Coming to a dinner plate near you…

Last night, Michael Pollan told the crowd at P.S. 1 about the “featherless chicken.”

“It’s an abomination,” he said.  He did not exaggerate.  I apologize in advance if you have trouble sleeping tonight (or eating chicken.)

The diabolical creation is from a factory food company based in Tel Aviv.  Feathers, you see, just get in the way of profits.  This is just the latest development in an industrial system that has zapped the modern chicken of its very chicken-ness, not to mention flavor.  (See this 2000 editorial by Robert Kennedy or this 2007 article about one of my ethical food heroes, Frank Reese, who is producing some of the most delicious and sustainable poultry in the country.)

The photo above is by Adi Nes, via Inhabitat.  And for your daily dose of irony, here’s a featherless rooster in a more natural setting: