Modern fast-growing broiler breeds are at the center of one of the most significant welfare controversies in contemporary animal agriculture.
The genetics of commercial broiler chickens is arguably the most fundamental welfare problem in animal agriculture — more impactful than housing system, enrichment, or management, because the welfare problem is built into the animal itself. A fast-growing broiler chicken may spend the last weeks of its life unable to walk without pain, sitting in its own waste, struggling to breathe due to cardiac stress. These are not accidents of bad management but predictable outcomes of breeding selection that prioritized growth rate over functional health. Transitioning to slower-growing breeds is the most impactful single welfare improvement available to the broiler industry, and the Better Chicken Commitment represents an important but still incomplete step in that direction.