Raising a Better Bird

Blue Apron founder Matt Wadiak has moved onto greener pastures, where happy chickens roam free.

- Monica Michael Willis

ROASTED, GRILLED, PRESSED INTO nuggets—Americans sure do love chicken. Last year, we devoured almost 100 pounds of the protein, per capita, nearly double the amount of beef or pork that each of us, on average, consumed. And the vast majority of our poultry, even the organic free-range kind, comes from a handful of breeds designed to fatten up quick and yield mostly white meat—“efficient feed-conversion” in industry speak. Matt Wadiak calls it “inhumane.”

These freakishly fast-growing birds don’t have immune systems robust enough to stay healthy in overcrowded chicken houses. The result? A bland, antibiotic laced product born of cruelty. “Those chicks suffer from the minute they hatch,” Wadiak says. “As thoughtful consumers, we need to consider that.”