Whole Foods Market recently announced it will phase out live-shackle slaughter from its chicken suppliers at all U.S. locations by 2026, becoming the first major retailer to follow the Better Chicken Commitment. 

Frank Bertolino can still remember the first paycheck he ever received in America. It was in 1956, and the 20-year-old had just come to the country from Sicily, along with the rest of his family. He had worked in the fish business with his father in the old country, but when they settled in Boston, his cousin got him a job as a carpenter. They made caskets.

“2020 was a below-average year with moments of terror,” says Steve Meyer, Ph.D, an economist with Partners for Production Agriculture, based in Ames, Iowa.