There is an expression, what does that taste like? chicken and everyone seems to know what chicken tastes like. Why is that and why did the chicken of all animals be found in all countries of the world? The book Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? by Andrew Lawler published by Atria Books, NY, 2014 tries to answer the question and the chicken turns out to be an interesting bird. The next time the reader goes to the Fall Fair, looking at the chickens will be more than a quick in and out. The chicken has its roots in South East Asia and is known as the Red Jungle Fowl. The characteristics of the chicken soon made in valuable and revered throughout the world. If you are sick – eating chicken soup is good for you, all around the world everyone knows this and it works. The rest of the chicken is used for other aliments too. In addition, because the chicken scratches the ground looking to eat bugs, it is desired around the world. The male is the rooster and it crows in the morning as the sunrises – it sees the light before the other animals this makes the rooster needed for religious ceremonies around the world. The chicken also lays eggs at a faster rate than other birds which makes it a food source and very desirous for health research. It turns out the chicken is more valuable than at first glance. The book tells many different stories about people around the world for centuries and their relationship to the chicken.

In many of those stories, women have a lead role – food, medicine, collecting the eggs. It was not until the 1950’s when a committee called the Chicken of Tomorrow decided to breed the chicken to look more like a turkey in the sense of broader and thicker breast and meatier thighs and drumsticks. The crossing of California Cornish males and New Hampshire females gave this bird the correct amount of European and Asian genes made the chicken about 4 pounds or twice the size of the average bird. With advances in science, nutrition, breeding it was soon able to grow a bird in half the normal time which allowed prices to fall. The falling prices plus advertising and linkages to the post world lifestyle and soon more people were choosing to eat chicken. At this time the chicken producers John Tyson Farms, Frank Perdue and others entered and changed the chicken business.