Chart of the Day: Eight Chickens Per Person

Today’s Chart of the Day from the Financial Times shows that chicken meat recently overtook pork as the most produced meat on the planet. Why?The article says chickens convert feed more efficiently than any other animal, making chickens cheaper to raise. There are so many, that at any one time, there are eight chickens for every person on the planet. How? The technology balancing the right amount of heat, space, feed, and light has been perfected. Due to improvements in breeding and nutrition, the fatality rate is down to only 4% and the “life cycle” went from 112 days in 1925 to only 47 days today. Additionally, some good news for the environment is that chickens also have the lowest emissions per kilo of meat than any other animal.  

Fun side calculation: Eight chickens per person every 47 days works out to the average person eating one chicken per week.