Chicken for Africa
Breast or thigh? Germans have made their preference clear: since the healthy lifestyle revolution, no-one eats more chicken breasts than we do here. And the industry is happy to follow the trend, since breast meat generates the highest profits.
But what becomes of the rest of the bird? It gets packed off all over the world, often ending up in African countries. The result: local markets are undermined and people grow sick from eating low-grade meat – meat that isn't subject to our high standards of hygiene. After all, Africa is not Europe.
We follow these chicken parts on their complicated journey from Germany and Holland to Africa, showing how their export affects local markets in Ghana and Togo and revealing the impact of Europe's mania for chicken on the people there.
At the same time, we give a glimpse into an industry which processes hundreds of thousands of chickens per day from beak to claws. What emerges is a global roulette wheel of chicken production, a cynical interlinking of dietary obsession with profiteering that is ruining people's health and livelihood.
Director: Joachim Vollenschier
Photographer: Saschko Frey, Timm Lange
Sound: Robert Kellner
Editor: Joel Ström
Production Manager: Monika Mack, Jorge Bogalho (WDR)
Producer: Birgit Schulz
Commissioning Editor: Barbara Schmitz (WDR), Kathrin Bronnert (NDR/arte), Silke Spahr (German United Distributors)
