$4.7 million to breed featherless chicken necks cuz it's gonna get hot?!!!-------Breeding Bald Poultry To Withstand Global Warming

Breeding Bald Poultry To Withstand Global Warming | Popular Science:
"Rising global temperatures pose a major risk to world food supplies.
When it comes to chickens, geneticist Carl Schmidt is working to prepare the most-dined-upon North American breeds to withstand greater heat stress in coming decades.
As Lauren Rothman reports for Modern Farmer, Schmidt and his University of Delaware team are collaborating with researchers from Iowa and North Carolina state universities to decode the DNA of chicken breeds in Brazil and Uganda that have featherless heads and necks.
These birds find baldness a virtue, not a curse, because the adaptation “allows the south-of-the-equator poultry to throw off additional body heat and stay cool in their scorching native climes,” writes Rothman.
They are generally found in small backyard flocks, Schmidt tells Rothman, rather than industrial agriculture complexes, and “are under constant selection pressure” to survive intense heat and other environmental challenges, traits he and others are eager to see introduced to North American breeds:
Schmidt’s team’s work is part of a five-year, $4.7 million climate change grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.