Chicken is the most highly consumed meat in the United States, yet a majority are reared on intensive farms where they are treated as a product rather than an animal. They receive little attention from farm animal welfare legislation, and none on the federal level. In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for transparency in food products, both for ethical and health reasons. However, the current point-of-purchase for poultry meat in grocery stores and seemingly meaningless certifications on packaging fails to provide relevant information to consumers about the questionable methods that are used by some producers for chicken rearing, which leads to ethically-uninformed decisions by the consumers. These uninformed decisions contribute to the unethical poultry production practices by the manufacturers.

Know Your Chicken explores what a more welfare-centered shopping experience would look like starting first at Whole Foods. Branding is set back to allow animal welfare grades to grab the attention of shoppers first. In time with increased exposure, these standards can become important decision-making criteria for poultry consumers. A centralized set of certifications informs the consumer about the type of environment their chicken was raised in, and they have the ability to learn more about each farm if they choose. My goal is to shift how meat is shopped for, build a stronger knowledge base for poultry consumers to become activists, debrand meat sold at retailers, and collectively shift our perception to see meat as an animal before a product.