From Backyard to Factory Farm: Chicken Production and Consumption in Paraná, Brazil (1960-1980)

Abstract

Based on a survey of more than 1,500 articles of an influential newspaper of Paraná, “Diário do Paraná”, this article presents an investigation into the history of production and consumption of chicken in the state of Paraná, Brazil, discussing its consequences on the environment and the welfare/rights of these animals. This is an epicenter for the history of the chicken in Brazil and worldwide. The focus of the analysis is the period 1960-1980, paying attention to the political and economic context, in order to give sense of the evolving landscape of the rural environment, the scientific or technical inputs and recommendations, the institutional arrangements and politics, as well as the government agencies involved. In the process, it was analyzed the changes that came out of that period in terms of chicken production and consumption and correlated to more broad transformations of the agricultural development of Brazil during the military governments and its fast urbanization process. During this time, many central features of the contemporary chicken industry became established, and a pattern of chicken consumption took off, even though the welfare of the chicken was rarely mentioned in the newspaper discussions.