Chicken Little?

While watching American Graffiti once, I was amazed to see the small, 8 oz. cup in which Coke was once served.(Anyone remember those?) There was no such thing as a Big Mac, only a smallish regular sized hamburger. Or cheeseburger, if one wanted to splurge. Fries were ten cents a small paper bag. No SuperSize scoops of the hot, salty things. Chickens have met the same fate. Well, those that have to do with the commercial industry, anyway. As with everything else societal, chickens would no longer be recognizable by their ancestors. Due to diligent breeding, a new SuperSize chicken has been created. As the health industry pushed white chicken meat, so the chicken breast has undergone a major shift to keep up with demand. A White Cornish Cross chicken is one of the most pathetic, appalling results of this industry. These chickens are bred to be eaters. From a couple of ounces at birth, a Cornish Cross will easily weight 5# at just five weeks. The chickens are ready for slaughter at seven to eight weeks old... if they haven't died of a heart attack first. This fast weight gain takes its toll on the young birds. They are eating machines, and grow so obesely enormous that it affects their lungs, heart, and other internal organs. They are very fragile birds. To keep the growth progressing, the chickens are fed antibiotics. Their legs give out, unable to hold the weight of their bodies. They live near the food dish, plop down and eat. The great ironies in this sad tale, is the fact that this white breast meat is not healthy. I wouldn't eat a Chicken McNugget, and yet millions of boxes a sold each day,many of them purchased for children. And as a nation, we are beginning to want more dark meat, rather than white.