The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a global symbol of artistic excellence, an institution that sets high standards. However, an examination of the reality behind the food served at their cafes and eateries reveals a starkly different reality—one that is far from excellent and deeply tied to some of the cruelest practices within factory farming.
The Met’s catering partner, Restaurant Associates—a subsidiary of Compass Group USA—continues to source chicken from birds bred to suffer. While the museum curates beauty, their food provider relies on a system of industrialized suffering that treats living, sentient beings as products with little regard for their well-being.
The heartbreaking experience of Fast-growing chickens’ heartbreaking experience
Through selective breeding, the chickens raised in Restaurant Associates’ supply chain are forced to grow so unnaturally large and fast that their own bodies become a source of constant agony. Because their muscle mass develops at an explosive rate, their internal organs often cannot keep up. Imagine a life where you are in constant, crippling pain as your skeletal system buckles under the weight of your own body, eventually fracturing your bones. For millions of birds, this is the daily reality.
Why The Met must speak up
An institution that celebrates the heights of the human spirit should not be complicit in the lowest depths of animal cruelty. A true commitment to excellence should extend to every aspect of The Met’s operations, including the food it serves. The Met has the power to influence Restaurant Associates and Compass Group USA to accelerate the implementation of their chicken welfare commitments.
Chickens need you to take action
Your immediate action is critical to sparking change for chickens who are suffering right now. Please take a few moments to leave a comment on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s social media posts. Tell them that artistic excellence and animal cruelty cannot coexist. Urge them to hold Restaurant Associates accountable and move toward a future that truly reflects the integrity the museum represents. Together, we can ensure that the only thing “fast-growing” is the movement for a more compassionate world.
