Costco Wholesale has made a poultry processing decision that the entire industry is watching closely. In the last few months, the company continues to push forward with only having one location to produce its famous $4.99 chickens.

That location? Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont, Nebraska. In this podcast, features editor Bob Sims overview what he saw in his tour of the state-of-the-art facility.

Sims also discusses the various pieces of technology and logistics used for the plant to run effectively. He also looked at the political will it took from Lincoln Poultry and its executives to get buy in from the Nebraska community around them.

The entire cover story is now available in the December digital edition of MEAT+POULTRY.

The Popeyes-Chick-fil-A rivalry generated plenty of buzz and sales of chicken sandwiches but not without a few helpings of controversy on the side.

Acts of violence committed by customers against each other and restaurant staff marked a low-point in the chicken sandwich war. Conflict driven by high demand and disrupted supplies at Popeyes might have contributed to the problem.

In this episode of the MEAT+POULTRY Podcast, Sol Marketing CEO Deb Gabor shares her insights into crisis management strategies that can help brands survive negative publicity that can tarnish a brand's image. She also explains how this brand battle turned into a win-win for the combatants, and she floats the idea of irrational loyalty and the role it plays in keeping consumers faithful to their favorite brands.

It wasn’t exactly the Summer of Love for Chick-fil-A and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

A “chicken sandwich war” erupted in August when Popeyes launched — and quickly sold out of — its chicken sandwich followed by a “Ya’ll good” tweet directed at Chick-fil-A. And the rivalry only intensified when Popeyes mocked Chick-fil-A for promoting National Sandwich Day which fell on a Sunday — when Chick-fil-A locations are closed.

After resolving its supply chain issues, Popeyes then used National Sandwich Day to launch the return of its chicken sandwich. This move turned out to be far more than another dig at Chick-fil-A; it was an opportunity to kickstart a conversation about Chick-fil-A’s values, according to Deb Gabor, CEO of brand strategy consultancy, Sol Marketing.

In this podcast, we spoke with Gabor about the real battle — a battle of brands — and the competing values of the customers who love them.

In this episode of the podcast, MEAT+POULTRY welcomes Danny Johnson, owner of Taylor's Market, head of The Butchers Guild, and captain of “Butchers of America” for the World Butchers’ Challenge.

First, Johnson talks about how he got involved with The Butchers Guild. Then Johnson discusses the competition and how he helped bring the growing event to his hometown of Sacramento, California. In 2020, the event will be held at Golden 1 Center where the Sacramento Kings play basketball.

He also explains how the Butchers of America team was developed to face off against its foes across the world and how the 3-hour 15-minute challenge works.

Johnson also emphasizes how the World Butchers’ Challenge will use local, sustainable meats during the event.

Country Archer Jerky Co. is a meat snack success story with an unlikely beginning and a promising future. After stopping at a roadside stand while on vacation almost 10 years ago, Eugene Kang bought some beef jerky that would change his life – it was love at first bite.

At the Animal Welfare and Handling Conference held in Kansas City Oct. 17-18, Eric Mittenthal, vice president of sustainability for the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), announced a new initiative called Trust in Animal Protein.

MEAT+POULTRY spoke with Mittenthal after the conference to get more details about Trust in Animal Protein and to learn why the industry needs this new standard for animal welfare.

In this episode of the podcast, the guest is food writer and web series host Nick Solares. Solares hosted The Meat Show on the Eater YouTube channel, where it exploded over the last few years and into millions of views.

Now Solares has started a new venture Meat Life Media and the Meat Life YouTube channel. In this endeavor, he hopes to celebrate the experience of meat dining, but as you will hear, he’s moved into the role of advocating for meat consumption and production. There’s a reason it says professional carnivore under his title card now.

Ryan McCarthy and Solares and discuss why he decided to take his meat career in this direction. Then, they discuss the different avenues Solares plans to take the YouTube channel and company. Finally, Solares discusses which cities he plans to travel to show off the world of meat.

Dakota Provisions went big after the company chose to create its first line of consumer products under the Dakota 44 brand. MEAT+POULTRY caught up with Renee Robertson, senior marketing manager of Dakota 44, to get up to speed on a brand that aims to bring more than turkey to consumers’ tables.

Managing Editor Kimberlie Clyma details her experience at the Women in Agribusiness Summit she attended Sept. 25-27 in Minneapolis.

Clyma outlines the structure of the summit and how it differs from other agricultural conferences that are held throughout the year. She also discusses the issues state commissioners are keeping their eyes on going into 2020.

Sustainability is a hot-button topic and Clyma describes how the women executives are handling the issue in agriculture.

Read Clyma’s recap from the Summit here.

Randy Blach, CEO of CattleFax, specializes in separating signals from noise — drilling down to the data that matters — to deliver actionable insights to the meat and poultry industry stakeholders who rely on the research, analysis and other information that CattleFax provides to its subscribers.

He was a featured speaker at the Certified Angus Beef Annual Conference held in Asheville, North Carolina this week, and he took a few minutes to share with MEAT+POULTRY his observations of the trends and issues affecting the meat and poultry industry.