7 Horrifying Things About the Chicken You Eat

By Martha Rosenberg

October 16, 2013  |  Could there be anything worse for the chicken industry than this month's outbreak of an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella that hospitalized 42 percent of everyone who got it—almost 300 in 18 states [3]?

Yes. The government also announced that China has been cleared to process chickens [4] for the US dinner plate and that all but one of arsenic  [5]compounds no one even knew they were eatinghave been removed from US poultry production. Thanks for that. Also this month, some food researchers have revealed the true recipe for chicken "nuggets" [6]…just in time for Halloween.

Many people have decided to eat only chicken to avoid the health, environmental, worker and humane questions surrounding red meat. Yet the track record of US chicken in these areas is no better than red meat—and may be worse.