Chicken Farms Being Choked By Economy

The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday that some chicken farms are becoming collateral damage caused by the financial shakiness of the second largest poultry processor in the country, Pilgrim's Pride.

If this poultry predicament involved ducks or quail or Cornish hens, it wouldn't bother me, but it concerns chickens.

And I love chicken.

But I love chicken, not in some weird, fetish kind of way. That would just be sick. No, I'm talking about the how-can-we-prepare-and-subsequently-devour-this-bird kind of love.

I'm in some ways like Bubba from the movie Forrest Gump who was obsessed with shrimp. Actually, obsessed has a bit of a negative connotation. Let's say Bubba was focused.

While I may not go around reciting all the dishes you can make with chicken -- like Bubba did with shrimp -- it is definitely one of my favorite food groups.

And now these financially careless mother-cluckers at Pilgrim's Pride are potentially affecting my source of poultry protein. Thankfully Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms -- the first and third largest chicken processors in the country -- appear to be financially solvent.

The story as reported in the Journal is that Pilgrim's Pride lost almost $1 billion last year and as a cost cutting measure they canceled the contracts with 300 of their 5000 chicken suppliers. That strategy apparently didn't help much since the firm still filed for bankruptcy protection in December.

The term "suppliers" is a very impersonal description of the people involved in this debacle. In actuality, many of them are small-time farmers who made huge investments in commercial chicken coops based on contracts they had with Pilgrim's Pride. They have massive mortgage payments for facilities with no revenue coming in. I feel sorry for them.

Growing up, we had a commercial chicken house across the road from us. The farmer was an egg producer rather than a meat supplier like the farmers cut loose by Pilgrim's Pride.

The smell is what I remember most about living across from a commercial chicken operation. Our neighbor would occasionally fertilize his fields with excess chicken excrement and since we lived downwind… well, let's just say it could get mighty fragrant.

But even though the smell was pretty nasty, it apparently never affected my appetite because I loved chicken then and to this day.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't want any beef or pork producer complaining that I don't give their meat a fair shake.

I am an equal opportunity carnivore, who just happens to be partial to a fine feathered foul baked into a golden goodness.

Or coated with breading and deep-fried. Or cut into strips and tossed with chipotle sauce. Or formed into round, nugget-like objects which you can easily eat in your car. Or combined with shrimp and served up as a tasty gumbo.

Heck, I could go on forever with the various ways you can devour a chicken.

As far as I'm concerned you just can't beat that meat.