“I started to work in Ethiopia two years ago,

when we started a foundation to collect the blood samples

of all the chickens.” This work produced a genetic bible,

visualising the 13 million places

where the genetic makeup of the Cosmopolitan Chicken differs

from the reference chicken considered as standard.

This is a lot of diversity —

that’s the key to resilient, fertile chickens

and also the key to my work.”

Koen Vanmechelen.