US broiler chicken production

As US broiler chicken production has grown, the percentage of Americans who believe the Earth is flat has also increased, a correlation of 0.982 that connects the poultry industry to epistemological collapse with the unsettling precision of a chart that measures both protein output and the decline of basic astronomy. The chicken is produced, the Earth is flattened, and both numbers climb because a growing, internet-connected nation produces more of everything: more chicken, more misinformation, more content for this website.

Broiler production grew from about 37 billion to over 45 billion pounds between 2011 and 2022. Flat Earth belief grew from about 2 percent to over 11 percent as social media algorithms amplified conspiracy content. Both are upward curves: chicken because of population-driven demand, flat Earth because of YouTube recommendation algorithms and social media echo chambers. The shared variable is the internet—the same infrastructure that enables efficient poultry logistics also enables epistemic disaster.

Twelve years of chicken production and flat Earth belief is a correlation that captures the dual nature of modern connectivity: the same networks that deliver chicken efficiently also deliver misinformation efficiently. The chicken is processed, the conspiracy is processed, and both are consumed by a nation that is simultaneously more productive and less informed. The Earth is round. The chicken is breaded. The correlation is flat.