Jan 2nd 2012, 1:12:26
it's to do with the time it takes to grow a chicken or pig compared with cows.
Chickens grow to maturity in less than a year, perfict "picking" is at 6 months.
pigs will take 2 -3 years at absolute most, and then they are only good for certain yuses....perfect picking is at 1 year or 6-12 weeks.
Cattle take a couple of years to generate the required sizes, in most cases the beef you eat is at least 5 years on the hoof, but it can be taken at a few weeks for white veal, or yearling for small ribs etc.
so if you hit a hormone in to get the growth happening, the residual effects or half life tend to be over the year or 2 mark, so less chance of carry into the food chain....if you grab it at 6 months, well.....mutancy will not be cool if it involves a chicken.
Alll that aside, they just genetically engineer the breeds, thats why there are choicken breeds that are numbers now. so no need for hormones, just build it into the genetic code!!!
also i compare it to how long the protein takes to break down (density) red meat will always take up to a week....if you can get a piece of chicken to last more than a week (without gassing or cryo-vac) you will have 2 very different products.
if its quick to break down, it will generally be easily absorbed into the body.
