KFC

KFC has been a part of our American traditions formany years. Many people, day in and day out, eat atKFC religiously. Do they really know what they areeating? During a recent study of KFC done at theUniversity of New Hampshire, they found some veryupsetting facts. First of all, has anybody noticed that just recently,the company has changed their name? Kentucky FriedChicken has become KFC. Does anybody know why? Wethought the real reason was because of the "FRIED"food issue. It's not. The reason why they call it KFCis because they can not use the word chicken anymore.Why? KFC does not use real chickens. They actually usegenetically manipulated organisms. These so called"chickens" are kept alive by tubes inserted into theirbodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout theirstructure. They have no beaks, no feathers, and nofeet. Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk toget more meat out of them. This is great for KFCbecause they do not have to pay so much for theirproduction costs. There is no more plucking of thefeathers or the removal of the beaks and feet. Thegovernment has told them to change all of their menusso they do not say chicken anywhere. If you lookclosely you will notice this. Listen to theircommercials, I guarantee you will ot see or hear theword chicken. I find this matter to be verydisturbing. I hope people will start to realize thisand let other people know. Please forward this messageto as many people as you can. Together we make KFCstart using real chicken again. Origins: Every fast food chain gets its own urbanlegend these days, from claims of worms in McDonald'shamburgers to roaches in Taco Bell tacos to snakes inBurger King's ball pits, we're determined to demonizecorporate purveyors of cheap, industrial foodproducts. It appears to be KFC's turn in the spotlightagain (their original legend about the fried rathaving become a bit long in the tooth), and they havebecome the proud owners of a legend intended toreflect another modern fear: genetically engineeredfood. Versions of this legend have been circulating forseveral years now, as indicated by the e-mail'sreference to Kentucky Fried Chicken's "recent" namechange, an event that occurred 1991. Earlier versionsof the tale featured six-legged chickens ("How do theytaste?" "Dunno; no one's ever been able to catch one")or birds so plumped by chemicals that their giganticbreasts made it impossible for them to keep theirbalance well enough to walk. It's easy to see why this legend has suddenly madesuch a strong resurgence. Our continual progress inunderstanding and manipulating the genetic codes ofplants and animals has fueled debate over theenvironmental and health concerns raised by thecreation and growth of transgenic food crops (which ischallenged by the National Academy of Sciences in a 14September 2001 article) and the marketing of foodproducts derived from animals that have been givenartificial hormones. Additionally, to those whoalready feel that our killing and eating other animalsis morally wrong, this legend highlights the completedisregard most humans hold for the rights of animalsand the increasingly inhumane conditions under whichfood animals are raised. "The government that'ssupposed to be looking out for our health and safetydoesn't really care about us" theme also makes anappearance here: a private company has supposedlycreated a genetically altered form of an animal thatis raised and eaten by the hundreds of millions everyyear, and all the government has done about thesituation is to require them to stop using the word'chicken' to describe this product? Nothing like the Frankensteinian laboratory scenariodescribed here is taking place, however. Raisingchickens that have been genetically modified so thatthey are born without beaks, feathers, or feet, orwith additional legs is still beyond the reach ofmodern science for the time being (although selectivebreeding has been used to enhance some features, suchas breast size), nor did the University of NewHampshire perform a "study of KFC." As well, theclaims about Kentucky Fried Chicken's name change areeasily belied: Links on KFC's web site (such as the About KFC page)clearly describe its product as "chicken" numeroustimes, something it could hardly get away with if thegovernment were prohibiting the company from usingthat word. And the KFC web site can also be reachedthrough the domain name kentuckyfriedchicke n.com. KFC no more raises its own chickens than McDonald'smaintains vast herds of beef cattle to turn intohamburgers or the International House of Pancakesfarms huge tracts of wheat to use in making pancakes.These companies are in the restaurant business, notthe agricultural or farming business, and they buytheir food products from the same suppliers aseveryone else. None of these chains could possiblyoperate the enormous facilities that would be requiredto supply themselves with all the raw food productsthey needed. KFC sells the equivalent of 736 millionchickens annually. It would have to own somemonstrously huge "chicken farms" in order to supplyitself with well over half a billion chickens everyyear. (As well, KFC is but one component of Yum!Brands, a corporation that also includes the Taco Belland Pizza Hut chains of restaurants. All of theseoutlets serve chicken and obtain their suppliesthrough the same sources, which would require Yum!Brands to operate an even more massively huge seriesof "mutant chicken" farms to keep its restaurantsfully supplied.)Kentucky Fried Chicken decided to change its name toKFC in 1991 for several reasons, none of which hadanything to do with governmental regulations aboutmutant animals: A move to de-emphasize "chicken" because KFC plannedto offer a varied menu that included other types offood. (The Boston Chicken corporation took the sameapproach for the same reason, changing their name ofits retail food outlets to Boston Market.) A desire to eliminate the word "fried," which hasnegative connotations to the increasinglyhealth-conscious consumer market. A recent trend towards the abbreviation of longcommercial titles, as demonstrated by other companies'employing shortened forms of their names, such as TheInternational House of Pancakes (IHOP) and HowardJohnson's (HoJo).How concerned we should be about geneticallyengineered food products is one thing, but no amountof concern or protest is going to "make KFC startusing real chicken again" — "real chicken" is whatthey've been using all along.