Summary
We're a planet addicted to chicken and our appetites fuel a massive global industry, but is it one we should support?
While some cite it as a shining example of a super-efficient food production system, one that could help drive food security around the world, others say it is a cruel, destructive and outdated structure that makes a few people richer while exploiting others – along with animals and the environment.
In Brazil, one of the world’s biggest chicken and soya producers, our reporter Leonardo Milano hears accusations of threats and pollution relating to the feed sector; while in Africa, Dr Chris van Tulleken learns about poultry-farming initiatives helping to make struggling nations more food-secure.
There are also other challenges that the industry is wrestling with: from antimicrobial resistance to the threat of another major global pandemic - bird flu. So is there a ‘big business bad guy’ to blame – or does responsibility lie closer to home, with unquestioning consumers like Chris?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I want to talk about ignorance. I will die without having read everything that was written in classical Latin. |
| 0:11.6 | Because ignorance isn't simply the opposite of |
| 0:14.0 | knowledge. It's part of what it means to be human. Just about every game I can |
| 0:19.4 | think of involves ignorance. There's no adventure without ignorance. There's no there's no narrative. |
| 0:25.0 | The long history of ignorance from Confucius to Kianon |
| 0:29.0 | with me Rory Stewart, |
| 0:31.0 | listen on BBC sounds. We hear the bird's sounds. We can feel the breeze, feel the freshness of the forest. |
| 0:46.0 | We can feed ourselves from the forest, from what it produces, from hunting, from birds. |
| 0:56.0 | Welcome to Brazil. My name is Jezenyudu. |
| 1:00.0 | I am chief of the Mundruku in Para municipality of Centarene. |
| 1:05.0 | The Parra region is home to indigenous tribes and also big agribusiness. |
| 1:11.0 | Agribusiness. business. |
| 1:14.5 | Agribus for us doesn't bring the wealth and development that is so often reported by the big media. |
| 1:20.4 | It only brings destruction, only misery. |
| 1:25.0 | For us, the forest and the land are something mystical. |
| 1:28.0 | For them, the land is only valuable if it can produce what they want. |
| 1:35.0 | This is Fed, with me, Chris Van Telicon. |
| 1:40.0 | I'm investigating why we eat the food we eat and at what cost. |
| 1:45.0 | I'm telling the story of our complicated relationship with a bird, a bird that illustrates |
| 1:49.6 | our approach to food perhaps better than anything else, a bird whose influence has |
| 1:54.2 | spread around the world, from your local supermarket to the Amazon rainforest. |
| 1:59.6 | This is Series 1, Planet Chicken. |
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