Care dependencies in times of disease: How avian influenza reshapes welfare in organic chicken production

As outbreaks of avian influenza strike Danish poultry production with increasing frequency and severity, organic producers find themselves caught between welfare priorities, biosecurity measures, and continued profitability. As organic production is based on the premise of outdoor access, the government-imposed lockdowns during outbreaks present an interesting case of world-making in the pandemic era. This chapter explores how assemblages of matter and meaning, disease regulation, market mechanisms, and animal welfare affect negotiations of care in organic poultry production during HPAI outbreaks. By tending to the situated practices that constitute the everyday under exceptional circumstances, this ethnographic piece follows the farmers as they wander the dimly lit production facilities and narrate their own care practices among the chickens that used to be outside. By staying close to the farmers, the chapter illuminates the desires, regrets, and industry structures that make up the chicken assemblage and discusses the future of organic chicken production, in which some producers “lose their organic hearts” while the silent majority simply restructure their care around indoor and reparative practices.