Over the opening credits of Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy (Netflix, available now), viewers are bombarded with stats and concerns about the chicken industry: it’s massive, bad for the environment and unhealthy, is the gist. Racial stereotyping is an issue, too.
“Shut up man,” retorts comedian Mo Gilligan. A fried chicken fan, he instantly changes tack, claiming he wants “to know what is going on”. Hence, an experiment: “Twenty-eight days eating nothing but fast food fried chicken.”
Unsurprisingly – especially to anyone who saw 2004’s Super Size Me, in which Morgan Spurlock did the same thing with McDonald’s food – the stunt harms Gilligan’s health. It’s less than a week before he gets “a touch of the bubble guts”. He becomes sluggish and morose, and piles on weight. Well, duh! Vague medical chat about UPFs fails to explain exactly why, though.
Still, the experiment is just a hook. Gilligan heads to the US, where we learn freakish fast-growing breeds lack flavour – and a Popeyes chicken sandwich contains at least 142 ingredients to compensate. One of them is also used as a lubricant in condoms, apparently.
A trip to Chicago reveals the crippling social effect “predatory” fast food joints have on the poorest neighbourhoods, creating food deserts and exacerbating the “death gap”.
Interesting too is a look at the racist history of certain chicken chains – and the suggestion modern-day black celebrities are being co-opted to sell it. “I’m part of the problem,” an uneasy Gilligan (who has voiced a few ads) suggests.
In Delaware, he is shocked by the effects of megafarms on the environment and stories of mistreated workers. Animal welfare, though, gets only a rather underpowered segment back in the UK.
Gilligan isn’t impressed by British Poultry Council CEO Richard Griffiths, nor the telling lack of engagement from the big chicken chains. The rather pathetic Sustainable Chicken Forum gets called out, too.
So does he chuck chicken permanently? Well, no. The ending sees him and pals at something called ‘Wing Fest’. As Gilligan says, the UK is in its “chicken shop era” – and it seems resistance is futile.
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