Every week, 115 million chickens are slaughtered to feed the U.S. appetite for cordon bleu, McNuggets and everything in between, according to the National Broiler Council, a poultry industry group. Driven largely by a demand for lower-cholesterol, lower-fat meat, poultry consumption has grown to 73 pounds a year per person, up from 49.7 pounds a decade ago, said Bill Roenigk, vice president for the Washington-based council. Beef consumption has fallen during the same period from 76.4 pounds per person to a projected 67.4 pounds this year. The top 10 broiler chicken producing states, in order, are Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Delaware, Maryland, California and Virginia. About 25,000 farmers raise the chickens, nearly all under contracts with processing companies. Tyson Foods is by far the largest processor, handling 75 million of the 400 million pounds processed weekly, the broiler council said. The next largest are ConAgra, 30 million pounds; Gold Kist, 25 million; Perdue, 25 million; and Pilgrim's Pride, 15 million. Cargill ranks 21st at 4.5 million pounds per week.
