The Industrialized Chicken Listening Fluency #73

Chicken. Have you eaten it recently? Some people love it, myself included. I like
eating it fried, grilled, BBQed, or even roasted straight out of the rotisserie oven. It
tastes good and its pretty cheap, too, as far as meats go. And most people would
agree that its delicious, but have you ever thought about how it could be so cheap?
Well, just like the shoes you are wearing or the computer you are using, it was
mass produced.
You see, for thousands of years, if you wanted to eat a chicken, you raised it, fed it,
protected it, collected its eggs, and then killed it, de-feathered it, cleaned it, cooked
it, and then ate it. And although there are still people who live this way, many of us
get our chicken from the supermarket or local grocery store. It is already cut and
packaged neatly and ready to cook. Millions of chickens are killed each day around
the world for us to so conveniently have their meat on our tables whenever we
want. And in order to do that, we have to rely on an elaborate system of production
and distribution. And this is the result of a process called industrialization, that has
changed the way we live and work in many ways.
Back in the late 1880s in England, large factories were built in order to more
cheaply produce goods in greater quantities. This provided jobs for many people,
so they gave up farming and moved to the city. And those jobs became more and
more specialized as factories became larger. For example, before industrialization,
one person raised a chicken, killed it, cleaned it, and sold it. But with
industrialization, now many people are involved with the same process, yet each
person has a smaller task. One person raises the chicken, another person kills it,
another one de-feathers it, another one cuts it, another one packages it, another one
ships it, another one sells it, and so on. This is called division of labor. And
gradually, machines are beginning to replace people in some of those steps in the
factory production process.
But here is the interesting thing about it: that same factory model of production
didnt just remain in the production of goods, but it has also been applied in many
of the most important service institutions in our societies: health care, public
schooling, government, agriculture, and so on. For me, this raises some important
concerns. What does the factory model do to the quality of goods and services?
How does it affect our quality of life? And how does it affect the way humans
relate to each other and the natural environment?
Expressions and Vocabulary
As far as ______ go This is the same as as far as _____ is concerned. We use
this expression to remind the listener that we want to limit our comparison or
judgement within the category of ______. In the example in the listening, we say
that chicken is cheap, only when we compare it to other meats. It is not to be
compared with anything outside the category of meat.
de-feathered to take the feathers off of a bird. The prefix de- gives the verb the
opposite meaning. To feather would mean to apply feathers; to de-feather would
mean to take the feathers off. We see this in other verbs, such as de-ice, defrost,
destruct, etc. Sometimes it is used without a dash.