Remarks
Why Chicken Is Plentiful During the Pandemic and Beef Is Not
Poultry production has long been the most industrialized of U.S. agricultural operations.
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Beef and pork have been pricey and, at times, scarce in the U.S. this spring amid outbreaks of the coronavirus at slaughterhouses around the country. Chicken has remained widely available and cheap. Why the difference?
One reason is that most slaughtering of chickens, unlike that of cattle and hogs, is automated. Deboning and cutting chicken into pieces is often done by hand, which is why there have been some shortages of boneless chicken. But machines are now available to do that work, too, and processors will surely buy more of them in the coming years.