Take a bird's-eye view

Much of the chicken available now is tasteless, with the texture of well-used lorry tires. Blame industrialised farming. But it’s hardly the only way to eat today

- VIR SANGHVI

If you are a foodie, you probably know the answers to these two questions, but let me ask them anyway.

What is the most flavourless non-vegetarian item available in India today? What is the bestselling non-vegetarian item available in India today?

Both questions have the same answer: Chicken.

I should also add eggs, which outsell chicken by a huge margin, and are usually pretty flavour-free if you buy the regular variety at grocery shops.

To take the second answer first: Most people are not aware just how much chicken dominates the non-vegetarian market in India. We consume up to five million metric tonnes of chicken every year.

This is far more than our consumption of goat/lamb or pork or beef/buffalo. It is even more than our consumption of all seafood put together.

And the numbers are growing. Chicken consumption is increasing by around 10% every year. Egg consumption is also growing though at a slightly lower rate. (Agriculture, on the other hand, is growing at only 1.5%.)

What accounts for this rise?

Simple: It's the industrialisation of hens.

There was a time when chickens were raised by farmers. That practice does continue, but the bulk of the rise in chicken production comes from the growth of industrial chicken, or birds that are bred in huge numbers in industrial facilities.

There has been a global backlash against the techniques used in the industrial production of chickens, so I won't go over that ground again. Suffice it to say that when the Indian chicken industry was accused of using antibiotics as part of the rearing process, one defence was: Of course not, antibiotics are more expensive than the cost of our chickens.