At this football contest in rural Senegal, the crowd has a lot to sing and dance about. And the modern meat of choice here to celebrate with? Chicken. The global chicken business has moved rapidly up the pecking order of meats. I'm Susie Emmett. And in this BBC World Service programme, I'm asking what if chicken conquers the world.
So we're here in an absolutely lovely typical Senegalese village. You can hear the birds singing in the trees above our heads and the sounds of grandmothers talking to little children. And there're goats walking around. There're a few cattle grazing in the distance underneath the thorntrees. But there are some chickens scratching about underneath the trees. I'm here with Mohammed Guy.
"Mohammed, what is the favourite for the meat of choice in a village like this?"
"Often," Mohammed tells me, "I prefer chicken."
"For special occasions?"
"Exactly. To celebrate and to show you're going up in the world, you offer your guests chicken. Next if it's a middle-income family, you do what you can to offer your guests a little bit of chicken. Finally," Mohammed says, "If you're a poor family, you have to do with a bit of sheep meat or beef."
