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March 1, 2014
Flock Star:
With Americans eating 8 billion chickens annually, the feather supply is endless. Unlike geese, chickens don’t produce the type of down needed to manufacture products for human warmth. The poultry industry produces around six billion tons of feathers annually, typically discarded as useless, plucked by machines in massive processing plants and hauled to landfills where, due to their composition, they are unable to decompose. But recently, things have taken a turn for the unglamorous by-product: they’re showing up in everything from art projects to running shoes to car manufacturing.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at March 1, 2014 2:33 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
I'm math-challenged. How many art projects would it take to use up six billion tons of chicken feathers (assume short tons)?
Posted by: BillH at March 1, 2014 2:56 PM
The only fowl answer I have is: to get to the other side. All the rest are as scarce as hen's teeth.
OK, Bill, lemme do the math: um, times 2000, add roosters, divide by ... OK, got it. Answer: one chicken in each and every pot. Find out how many pots we have and presto, done.
Posted by: chasmatic at March 1, 2014 3:28 PM
Wait a minute, chasmatic. What's the connection between artists and pot? I don't get it.
Posted by: Daniel K Day at March 1, 2014 6:11 PM
Well, we can assume that most artists don't have a pot to piss in, and they never ever call the kettle black. Factor in the fifteen minutes of fame guaranteed us by the constitution and there ya have it. Bob's yer uncle. That's um, lemme see, times four per hour, carry the lidless pots, start with the six billion tons, (Imperial I assume) leaves twenty tons of feathers for every man woman and child in our country.
Posted by: chasmatic at March 1, 2014 10:21 PM
Sheesh. This ended up like a climate science model building workshop.
Posted by: BillH at March 2, 2014 6:52 AM
Gerard: You read Modern Farmer and you missed this article:
"The Bizarre and Fascinating Nature of Duck Sex"
By Sam Brasch on February 27, 2014
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/02/fascinating-nature-duck-sex/
Posted by: Fat Man at March 2, 2014 11:34 AM
Oh I saw it all right. It is just that I, as opposed to you Fat Man, have some shred of decency and restraint left.
Posted by: vanderleun at March 2, 2014 1:23 PM
Aw, c'mon BillH. You asked the question at the start of this thread. We're here to help.
One art project that would use up the whole twenty ton allotment would be a life-size model of the Eiffel Tower, Elmer's Glue being the tie that binds. You could feather a lot of nests, too.
For the politically minded, combining the feathers with approximately one hundred and seventy nine barrels of tar would just about take care of both houses of Congress and the Executive Office sycophants.
Posted by: chasmayic at March 2, 2014 2:22 PM
You would still need about 40 million rails for the sycophants alone.
Posted by: Denny at March 2, 2014 2:55 PM
Too bad Cristo isn't around anymore. I'm sure he could come up with several art projects in public places that make use of all those feathers. Instead of building a life-size model of the Eiffel Tower out of feathers, maybe he would glue them onto the real Eiffel Tower, or maybe those skyscrapers in Dubai.
I've been told that feathers can be composted, though I have not done so myself.
Posted by: Grizzly at March 2, 2014 8:29 PM
Brings to mind the Smothers Brothers routine My Old Man. My old man's a greasy-fingered chicken-plucker, whattaya think about that?
Posted by: Mark Alger at March 3, 2014 7:34 AM