Chicken

How did the wild red jungle fowl become the modern-day chicken? Why did our human ancestors choose to domesticate this odd bird? When and where did it first happen? And what does any of this have to do with a chili pepper? Scientists are teaming up to answer these questions, with big hopes for impact on the future.

Livestock and cities don’t often go together. Derided as causing diseases, or car accidents, there are often rules against keeping them in urban areas. But there’s a movement to allow urban farming and it’s changing lives in one African city in Kenya.

In the crowded slums of sub-Saharan Africa, some residents are raising livestock. By farming chickens, rabbits, and goats, these urban farmers feed their families and can make a good income.

In the United States, the average American consumes an average 90 pounds of chicken each year. Millions of chickens are raised and slaughtered every few weeks. Most of them are caged for all of their short lives in giant hen houses and then killed on assembly lines. But a small but growing number of farmers […]