chicken and a hungry metropolis.

vanny and i were considering which chicken dish we'll be ordering; we were in that fast food that sells chicken dishes so it's not like we have any other option other than chicken.

we were talking about food, food and a huge city, and how food gets delivered to everyone in city the size of metro manila.

take an average chicken. it's probably enough for three meal servings for an average man. say a chicken could be prepared to produce three meals for a man in one day. say we'll have a day where everyone eats nothing but chicken dishes. say that happens in a metropolis like metro manila.

now, metro manila has a daytime population of around 11 million (2007 estimate). in a day when everyone in metro manila will eat nothing but chicken dishes the entire day, the metropolis will consume 11 million chicken. that's 11 million eggs hatching into 11 million chicks, grown for a certain number of weeks to be slaughtered and cooked to be consumed in one day.

say the average chicken has about a kilogram of chicken meat (minus the bones, innards and feathers). that's 11 million kilograms of chicken meat consumed in one day. and speaking of bones, innards and feathers, where do the non-edible parts go? say, 0.3 kilo from an average chicken is non edible and will end up as waste, we are left with 3.67 million kilograms of waste in one day that needs to be disposed.

and then consider how 11+ million kilograms of chicken is transported around the metropolis. think how many people will be raising, moving, handling and preparing all that chicken in one day. and that's just chicken, what about the grains, fruits, vegetables and spices that go with a meal?

vanny often teases me for my recent obsession with food (other than the actual eating, that is; i've never had much problems eating food). it started with a recent interest in food writing which made me realize how much you could think about and write about food: how food affects us, how we prepare food, how we regard food and all sorts of really interesting stuff.

but then it shouldn't be surprising at all, when you think about it.

last night i found leftover tinola when i got home. as i was chewing the chicken meat, i thought of the one chicken in 11 million that was slaughtered so i could eat. i think i have a better understanding now why some people choose to be vegetarian.