The Local Turkey & Thanksgiving Fact and Fables

The Local Turkey & Thanksgiving Fact and Fables

The Local Turkey & Thanksgiving Fact and Fables plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Ah Thanksgiving Day, 2011. Some of the things we think we know about Thanksgiving history may not be exactly true. USDA’s historical expert Anne Effland says while there wasn’t a football, there were games.

EFFLAND: There were contests and races and other things so in addition to the food there was also a tradition of athletic events I guess you could say if you want to draw this together to the football tradition.

And even though we now wouldn’t consider the day without a turkey Effland says journal entries from the time don’t mention the turkey.

EFFLAND: They had gone out to shoot wild fowl so it’s not absolutely certain they had turkey but they certainly might have.

And speaking of turkeys...more and more people this year have opted for a locally grown, free range turkey. People really want to know where their food comes from and local turkey producers have reported record sales this year. In fact many were sold out weeks ago. These turkeys cost quite a bit more than what you might buy from your local grocery store upwards of $3.25 a pound but many people really like the taste and knowing where old Tom was from.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

I recently had a good friend who is originally from England tell me that, while she doesn’t celebrate a lot of the holidays over here that we do, she really gets into Thanksgiving. In asking her why it was this particularly American of holidays she chose to immerse herself into she first and foremost said that Thanksgiving is about just that, giving thanks. She’s right. While not a strictly religious holiday, we can be thankful that in America we are free to thank whomever we choose, be it God, Allah, Buddha, the Great Spirit, or merely the farmers who worked hard to grow and harvest the bounty found on numerous dinner tables across the nation this day. Thanksgiving is also about family, a word that has gone beyond the 1950’s picture perfect nuclear definition, and now signifies love and commitment shared by people in often complex household structures. And perhaps that is after all what we should be the most thankful for, our nation’s ability to embrace a diverse collection of cultures, traditions, and beliefs that have helped form one of the greatest countries in the world. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

Previous ReportGoing Out For Turkey & Super Committee Fails
Next ReportLifting the Ban on Horse Slaughter & Child Labor Revisions