Bird is the word. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town.

In 1925, there were more than six million farms in the United States,

triple what we have now. They were local, small properties with a mix of crops and animals,

and almost always chickens. For most of the farms, the point of having chickens were the eggs.

Chickens were rarely sold for meat, only when they were male or unable to produce eggs,

think kind of like an old McDonald's farm, like that old archetype of what a farm is in

children's books and whatever. Farmers chose the breed they raised based on what type work best

for whatever climate they were farming in, or because they liked some award-winning bird at a

state fair. But in a matter of five years, that would all change. Based not on mass farming or

hormones, don't worry, that'll come later. But by what was essentially a beauty pageant for chickens,

the chicken of tomorrow contest. Changes were already happening for chicken farmers before World War

II. In 1923, the electrically heated incubator was invented, so farmers could hatch eggs at insane

rates, outsourcing the incubation process, so the chicken was freed up to make lots more eggs.

Still, breeds were selected to be sturdy, not for anyone's eating pleasure. Before World War II,

chicken wasn't eaten as much as we might eat it today, it was reserved for special occasions,

but after the war, people wanted to indulge. Howard C. Pierce, the poultry research director for

A&P supermarket chain, saw this post-war celebration boom, let's say as a way to make some money.

In 1944, Pierce went to a poultry convention in Canada and said that someone needed to develop

some kind of giant, large-breasted, super chicken, something more like a turkey. By next summer,

his wish was granted. With sponsorship from Pierce and the A&P supermarket chain,

A&P was truly like the Walmart of its time. The USDA organized the chicken of tomorrow contest,

and every major poultry distributor was very into it. The contest was aimed at breeding a better chicken

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