(2 of 2)
More Beef. Exports accounted for less than 4% of U.S. chicken sales last year, but the slightest cutback causes trouble because domestic markets are already glutted. In the past decade, as U.S. chicken production more than doubled, prices have fallen from 280 per Ib. to 140. Even so, mass production methods enable the big growers to make a profit at as low as 130 per Ib. The growers now hope to increase sales in Japan and Africa—and also see room for expansion at home. Chicken-eating in the U.S. has increased tenfold since 1940 but growers point out that Americans eat only 30 Ibs. a year on the average v. 89 Ibs. of beef.