still too optimistic.
The increasing presence of white streaks in chickens, conditions observed on farms and breeding grounds, zoonotic diseases, etc. should force us to look beyond and reflect on the system that perpetuates this suffering. It is important that these issues are made visible and that consumers can make as informed decisions as possible, being able to decide whether they should continue to support a system that systematically mistreats animals, especially those that are misnamed. farm.
