In 1946, the United States Department of Agriculture launched the “Chicken of Tomorrow” contest. The goal of the contest was to produce “one bird chunky enough for the whole family—a chicken with breast meat so thick you can carve it into steaks, with drumsticks that contain a minimum of bone buried in layers of juicy dark meat, all costing less instead of more.” Contestants had a year to breed and submit a chicken that fit this description. 

This contest, thought up by the head of the largest supermarket chain of the time, the A&P, changed the trajectory of American chicken farming. Before the 1940s, chickens were often quite small and scrawny, with little meat on them. The fact that they laid eggs meant that chickens were often worth more alive than on the dining room table. Only when chickens were no longer able to lay eggs would a family eat them – and even then it was usually for a special occasion.