Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of harvesting useful animal products such as meat, eggs or feathers, and the practice of raising poultry is known as poultry farming. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes. The term also includes waterfowls of the family Anatidae and other flying birds that are kept and killed for their meat such as the young pigeons, but does not include wild birds hunted for food known as game or quarry.
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation is an American, multi-national food company, currently one of the largest chicken producers in the United States and Puerto Rico and the second-largest chicken producer in Mexico. It exited bankruptcy in December 2009 and relocated its U.S. headquarters to Greeley, Colorado, in 2011. It is majority-owned by JBS S.A. Pilgrim's Pride purchased Gold'n Plump for $350 million in late November 2016.
Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second-largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after JBS S.A. It annually exports the largest percentage of beef out of the United States. Together with its subsidiaries, it operates major food brands, including Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright Brand, Aidells, and State Fair. Tyson Foods ranked No. 79 in the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Inghams Enterprises, commonly known as Inghams, is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and is a supplier/producer of poultry and fodder across Australia and New Zealand. The company claims to be one of the largest producers of chicken and turkey products in Australia and employs in excess of 8,000 people in more than 100 locations in Australia and New Zealand. The company was founded in 1918 and was managed by members of the Ingham family from its establishment until 2014, including Walter Ingham and his two sons, Jack Ingham and Bob Ingham. TPG Capital acquired Inghams in 2014 for A$880 million. Inghams was listed on the ASX in November 2016.
Faccenda Foods Limited is a privately owned UK business established in 1962 by Robin Faccenda, which supplies fresh poultry products.
Foster Farms is an American poultry company. The company has been privately owned since 1939. It was operated by the Foster family since 1939 until recently, now operated and owned by Atlas Holdings, after their purchase of the company in 2022. The company is based in Livingston, California, with operations throughout the West Coast and a few on the East Coast. The company specializes in a variety of chicken and turkey products advertised as fresh and naturally locally grown.
Intensive animal farming, industrial livestock production, and macro-farms, also known by opponents as factory farming, is a type of intensive agriculture, specifically an approach to animal husbandry designed to maximize production, while minimizing costs. To achieve this, agribusinesses keep livestock such as cattle, poultry, and fish at high stocking densities, at large scale, and using modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. The main products of this industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption. There are issues regarding whether intensive animal farming is sustainable in the social long-run given its costs in resources. Analysts also raise issues about its ethics.
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chickens are killed for consumption annually. Chickens raised for eggs are known as layers, while chickens raised for meat are called broilers.
JBS S.A. is a Brazilian company that is the largest meat processing enterprise in the world, producing factory processed beef, chicken and pork, and also selling by-products from the processing of these meats. It is headquartered in São Paulo. It was founded in 1953 in Anápolis, Goiás.
Cranswick plc is a leading UK food producer and supplier of premium, fresh and added-value food products. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Poultry farming is a part of the United States's agricultural economy.
2 Sisters Food Group, a subsidiary of Boparan Holdings Ltd, is a privately owned food manufacturing company with head offices in Birmingham, England primarily focusing on private label manufacturing for retailer and food service markets. Established in 1993 by entrepreneur Ranjit Singh Boparan as a frozen retail poultry cutting operation, the company now covers 20 sites in the UK, six in the Netherlands, one in Ireland and one in Poland. It is the largest food company in the UK by turnover. The group employs 18,000 people, with annual sales of £3billion. It is listed 9th on the 2017 Sunday Times Top Track 100.
Assured Food Standards is a United Kingdom company which licenses the Red Tractor quality mark, a farm assurance programme for food products, animal feed and fertiliser. The scheme is subject to frequent media scrutiny because of the systematic and routine animal abuse that happens at Red Tractor assured farms and is permitted under Red Tractor standards.
OSI Group is an American privately owned holding company of meat processors that service the retail and food service industries with international headquarters in Aurora, Illinois. It operates over 65 facilities in 17 countries. Sheldon Lavin was the owner, CEO and chairman until his death in May, 2023.
The broiler industry is the process by which broiler chickens are reared and prepared for meat consumption. Worldwide, in 2005 production was 71,851,000 tonnes. From 1985 to 2005, the broiler industry grew by 158%.
Poultry farming in Bangladesh is the process of keeping various types of birds for meat, egg, feather, or sale. In Bangladesh, poultry birds are primarily used for meat and egg consumption.
The Operation Carne Fraca is an operation started on March 17, 2017, and enforced by the Federal Police of Brazil, that country's federal police force, which investigated some of the country's largest meat processing companies. The name is a pun between the operation's concern with meat and the Bible verse about "weak flesh" – as a result, it is sometimes translated "Operation Weak Flesh".
Farm Forward is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to promote conscientious eating, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture. Farm Forward aims to eliminate the most harmful practices in intensive animal agriculture, increase the market share of humane and sustainable animal agriculture, and raise awareness about the cultural significance of animal agriculture.
The meat industry has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Outbreaks of the virus have taken place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected dozens of plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posed a significant threat to the meat supply in the United States. By April 27, 2020, there were at least 115 facilities with cases across 23 states, and at least 4,913 workers diagnosed positive with COVID-19, or approximately 3 percent of the workforce, with 20 deaths reported.
