Big Chicken, Maryn McKenna
Big Chicken, Maryn McKenna
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Big Chicken
The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats

Author: Maryn McKenna

Narrator: Xe Sands

Unabridged: 8 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/16/2018


Synopsis

In this eye-opening exposé, acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity—and human health threat—uncovering the ways we can make America's favorite meat safer again.

What you eat matters—for your health, for the environment, and for future generations. In this riveting investigative narrative, McKenna dives deep into the world of modern agriculture by way of chicken: from the farm where it's raised directly to your dinner table. Consumed more than any other meat in the United States, chicken is emblematic of today's mass food-processing practices and their profound influence on our lives and health. Tracing its meteoric rise from scarce treat to ubiquitous global commodity, McKenna reveals the astounding role of antibiotics in industrial farming, documenting how and why "wonder drugs" revolutionized the way the world eats—and not necessarily for the better. Rich with scientific, historical, and cultural insights, this spellbinding cautionary tale shines a light on one of America's favorite foods—and shows us the way to safer, healthier eating for ourselves and our children.

About Maryn McKenna

Award-winning journalist Maryn McKenna is the author of the critically acclaimed books Superbug and Beating Back the Devil. She writes for Wired, National Geographic, Scientific American, Slate, Nature, the Atlantic, the Guardian, National Geographic magazine's online science salon Phenomena, and others, and is a senior fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.


Reviews

At this moment, most meat animals, across most of the planet, are raised with the assistance of doses of antibiotics on most days or their lives: 63,151 tons of antibiotics per year, about 126 million pounds. Farmers began using the drugs because antibiotics allowed animals to convert feed to tasty......more

Goodreads review by Aadisht

What a fascinating book. It starts with the history of chicken farming and moves on to how industrial farming of chicken (and other livestock also, but especially chicken) has been a much bigger contributor to antibiotic resistance than human medical use. Quick takeaways: 1. I think this is best read......more

Goodreads review by Jeremy

Fascinating, diving deep into the history of industrial chicken farming, and ranging widely over the state of the art and the cutting edge of antibiotic free intensive poultry raising. It was certainly scary and weird in places, but I was surprised at the hopeful note it ended on.......more