Pecking orders

摘要

After a brutal year in 2011, when the chicken industry lost money by bucket loads, broiler industry executives are looking forward to something different in 2012: sustained profit. After all, the alternative is nearly unthinkable. "There's only one direction it can go," says Paul Aho, a consulting economist in Storrs, Conn., who tracks the chicken industry closely. "Either the entire industry goes bankrupt, or it gets better." Aho thinks the industry could be profitable by the spring, and some observers are even more optimistic.