Denmark Moves to Ban Turbo Chickens, Wants EU to Follow

Denmark wants the turbo chicken gone. The country's government is pushing for a national ban on fast-growing breeds and will lobby for the same prohibition across the European Union, according to the Guardian. Nature and animal welfare minister Christian Rabjerg Madsen said he discourages Danes from buying the birds at all.

The trigger: a TV2 documentary that aired last week, built on secretly filmed footage from a chicken coop in North Jutland. According to the broadcaster, producer Christian Tvergaard broke Danish law by giving his birds only half the darkness per day they are entitled to, a trick to keep them eating. Tvergaard has since admitted he made wrong decisions, telling TV2 he has tightened both his lighting programme and stable procedures.

The bird at the center of it all is the Ross 308, the breed Danish production leans on most. It bulks up from roughly 50 grams to 2kg in just 33 days. Other breeds need 46 to 63 days to hit the same weight, and that sprint can wreck a chicken's bones and organs.

The proposed ban is picking up cross-party support in Denmark, but the industry is flagging a hole in the plan. Danpo chief executive Klement Hinkbøl Ribergaard warned that banning domestic production means little if shops, restaurants and consumers can still buy imported fast-growing chicken of questionable quality, saying animal welfare would not benefit.

Across the EU, fast-growing breeds are the norm. Eurogroup for Animals says 95% of chickens in the bloc are raised in intensive systems and bred to produce the cheapest meat possible, a dynamic it calls a race to the bottom. Chief executive Reineke Hameleers said Denmark's political willingness to stop it should be copied by the EU.

Animal Protection Denmark chief executive Britta Riis called turbo chickens the product of a deeply unethical and grotesque form of breeding, and wants every chicken bred for the 56 days organic birds get. Animal welfare is hot in Danish politics right now: pig farming dominated the last general election so thoroughly it was nicknamed the pig election, and the country is set to end mink farming by August 2029.