How What You Eat on Super Bowl Sunday Says a Lot About the Economy and our Food Policies

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I have a friend who wont eat chicken wings, because he is un-American, and because he says it disgusts him to think that when he chows down on 20 wings, 10 tiny chickens have died just to have their wings ripped off. When you put it that way, wings are pretty disgusting, so I try not to have him around at sporting events, so that I can think of wings as little spicy bits of heaven that are totally divorced from any actual living creature. Sadly, that's going to be a little harder this year. On Super Bowl Sunday, the United States consumes 1 billion chicken wings. That's right, 1 billion, which is, according to this article, a mere 5 percent of the total amount of wings eaten each year. Which means a half billion chickens will be forcibly removed from their appendages.But this year, there might be some problems with getting your wing fix. Pilgrims Pride, a food processor that accounts for 25 percent of all the chicken in the United States, has declared bankruptcy, citing high costs for feed and gas. Many other chicken processors have cut back production for the same reason. The result, chicken wing prices are soaring, putting them out of reach for many establishments, just in time for the big game.So, as you munch on whatever fare is available, take a moment from pondering how in God's name the Arizona Cardinals continue their inexplicable run into the postseason despite losing 44-7 to the Patriots the second to last game of the season, and think instead about how everything is interconnected. The bad economy, our system of factory farms churning out chicken parts, our mass amusements, our disgusting national eating habits, your couch-everything is built-up in a sort of Jenga-like tower that can easily come crashing down. This can be scary, but it also means that through committed action, people might actually be able to change our national agricultural system into something a little less disgustingly fixated on chicken parts. Even though they are so delicious.Via Deadspin; Image Credit.