Broilers That Can't Even Fend for Themselves: Mother Hens and Production Infrastructures

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Maria Isabel Trivilin can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2026/10/broilers-that-cant-even-fend-for-themselves-mother-hens-and-production-infrastructures/. About the post: In this post, Maria Isabel Trivilin immerses readers in southern Brazil's industrial broiler production. Through close-up ethnographic observation, she explores the web of relationships that emerges within confinement spaces, where broilers, unlike free-range chickens, can’t even fend for themselves. The agribusiness assemblage shaping their lives before they become food is woven from industrial, economic, political, and ethical interests, microbial science, and human care. Ultimately, Trivilin compels us to ask: Who is caring for whom — and who suffers from care’s violence — in a setting where death is the inevitable outcome? (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)