By now many of you have already shelled out the green for your Thanksgiving turkey. If you want a fresh, pasture-fed, organic bird like I do, you shelled out a whole lot of it.
This year, a regular ol’ factory farmed, fresh (never frozen), bird will run you about $2.79 per pound in San Diego. A free-range turkey goes for $3.99 per pound, and an organic, pasture-fed turkey is $5.49 per pound.
Not sure you can justify the extra cash? Let’s not forget that food is medicine, and it’s what your entire system runs on. But how does the whole cost benefit analysis actually break down for poultry?
First of all, consider fresh versus previously frozen or frozen turkey. Natural grocery giant Whole Foods’ website informs shoppers that, “USDA guidelines allow use of the word 'fresh' only when turkey has never been stored at a temperature below 26 degrees Farenheit (minus 3 degrees Celsius) … Additives like sodium erythorbate, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and salt are not allowed on fresh turkey, and that's a major health advantage for you.”
Whole Foods also goes on to encourage buying a certified organic turkey, one that’s given feed without “unwanted contaminants.” I bet they do, says the cynic with the price tag in their hand. But what kind of contaminants?
Well, poultry that’s fed a diet high in grain and corn, like factory-farmed (the usual grocery store variety) turkey is, ingests incredibly high amounts of pesticides and genetically modified food. These grains contain very little of what turkeys are naturally meant to eat and can also contain garbage and unhealthy meat by-products. Although these cheap feed grains mean that meat and dairy prices are lower for consumers, they also result in lower nutritional content. In general, grain-fed meat, eggs and dairy are lower in omega-3 fatty acids (the “good” fat), and conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA (CLA’s help to fight against cancer and cardiovascular disease), with higher levels of fat than products from animals raised on grass.
Also, pesticides are known to “bioaccumulate” (or build up) in the fatty tissues of animals, and when these animals are eaten, the pesticide buildup may be transmitted to the consumer. This exposure to pesticides increases people’s risk of developing cancer, and is also known to have long-term effects on our reproductive, nervous and immune systems. The nonprofit organization Breastcancer.org recommends staying away from these chemicals that cause female farm workers to have a higher risk of breast cancer, and opt for organic food—especially meats, dairy, and certain fruits and veggies.
In addition, to combat the unhealthy living conditions of the ridiculously close quarters on factory farms, a range of antibiotics are also added to the birds’ feed and water. Turns out it's pretty unhealthy for a bird to spend its whole life in a giant warehouse, so close to the thousands of other birds there it can barely move and eating food products it was never meant to eat. But rather than provide these animals with more sanitary living conditions or a proper diet, these operations simply feed their cows a steady stream of antibiotics, causing our population to become more and more resistant to antibiotics as well as being linked to a host of other problems regulating yeasts in the body.
Finally, additives to boost production and the company’s bottom line are also added to the birds’ feed and water. Among those commonly used is arsenic (which can cause a variety of health problems in humans, including warts, sore throat, cancer and poisoning). Arsenic is used to promote growth and prevent disease, but after this poisonous substance has been consumed by poultry, it ends up in their meat, their feces and eventually in water supplies near the poultry farm.
This is why Whole Foods encourages buying poultry with access to pasture, saying, “The words 'free ranging' or 'free roaming' as allowed on labeling by the USDA do not provide enough assurance about turkey quality since poultry are only required to have access to the outside in order for these terms to be used on packaging labels. Access to the outside might not involve any natural pasture access whatsoever or any reasonable or healthy outdoor lifestyle for the turkey. So look for organic turkey that is described as 'pasture fed,' or contact the producer to find out exactly how their birds are treated.”
Going back to cost, if you don’t have the money for something, no one knows better than I, you just don’t have it (hear that credit card companies?)! But I would suggest, as comedian Bill Maher does, that eating bad food is costlier in the long run than any hundred-dollar turkey. When you compare the price difference for organic poultry vs the health care costs of getting cancer in America, organics win every time. An organic pasture-fed Thanksgiving: It’s good for the bird, good for the country.
I buy whole pastured chickens, wringing every bit of value I can from them by making soup and chicken salad with the leftovers, broth with the bones, joints, wings, gizzards, necks, and skin. I've heard people complain about the per pound price of a whole pastured poultry item, but then pay a similar or higher price for boneless (& tasteless) chicken breasts that are gone in one meal. Grassfed/grass-finished beef is also a better choice than conventionally raised feedlot beef for many of the same reasons. We are what we eat eats. And while no one enjoys paying more for food, the cash register price isn't the only cost, as Chelsea mentioned. One way I can afford the higher cost of better poultry and meat and other real food ingredients is I don't fill my grocery cart with snacks and convenience foods like chips, dips, bottled juices, flavored individual yogurts, soda, packaged cookies & cakes, processed cold breakfast cereals, box mixes, heat & serve items, BBQ sauces, bottled salad dressings, and so on. I mostly buy ingredient items, from which I prepare my family's meals. Granted, for some things, making foods from scratch takes some effort and time. But really, things like salad dressings, dips, and fruited yogurt are so easy a kindergartener can do it in minutes.
But I would take issue with one thing that you said, that it doesn't matter what poultry eats. Poultry fed with traditionally sprayed grain accumulates significant amounts of arsenic, and arsenic impacts the NMDA (glutamate) receptors (http://www.springerlink.com/content/yxw6243h27221335/). Also arsenic is a toxin which, though I don't have data, must put a strain on the detoxification systems of the body, which I believe increases glutamate toxicity. (Here's one link of how everything is related...heartfixer.com/AMRI-Outcomes-Non-CV-Autism-Methyl Cycle.htm) . This isn't just theoretical to me; my son had concerning levels of arsenic in his hair until we removed most conventional poultry. It does get expensive. My solution has been to make sure we use everything of the bird we can. I serve the bird, then pick off all the meat that is left and use that in other dishes, then I make broth with the rest. Just be careful because cooking broth too long does break down proteins and will produce some naturally occuring glutamate, though we have not ever seen a reaction to such low levels. -- Lisa