Week 4-Dani Reed

       The word that stood out to me that Safran Foer defines in chapter three was KFC. Foer provided a visual of how many chickens KFC buys a year by telling us that the amount would cover Manhattan from river to river. This was very disturbing and problematic in my eyes. KFC also says that they commit to humane treatment of their chickens yet the workers in their slaughterhouse tears off live birds heads, spits tobacco in their eyes, stomps on them, and spray paints their faces. Knowing this made me queasy because I eat KFC chicken at home. They say they monitor their suppliers but another thing Foer tells us is that these are announced audits. Obviously the workers will not behave terribly to the chickens when they know people are coming to overlook them. Then you have the fact that five board members quit because KFC would not create standards for the treatment of the chickens they were purchasing and these members got frustrated. One former board member said that they would always say they would create standards “later.” To replace these five members, KFC hired a director from Tyson Foods who mistreats their birds. They also hired a director from one of their slaughterhouses and then other employees already working at KFC. This clearly shows that KFC is not wanting to change and not planning on it either. This made me very uneasy about eating there now that I know all of these facts. It also makes me wonder what other places are like this. Foer definitely showed me that research is important before you choose to eat at a place like KFC.