Let’s stop pecking around and get right to it.
Thank you, BBC and the National Chicken Council for providing the inspiration (and much of the background) for this post. The poultry organization’s blog post, “How One Woman Helped Transform Chicken into an American Staple—100 Years Ago” by Chicken Check-In, gives us some interesting results of Cecile Long Steele’s impact on the industry.
“Long before the days of chicken sandwich wars, wings, and sliced rotisserie was a time when few Americans actually ate chicken—flashback to the early 1900s. Enjoying a young broiler chicken (or chicken raised for meat) was a rarity, as one typically cost around $0.50 per pound, or about $22 per pound today. Conversely, rural Americans normally only ate chicken once an old hen stopped laying eggs—which generally tasted pretty dry and tough.
So, how did the American chicken industry get its big beak? I mean, break? It’s National Chicken Month, so now is the perfect time to find out!” (Actually, we are a wee bit late – September was National Chicken Month.)
A Long-Lasting Impact that Steele Matters
Thanks to Steele’s resourceful ingenuity and leap of faith, the 2023 American chicken industry:
- Is No. 1 in the world for broiler production, with U.S. farmers raising 9.4 billion chickens in 2022.
- Outpaces other types of national meat consumption, with the average American eating 16 pounds of chickenin 2022.
- Is the most affordable source of high-quality protein in the meat case, complete with all 9 essential amino acids.
- Directly and indirectly employs 5 million Americans.
- Is producing more with less—between 2010 and 2020, the U.S. chicken industry produced 21% more chicken by weight, all while achieving significant improvements in key sustainability metrics.
As a result of her incredible impact, Steele was named into the Delaware Women’s Hall of Fame in 1983.
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