OpenTube

If Goose Meat Is So Easy To Raise, Why Don't We Eat It Everywhere?

Quanta

55,506 views

Geese are cheaper to raise than any bird on the farm — they graze on grass instead of grain, fight off predators instead of needing a guard dog, and barely get sick. So why is goose meat almost impossible to find in an American grocery store? This video breaks down the real reason goose disappeared from the US food system, from the rise of the Cornish Cross chicken in the 1940s to why China still raises more geese than the rest of the world combined.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Two birds, two totally different upbringings
00:28 – Why geese are the lowest-maintenance bird on the farm
03:14 – Meet the Cornish Cross: the chicken built for speed
04:02 – Why a goose's own biology fights industrial farming
06:17 – How turkey pushed goose off the holiday table
07:20 – Goose is still everyday food in China, Hungary, and Germany
08:40 – The real answer

References / further reading:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – goose meat and fatty liver production data: fao.org/3/v6200t/v6200T0n.htm
Molnár, S. (University of Debrecen) – "Evaluation of the Hungarian and Polish Goose Meat Production," Annals PAAAE, on China's dominant share of global goose production: ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/257477
Tridge market data on Chinese goose meat production volumes: tridge.com/intelligences/goose-meat/CN
Sixth Tone – on goose domestication history and goose's minor role in Chinese everyday diets despite China's production dominance: sixthtone.com
Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol" (1843) – origin of the Victorian Christmas goose tradition
USDA/agricultural extension resources on Cornish Cross broiler growth rates and feed conversion ratios (search "Cornish Cross broiler growth rate weeks" via your local ag extension office for the latest figures)

20 Comments

@danielhurst8863 9 days ago

I raise geese, they only lay a few eggs in Spring, While geese don't need supplemental feed usually, they will eat anything you put out, including feed for cattle and horses. Plus, they don't really have much meat on them. They are better as guard animals than for food.

@flexiblebirdchannel 8 days ago

My neighbour raises chickens. In a garden. Not in 6 weeks but 3 month. The chicken will weight 3 kilo, not 1.5. The meat is not white but grey. The meat has a taste. It tastes like mild goose. It is a far superior chicken. It is a natural chicken. It is more like a goose.

@lindas.8036 9 days ago

I love goose meat, and have only eaten it a few time because the per pound price is very high compared to chicken. Goose and Duck meat is delicious, but expensive. AND, geese weigh far far more than chickens, so buying a dressed goose is almost prohibitive. I wish I could afford duck and goose more often.

@jaguaraky4059 9 days ago

goose is common christmas and St martins day meal in Hungary.

@joshuarosen465 9 days ago

Geese have surprisingly little meat on them. It's a giant bird that has no more meat than a duck which sells for a fraction of the price. A turkey can feed a large extended family and still have leftovers after thanksgiving. A goose can feed two people at 20 times the price of a chicken which can feed four people.

@andyleighton6969 5 days ago

UK here, bought one for Xmas once.
Size of a Shetland Pony, fortunately my sister was a cookery teacher with a sideline as an outside caterer so she had a big oven.
Cost me an absolute fortune.
Stank the house out.
Ended up with more grease than we were ever going to need, and a pigeon with ideas above its station.
Never again.

@MrClatu6 6 days ago

I remember eating goose on special occasions as a kid. I didn't really like it compared to turkey or chicken. I'd love to try it again.

@andrewst9797 8 days ago

In Britain (and other countries) geese were highly important domestic animals before about the middle of the 19th century.
Vast columns of geese were driven into London on foot, a single drover could manage a flock of up to 1,000 to 2,500 geese at about 1 mile/hr

@Krausam 7 days ago

Chickens graze too, but we have turned them into high-performing animals, almost like bodybuilders. That is why they have such special dietary needs. Heritage breeds of chickens can live on grass and bugs found in the wild from mid-spring until the first snow very well. However, they cannot compete with industrial breeds when it comes to meat and/or egg production. The industry uses two different breeds for this: an egg-laying breed, whose meat you will almost never encounter, and a meat-producing breed, whose eggs you will never find in stores.

@donkeysaurusrex7881 5 days ago

What kind of weirdly delicate chickens do you have?

@SylviusTheMad 14 hours ago

I love goose. It's the best fowl. I wish I could find it more easily.

@craigwilliamsSeekTheLord 17 hours ago

It sounds like many US citizens and chickens have a lot in common with pop culture: easy, moldable and compliant.

@MrGolyat1 2 days ago

Parks are full of Canadian Geese that don't want to migrate, those geese are HUGE! Probably 5 times the size of large turkeys, real shame people go hungry when huge, tender sources of meat wander around and for the most part protected because they're in parks. Love Goose!

@kathykexel7753 6 days ago

My mother prepared roast goose several times in my childhood. (I'm 73, BTW) It was always very good. But now...

Our local supermarket has geese for sale near Christmas each year. The cost is $100+ for each goose. Who can afford that?

@z0mb1e564 8 days ago

Your entire video is undercut by the $10/lb sign at the end. You can get chicken year round for under $2/lb. You can get turkey for under $1/lb around Thanksgiving. Goose meat sounds interesting, but at 5x the price it would be a novelty, not a staple.

@johngarvican4517 5 days ago

“The goose is a silly bird—too much for one, and not enough for two." Dr Samuel Ogden 1716 - 1778.

@funkatron800z9 7 days ago

I've been a chef all my life I'm 51 now I've never cooked a goose (haha) or even seen one in some fancy places. I've cooked boat loads of ducks though.

@jeffreydustin5303 9 days ago

a commercial goose has a ton of meat, white feathers. Yes fewer eggs. But if science really did the chicken improvement on geese, and chicken would be a has-been meat. Chicken are basically a modified jungle fowl being raised in temperate regions. I would say breed the muscovy duck as the gooselike duck for production and free feed.

@Stuff_And_Things 6 days ago

I had a small farm and chickens. No heat lamps. I never did a thing to hatch the eggs. Chickens are excellent at doing the work themselves. They don't need help.
The only reason to take the job away from them is if you're raising them commercially and can't afford to trust them to the job.
Domesticated ducks are the ones to worry about. They lay their eggs wherever they happen to be standing and hardly ever tend to them.
Geese are great for fat but not very good for meat.

@whiplashfatigue1430 1 day ago

One Christmas I thought I’d make a roast goose ala Dickens. Greasiest meat I’ve ever eaten. Didn’t finish it. My wife looked at how deep a pool of oil in the pan and refused to touch it. Never again.