Thanksgiving turkeys

[Godsgrl]

There is an ad in the paper today advertising T-day turkeys. They say they are free-ranged. But $7.49/lb! They average 15 lbs, so that is $120. for just the turkey for your meal. I cannot fathom paying that much! Is that outrageous, or is it just me?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I guess it depends on how much someone is willing to pay for the "idea" of a home-grown meal.

Me? Give me frozen-bowling ball turkey and I'm happy. But by God...there had BETTER be REAL cranberry sauce waiting for me.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

around here, organic free range turkeys go for $5 a pound... so a 15 lb bird would be $75. i grew my own.

 

[farmerlor]

My free range organic turkeys will be sold for 5 bucks a pound and people are happy to pay it. If the list gets too long next year my price will go up as I see some people in a nearby town are charging 7 bucks per pound but they're much bigger than I am. My free range organic meat chickens average out to about 10 bucks per chicken.

 

[Olive Hill]

Gosh, I don't know. You can pay $120 for a turkey that was...

- raised in humane conditions
- didn't go into the scalder alive
- wasn't trucked thousands of miles to make it to the supermarket
- doesn't support factory farming

and to...

- support a local farmer and your immediate economy

OR you can go down to the nearest Wally World and drop $18 on a turkey that...

- was raised in quarters so cramped it could barely move
- probably never saw the light of day
- was likely missed on the slaughter line and scalded alive
- had to be trucked thousands of miles across the country to make it to the store freezer section
- contributes to factory farming and corporate agri-biz
- contributes to makes farming a livelihood-less living
- is sold by stores that, through employment practices, encourage the disappearance of the American Middle Class
- is only that "cheap" at a grave price

Hmmm, $120 doesn't seem so expensive after all. Luckily, plenty of people realize this and are happy to put their money where their mouth is.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Quote:
Sure it does. The ones that go into the scalder alive (if you honestly believe that) will never make it to the human consumption line. That is why the processing plant has a person overseeing the slitter in case the bird does not properly extend or is of another proportion than what the settings are for the factory. The bird will still be killed by the slitter whether it be human or machine.

 

[yomama]

Yikes! I'm happy with gravy, rolls, and stuffing, myself! (yeah, I love carbs

)

 

[AhBee01]

No way I could afford 120 for a turkey. We did grow our own last year, and he ate us out of our house and home, so he very well could have cost us that much. We didn't do the math! But as of right now, I can't spend 120 on a turkey let alone 120 on a whole meal.

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
Sure it does. The ones that go into the scalder alive (if you honestly believe that) will never make it to the human consumption line. That is why the processing plant has a person overseeing the slitter in case the bird does not properly extend or is of another proportion than what the settings are for the factory. The bird will still be killed by the slitter whether it be human or machine.

Of course they wouldn't. Gosh golly gee, that would mean the USDA doesn't really care. Oh... wait...

And really even if they did manage to pull every bird from the line that wasn't slit properly prior to scald do you honestly think that makes the fact that high-productivity slaughter lines produces this problem okay? So it's okay that the production of your cheap turkey means other turkeys died a terrible death as long as your specific cheap turkey was slit properly? Interesting.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

There is a major difference, you are also forgetting that the birds have no idea what is happening to them once they have been stunned. Either way the bird is processed. Birds that unfortunately, may make it past the slitter or are improperly slit (remember, these are maybe 1 in 10,000 birds? Probably not even that high of a rate.) have a distinct red color to their bodies, they are not used for human consumption.

Also, to speak of your first post, the lighting during the day is generally natural light. The sides of the buildings are lowered for the birds to get natural lighting. (After all, it is not very cost efficient to provide light when sunlight is readily available).

Personally, I find the stunning negates any issues with animal welfare on the processing line. The birds are destined to be food for some source, it is not cost efficient for the processing plant to make ANY mistakes so measurements are constantly being taken to prevent mistakes from happening and lessening the worth of their products. Once stunned, the birds are incapable of registering anything happening to them. They never wake up once stunned, effectively ending their struggles as well as ending any sensibilities of the bird. I do not see how killing an animal when it has been stunned with a slitter is any less humane than someone chopping, slicing or breaking in a proper or improper fashion? It is much more likely that a do-it-yourselfer (any do-it-yourselfer) could do something improperly than a bird being killed improperly at a processing plant.

ETA: I earnestly hope that this is not offending anyone, but if it is and this subject does wind up being locked or warned away from this tract of the discussion before I return from work, please feel free to PM me in order to continue this discussion.