Chicken feet are having an impact on international policy. I read a New York Times article this week that talks about how President Obama has decided to levy taxes on Chinese tires coming in to the United States. In retaliation, the Chinese government is threatening to cut off imports of American chicken meat.
China is the United States' largest export market for chicken meat, but the American chicken industry isn't too worried, or their feathers aren't as ruffled as I would have guessed. Chinese consumers have come to love American chicken feet and wings so much that it seems this might just be an empty threat. The Chinese government may be considering new ways of retaliation as to avoid a country full of angry chicken consumers. American chicken producers use selective breeding (and probably growth hormone and antibiotics) to make our chickens fat and have lots of meat even in the feet. Chickens raised in China are scrawny. When I've eaten dishes made from chickens in China, the meat is normally shredded in small pieces and mixed in with vegetables (like kung pow chicken) or served chopped up with the bone. And their feet and wings leave little to chew on.
I would imagine that a lot of feet will go to waste in the States if we can no longer export them to China where they're appreciated. Chicken feet, anyone?
-mary kate