# Bird flue and chicken futures

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-flue-and-chicken-futures/348493>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 15, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-flue-and-chicken-futures/348493 "2006-03-15T18:29:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-flue-and-chicken-futures/348493/1 "2006-03-15T18:29:42Z")

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I’m just wondering if bird flu wil create an investment opportunity. Suppose the chicken industry is hit by bird flu: jillions of chickens are killed and disposed of. That should make poultry prices rise? Or, altenatively, people get scared they will catch bird flu-so they stop eating poultry. end result, chicken futures tank. What will happen?

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**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-flue-and-chicken-futures/348493/2 "2006-03-15T18:36:51Z")

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[QUOTE=ralph124c]  
altenatively, people get scared they will catch bird flu-so they stop eating poultry. end result, chicken futures tank. What will happen?  
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[Some French people are already starting to avoid poultry because of bird flu](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/12/MNGESHMTGH1.DTL&hw=france+poultry&sn=001&sc=1000).

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**Author:** ![johnsonlnl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@johnsonlnl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnsonlnl)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bird-flue-and-chicken-futures/348493/3 "2006-03-15T20:04:55Z")

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AFAIK, there are no ‘chicken futures’ Ditto for eggs, turkey, and almost anything else related to poultry. The poultry industry sprang up relatively recently (post WWII) and was concentrated in such few hands, that there was never a chance or a need to develop a forward pricing system ala the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (pork bellies, hog futures, feeder cattle, etc.)

If you want to ‘wager’ on the bird flu’s economic impact, you could either do it with competing meat products (pork & beef) or through buying and/or shorting certain company’s stock. (Tyson, Hormel, ConAgra)