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Chickenomics
鸡肉经济
Ruling the roost
称雄
COLCHESTER AND GREENWOOD
科尔切斯特和格林伍德
How chicken became the rich world’s most popular meat
鸡肉如何成为发达国家最受欢迎的肉类
In a shed on a poultry farm just outside Colchester, in south-east England, thousands of chickens sit on piles of their own excrement. The facilities will not be cleaned until after the birds are killed, meaning they suffer from ammonia burns and struggle to grow feathers. Ants and maggots crawl over the bodies of those that have not made it to slaughter. The chicken industry is a dirty business, but it is also a profitable one. In the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, pork and beef consumption has remained unchanged since 1990. Chicken consumption has grown by 70%.
英格兰东南部科尔切斯特郊外一家养鸡场的鸡舍里，数千只鸡坐在自己的粪便堆上。鸡舍得等到到把所有的鸡都杀了之后才会清理。这意味着鸡会被氨灼伤，很难长出羽毛。那些还没到宰杀时间就死掉的鸡，尸体上爬满了蚂蚁和蛆。养鸡业很脏，但有利可图。在主要由富裕国家组成的经济合作与发展组织中，猪肉和牛肉的消费量自1990年以来一直保持不变。但鸡肉消费量增长了70%。
Humans gobble so many chickens that the birds now count for 23bn of the 30bn land animals living on farms. According to a recent paper by Carys Bennett at the University of Leicester and colleagues, the total mass of farmed chickens exceeds that of all other birds on the planet combined. In London, some 50 miles west of Colchester, fried-chicken shops are ubiquitous. Many are named after American states (including Kansas and Montana, not to mention Kentucky). But schoolchildren and latenight partiers are unfazed by the strange names. Nor do they worry much about where their meal came from.
人类食用了如此之多的鸡，以至于如今在300亿生活在农场的陆地动物中，禽类占到了230亿。根据莱斯特大学的卡莉斯·班尼特和他的同事最近的一篇论文，饲养的鸡的总量超过了地球上所有其他鸟类的总和。在科尔切斯特以西约50英里的伦敦，炸鸡店随处可见。许多店以美国的州命名(包括堪萨斯州和蒙大拿州，更不用说肯塔基州了)。但是小学生和深夜派对的人对这些奇怪的名字并不在意。他们也不太担心他们的食物从哪里来。
And why should they? Chicken is cheap and delicious. A pound of poultry in America now costs $1.92, a fall of $1.71 since 1960 (after adjusting for inflation). Meanwhile the price of beef has fallen by $1.17 a pound to $5.80.
他们为什么要担心呢？鸡肉既便宜又美味。在美国，一磅家禽现在的价格是1.92美元，自1960年以来下降了1.71美元(经通货膨胀调整后)。与此同时，牛肉价格下跌了1.17美元，降至每磅5.80美元。
Fans of cheap chicken have selective breeding to thank. In the 1940s America launched a series of “Chicken of Tomorrow” competitions for farmers. The aim, as described by a newspaper at the time, was to produce “one bird chunky enough for the whole family—a chicken with breast meat so thick you can carve it into steaks, with drumsticks that contain a minimum of bone buried in layers of juicy dark meat, all costing less instead of more.” The result was something along the lines of the modern broiler chicken.
便宜鸡肉的粉丝们要感谢他们的选择性繁殖。20世纪40年代，美国为农民举办了一系列“明日之鸡”比赛。据当时的一家报纸描述，这样做的目的是为了“生产出一种足够全家食用的大鸡”——鸡胸肉很厚，你可以把它切成牛排，鸡腿上的肉多汁，深色的肉层里埋着最少的骨头，这些肉的价格更低，而不是更高。胜出者类似于现代肉用鸡。
Chickenomics.jpg
Since then chickens have continued to get bigger. A study by Martin Zuidhof of the University of Alberta and colleagues documented this shift by comparing chickens that were selectively bred in 1957, 1978 and 2005. The authors found that at 56 days old the three birds had average weights of 0.9kg, 1.8kg and 4.2kg. As raising a single big bird is more efficient than raising two smaller ones, it now takes farmers just 1.3kg of grain to produce 1kg of chicken, down from 2.5kg of grain in 1985.
从那以后，鸡的个头越来越大。阿尔伯塔大学的马丁·祖德霍夫和他的同事们通过比较1957年、1978年和2005年选择性饲养的鸡，记录了这种转变。研究人员发现，在56天大的时候，这三只鸟的平均体重分别为0.9公斤、1.8公斤和4.2公斤。由于养一只大鸟比养两只小鸟更有效率，现在农民只需要1.3公斤的谷物就能生产1公斤的鸡肉，而1985年是2.5公斤。
The intense use of antibiotics means that farmers no longer need to spend much time worrying about their chickens’ welfare. Before the second world war, most birds were raised on small plots. Farmers kept hens for eggs and sold their meat when they got too old to lay any more. But prophylactics have allowed farmers to pack chickens into conditions that would once have been considered unthinkably cramped and dirty. Birds raised in denser quarters do not move around much, and so require less to eat.
大量使用抗生素，这意味着农民不再需要花太多时间担心鸡的健康。二战前，大多数鸡饲养于小块土地。农民养鸡取蛋，当鸡老得不能再下蛋时就把肉卖掉。但是，预防措施使得农民可以把鸡塞进曾经无法想象的拥挤、肮脏的环境中。
Farmers have also benefited from the healthy reputation of chicken. In the 1980s doctors worried that by eating too much beef and pork people were ingesting lots of saturated fat, which was then thought to increase the risk of heart disease. Those fears have since waned, but new evidence suggests that red meat might increase people’s chances of getting colon cancer. In contrast, poultry’s image as a healthy meat survives unscathed.
农民还受益于鸡肉的健康声誉。20世纪80年代，医生担心食太多牛肉和猪肉会摄入大量的饱和脂肪，患心脏病风险加大。此类担忧渐消，但有新证据表明，红肉可能会增加人们患结肠癌的几率。相比之下，鸡肉作为健康肉类的形象却毫发无损。
It is not just fussy Western eaters who increasingly favour chicken. Rising incomes mean that demand for the meat is growing even faster in poorer countries. As a result, chickens are now the world’s most widely traded meat. In economic terms they are, in effect, the opposite of cars. They are produced whole. But their value is maximised once they are broken up.
不仅是挑剔的西方食客越来越喜欢鸡肉。收入增加意味着贫穷国家对肉类的需求增速更快。因此，鸡现在是世界上交易最广泛的肉类。从经济角度来说，它们实际上是汽车的对立面。从经济角度来说，它们实际上是汽车的对立面。生产时是完整的。一旦被拆分，价值就会最大化。
Though Westerners prefer lean, white meat; many in Asia and Africa prefer dark meat, which includes legs and thighs. These preferences are reflected in local prices: in America breasts are 88% more expensive than legs; in Indonesia they are 12% cheaper. Differences in the price of chicken feet are even starker. The thought of eating talons is abhorrent to many Westerners, but they often feature in Cantonese recipes. China now imports 300,000 tonnes of “phoenix claws” every year.
尽管西方人更喜欢瘦肉和白肉；但是亚非的许多人更喜欢深色肉类，包括小腿和大腿。这些偏好反映在当地的价格上：在美国，鸡胸肉比鸡腿贵88%；在印尼便宜12%。鸡爪的价格差异更加明显。很多西方人不喜欢吃鸡爪，但鸡爪经常出现在粤菜菜谱中。中国现在每年进口30万吨“凤爪”。
The fact that different countries specialise in different kinds of production also boosts trade. America and Brazil, the world’s two biggest chicken exporters, are agricultural powerhouses that grow huge amounts of feed, the main cost in poultry production. Thailand and China, in contrast, dominate the processed-meat market which requires cheap, skilled labour. Russia and Ukraine, once net importers of chicken, have become net exporters as their grain industries have grown.
不同国家专门从事不同种类的生产，这一事实也促进了贸易。美国和巴西是世界上最大的两个鸡肉出口国，两国都是农业大国，生产大量饲料，这是家禽生产的主要成本。相比之下，泰国和中国在加工肉类市场占据主导地位，而加工肉类市场需要廉价、熟练的劳动力。俄罗斯和乌克兰曾经是鸡肉的净进口国，但随着粮食工业的发展，已经成为了净出口国。
Producers that sell their meat abroad expose themselves to risks. Chicken has been a flashpoint in trade negotiations. China imposed tariffs on American birds in 2010 and then banned all imports in 2015, shortly after an outbreak of avian flu. Industry observers are pessimistic the ban will be lifted, much to the dismay of American farmers who would love to be paid more for the 20bn chicken feet they produce every year, which currently become animal feed.
出口鸡肉的生产商面临风险。鸡肉一直是贸易谈判的热点。2010年，中国对美国禽鸟征收关税，2015年，禽流感爆发后不久，中国禁止了一切进口。业内观察人士对取消禁令持悲观态度。这令美国农民大为沮丧。农民本希望自己每年生产的200亿鸡爪能获得更高的报酬，而这些鸡肉目前已成为动物饲料。
Similarly, the European Union banned the import of chlorinated American chicken in 1997, owing to concern that a chlorine wash allows lower hygiene standards in farms. Arguments over chlorinated chickens also proved a big stumbling block in negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a now-failed trade deal between America and the EU. Some Britons fear that if they leave the EU any trade deal signed with America would require them to accept imports of such chickens.
同样，欧盟在1997年禁止进口氯化美国鸡肉，因为担心用氯清洗会降低农场的卫生标准。关于氯化鸡的争论也被证明是《跨大西洋贸易与投资伙伴关系协定》谈判中的一大障碍。某些英国人担心脱欧后，与美国签署的任何贸易协议都将要求他们接受此类鸡的进口。
Although the chicken boom has been good for consumers, animal-welfare advocates worry that the meat industry’s costcutting measures have come at the expense of the birds. Vicky Bond of the Humane League, an animal-welfare campaign group, says the size of modern chickens is the cause of the worst problems. Broilers have breast muscles which are too big for their bones to support, leading to lameness. In Colchester the chickens are so unresponsive to humans that they resemble zombies. Indeed, modern chickens have become so big that their muscles prevent them from getting on top of each other to mate (meaning they have to be starved before they are able to consider romance).
尽管养鸡热潮对消费者有利，但是动物福利倡导者担心，肉类行业的成本削减措施是以牺牲禽类为代价的。动物福利运动组织人道联盟的维姬·邦德说，现代鸡的大小是造成最严重问题的原因。肉鸡的胸肌太大，骨头无法支撑，导致跛足。在科尔切斯特，鸡对人毫无反应，就像僵尸一样。事实上，现代鸡已经变得非常大，以至于其肌肉阻止相互交配（这意味着他们想要爱情必先挨饿）。
Partly because of advocacy by animalwelfare charities, and partly because meat has become so affordable, more consumers are now willing to pay for meat raised in better conditions. Sales of free-range and organic chickens, which—unlike most broilers—have access to the outdoors, are surging. In the Netherlands, a recent public outcry over enormous plofkip (which translates as “exploded chicken”) was so intense that retailers switched in droves to breeds that grow more slowly. Plofkip’s share of the Dutch market plummeted from around 60% in 2015 to 5% in 2017. In Britain sales of free-range eggs have overtaken those of caged ones.
部分原因是动物福利慈善机构的倡导，还有部分原因是鸡肉价格很低，如今，越来越多的消费者愿意为在更好条件下饲养的肉类买单。自由放养和有机鸡的销量正在飙升，而与大多数肉鸡不同的是，有机鸡可以在户外饲养。最近，荷兰公众对体型巨大的“plofkip”(意为“爆炸鸡”强烈抗议，使得零售商纷纷转向生长速度较慢的品种。Plofkip在荷兰市场的份额从2015年的60%暴跌至2017年的5%。在英国，土鸡蛋的销量已经超过了笼养鸡蛋。
Concerns about the health of livestock have also led the EU to pass some of the world’s strictest animal-welfare laws. Battery cages for egg-laying hens were banned in 2012, for instance. Legislative reforms have been harder to come by in America, especially at the federal level. Animal-welfare advocates lament the country’s congressional system, which gives disproportionate clout to rural states. Nevertheless, a rare but significant state-level change came last November when Californians voted to pass Proposition 12, which will ban the production and sale of pork, veal and eggs from animals kept in cages, bringing the state’s laws roughly in line with those in the EU. The change affects all meat producers who want to sell in America’s biggest state, putting pressure on them to change their farming practices. Public companies have been more responsive than lawmakers to animal-welfare concerns. Activists have achieved remarkable success in recent years by threatening companies with the release of unflattering images and videos of how their food is produced. Research by the Open Philanthropy Project, a group which funds animal-welfare activists, finds that such campaigns have prompted more than 200 American companies—including Mc- Donald’s, Burger King and Walmart—to stop buying eggs from chicken raised in battery cages since 2015. Farmers are therefore increasingly interested in improving the lives of their birds. Richard Swartzentruber owns two chicken sheds in Greenwood, a small town in Delaware. The company he supplies, Perdue Farms, has stopped using antibiotics altogether. Mr Swartzentruber’s chicken sheds have plenty of windows and doors that open onto a fenced grassy field whenever the weather permits. This comes with trade-offs: chickens might like perching on trees, but so do hawks. Inside the sheds, bales of hay, wooden boxes and plastic platforms are scattered around to entertain his chickens. Such measures have helped him gain a good-farming certificate from the Global Animal Partnership, a charity. Bruce Stewart-Brown, a food-safety scientist at Perdue Farms, says that his company would love to raise more organic chickens. His ability to provide higherwelfare organic meat is ultimately constrained by market forces, since the feed legally required is pricey. Although larger numbers of people might be willing to pay more for organic or free-range products, most still prefer whatever is cheapest. And, despite growing interest in vegetarianism and veganism, surveys find little evidence that many people in the rich world are turning into herbivores. People may like flirting with plant-based diets. But what they really love is chicken.
欧盟担忧牲畜健康,这促使其通过了世界上最严格的动物福利法。例如，2012年禁止对蛋鸡使用多层鸡笼。在美国，尤其是在联邦一级，立法改革已经变得更加困难。动物福利倡导者哀叹美国的国会制度给了农村各州不成比例的权力。然而，去年11月加州通过了第12号提案，这是一个罕见但意义重大的州级改革。该法案将禁止从圈养动物生产和销售猪肉、小牛肉和鸡蛋，使得该州法律与欧盟法律大致一致。这一变化影响到所有想在美国最大州销售的肉类生产商，迫使他们改变养殖方式。与立法者相比，上市公司对动物福利问题的反应更为积极。近年来，维权人士通过发布食品生产过程中的不雅图片和视频威胁企业，取得了显著的成功。为动物福利活动人士提供资金的组织“开放慈善项目”的研究发现，自2015年以来，此类活动已促使包括麦当劳、汉堡王和沃尔玛在内的200多家美国公司停止购买电池笼饲养鸡产的鸡蛋。由此农民对提高家禽的生活条件愈加上心。理查德·斯瓦兹特鲁伯在特拉华州的小镇格林伍德拥有两个鸡舍。他供应的公司珀杜农场已经完全停止使用抗生素。斯瓦兹特鲁伯先生的鸡舍有很多对着用篱笆围起来的草地的窗户和门，只要天气允许，就会开窗开门。这是有代价的:鸡可能喜欢栖息在树上，但鹰也喜欢。鸡舍里，一捆捆的干草、木箱和塑料平台散落在周围，用来喂鸡。这些措施助他获得了慈善机构全球动物伙伴组织颁发的优良农业证书。珀杜农场的食品安全科学家布鲁斯·斯图尔特·布朗说，他的公司很乐意饲养更多的有机鸡。他提供更高福利的有机肉类的能力最终受到市场力量的限制，因为法律规定的饲料价格昂贵。尽管可能愿意为有机产品或散养产品支付更多钱的人越来越多，但大多数人仍然更喜欢最便宜的产品。尽管人们对素食主义和纯素食主义的兴趣日益浓厚，但调查发现，几乎没有证据表明很多发达国家的人正在变成食草动物。人们可能喜欢偶尔吃植物饮食换换口味。但们真正喜欢的还是鸡肉。
来源：经济学人
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