Some of you might have played that game in your childhood. The skill-based danger game of dodging traffic. The point is to get to the other side unharmed, and ideally not cause a crash or issue other than to show off to your mates. Or prove something to them and yourself.

But lately it feels like a big weird game of chicken going on, with higher stakes, more showing off, not so much care for not causing harm to others, and strangely, actual chickens are now involved. We know there are extra regulations trying to muscle their way into food production, farming and agriculture generally. Herd culls, rewilding, printed ‘meat’, raw milk, numbers, stats and targets from models and ideas of control. All of it neatly leading to a major disruption in the well laid systems there for food sustainability. Almost as if they think people have lost the ability to think ahead or imagine consequences. And if you understand that the ones playing chicken want those consequences, well, like I said, it ups the stakes and changes the ‘game’ somewhat.

Birds – there has been various attempts on the bird population along the way, or it could have just simply been a benign way to familiarise people with the programming to come. To believe the news when they talk of a virus, to accept what scientists say about it, to have fear about what it could become. And then the inevitable effect it has on the farm, or area they designate as being ‘infected’. Then other species become the target, and nobody notices because its small and one farm at a time, one sanctuary, one factory, one industry at a time. Slowly cutting it all back.

Chickens – like I said, chickens and birds have been used before for purpose of whipping up a frenzy and used as a handy tool. Currently a rule is attempting to come into force in October in the UK, to force anyone who keeps domestic birds or chickens to register them. Just like previous times which has morphed into The Digital Doomsday Database, this is adding to that upgrade.

Because chickens are rather awesome, they provide a consistent food source which is highly nutritious for us, and potentially many other benefits. They are great at dealing with food scraps, eat insects and vermin, therefore are natural pest control, and are an extra food source if needed.

Food chain – I think of the overall importance of each farm animal that gets targeted the most, and clearly cows and chickens are top of the list. And for cows, they also provide consistently, have extra purpose and uses, are food and help to keep the land in check. But, I also realised that the raw milk aspect might be linked to the amazing discovery of curing smallpox, as when that was prevalent, it was milk maids they say who didn’t get infected. Leading me to wonder if certain animals are there to protect us in a way, through that process of eating. Strange I know, but when everything seems so perfectly placed and developed for our consumption, I wonder if it is necessary.

I’ve already speculated on eating soulless and dead food that has never had ‘life’ in You Are What You Eat, and is the opposite view I guess to the vegetarian or vegan thought process behind it. That we need certain things to remain part of what we have come to know as the natural world, like in Spirited Away when the supernatural food is eaten, they become part of the weird and unnatural landscape. And it really is starting to feel as though a very weird and unnatural landscape is trying to be created, attempting to deceive your senses and replace your instinct. But deep down, we know, or at least many do, that this is not the way it is meant to be…

(c) K Wicks