Nobody Here But Us Chickens

There is no doubt in this blogger’s mind that human activity has altered life as we know it on this planet.  Consider the following:  The introduction of agriculture which led to population growth.  The industrial revolution and the expansion of commerce.  Deforestation and the taming of the wilderness.  Plastics are showing-up everywhere.  Humans have left a mighty big footprint on planet earth. 

Anthropology - the study and impact of humans and their impact on ethnology, culture and environment.   It is said that we are likely experiencing the beginning of a new geologic epoch - the Anthropocene.  Not to be confused with the preceding epoch – the Late Holocene.  The Anthropocene would be the Age of the Human.

And wouldn't you know it - the broiler chicken figures significantly in this emerging epoch.  That is correct - the chicken phenomenon.  Nowadays, chickens are poised to overtake pigs as the largest contributor to our food pyramid.  This is an amazing accomplishment as archaeologists have concluded that it was roughly 2000 years ago that chicken began to be consumed in any significant numbers.   A couple of thousand years seems like a long time ago - yet it is barely the blink of an eye in geological time. 

There is science on this subject that is deserving of attention.  From the other side of the Big Pond researchers have studied the enormous impact that the chicken is having on that Human Footprint.   You see – humans – by means of breeding, diet and agricultural advances have doubled the size of this bird from the late medieval period to the present.  This includes a fivefold increase in body mass since the mid-twentieth century. 

According to the National Chicken Council on any given day there are about 23 billion chickens (give or take) strutting their stuff.  The chicken constitutes the single largest species of bird on the planet.  Astonishingly, 65 billion chickens are consumed each year – which explains who came first – the chicken or the pig.  The net result of all of that chicken carnage is a boatload of discarded chicken bones that have to be dealt-with year-in and year-out.  And while bird bones don’t fossilize well a bazillion chicken carcasses buried in countless landfills are going to be anaerobically-preserved for eons.  Imagine their discovery by alien archaeologists visiting during some future geological epoch. 

You have to wonder what they’ll conclude about a civilization that buried so many chickens.  Perhaps we won’t be remembered for the human footprint after all.  Just as earlier epochs are fondly remembered as the age of the dinosaurs it is entirely possible that the Anthropocene will be remembered as the age of the chicken...