From the animal welfare perspective, there's much more suffering involved in producing a pound of chicken than a pound of beef.

That depends how sentient a chicken is: their brains are of similar complexity to the larger of these models, counting params as synapses.

Also, while I'm vegetarian going on vegan, welfare arguments are obviously not relevant in response to an assertation that Americans aren't going to give up meat, because if animal welfare was relevant then Americans would give up meat.