'Really Big Turkey' at Ledgemoor, Herefordshire, posted on You Tube by CenterSta9e.
WARNING: The following article does contain emotive language.
Turkeys evolved in North America in the Late Miocene/Early Pliocene about 5 million years ago. They would have shared their ancient wooded landscape with hipparion horses, mastodont elephants and osteoborus hyena dogs. The latter may have enjoyed the odd turkey, if they could catch it. The modern wild Turkey of North America can fly a quarter of a mile at 50 mph on a six foot wing-span to escape predators, and will roost in trees to avoid detection.
They enjoy a life in the open forest grazing on grasses and seeds, digging roots, whilst disturbing the slugs, snails and small amphibians they also feed on. The males are larger and more colourful than the females with more than 5,000 feathers of green, purple, gold, red, copper and bronze (which were prized by the Native Americans for their own fancy head gear.) Turkeys use these attributes, along with their unusual gobbling noises, to attract females in the spring.
When Europeans discovered America they found the big country; a land of wonder, mystery and plenitude. Settlers wrote back to their loved ones in Europe exclaiming: "We eat meat three times a day." Turkey was on the menu and the Spanish soon started to export the birds back to Europe in the early 1500s. The birds had been first domesticated by the Aztecs in Mexico. When they reached English shores it was erroneously believed these birds (mistaken for guinea fowl) came from the East, and Turkey was chosen as an exotic English name for the bird back in the 1550s.
Almost at once turkeys became popular christmas meals - for those who could afford them. Up until the 1940s these domesticated turkeys would have been free range animals on farms, where the word 'organic' would have caused shoulders to shrug.
However, post-war intensive farming brought about a sea change in agricultural techniques and methods and with it food that had been out of the reach of most people became affordable in the 1950s. Fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides were used on the land; antibiotics, growth hormones and insecticides used on the animals themselves and large factory 'farms' were erected, where the birds had little space to move, let alone fly; would never see sunlight; and faced injury by deformity and/or pecking from their denaturalized, demented neighbours.
Sixty years later and the frozen turkeys on the supermarket freezer shelves are still the product of these intensive 'farming' techniques. You can get your meat on the cheap - small, medium and large for £8, £10 and £13 from Somerfield supermarket of Ledbury, or you can also pay £8, £10 and £13 for small, medium and large frozen turkeys in Tesco supermarket of Ledbury. These turkeys are, more than likely, the product of Bernard Matthews agribusiness, the largest turkey producer in the world. Their dominant breed is the White Holland, a bird so unnaturally large it fails to mate.
The dream of cheap, affordable meat, has for 90% of the turkeys (those reared intensively) become a nightmare of holocaust proportions.
However, this year less turkeys are available on the market due to a (H5N1 strain) bird flu outbreak at one of Bernard Matthews' factory farms in Suffolk, which resulted 160,000 birds being destroyed. People are now starting to question the role of such factory farms, both here and in Asia and Europe, in proliferating the deadly flu virus. In the article link below, the Daily Mail accuses Bernard Matthews of having 'squalid' farms.
Some reports suggest that it is unlikely that this strain of bird flu originated in the wild bird population, but instead comes from the factories themselves. Others blame wild bird populations. There are major concerns as this flu is contagious and deadly to the human population.
The alternative to turkeys farmed intensively are free range flocks found on smaller local farms. There are four butchers in Ledbury who all offer only local free range birds at this time of year.
Wallers' in The Homend provide Holly Berry turkeys from a free range farm in Castlemorton, about 7 miles from Ledbury. Dave Waller says: "When it rains, my birds get wet." Wallers' have already sold out of birds and have no more available. Dave Waller says that the turkeys being farmed these days are cross breeds as opposed to rare breeds, as the meat on the latter would be too tough by the time the birds were fully grown.
Further down The Homend Llandinabo Farm Shop still have stocks left. They sell free range Whites sourced from a small farm in Great Witley, Worcestershire, about 26 miles from Ledbury. This farm has about 300-400 birds, and although not classed as organic, butcher Joe Arquarti makes the assurance that no growth hormones or antibiotics are used on the turkeys. Mr Arquarti says that many of the smaller farms, despite using organic farming methods, simply cannot afford the costs of being licensed as organic by the Soil Association. His turkeys are priced at £3.33 a pound.
Gurney's butcher in the High Street get their Holly Berry turkeys from a farm in Bromyard, about 18 miles from Ledbury. They are free range, not organic and are selling at £2.90 a pound. They are available, but customers are urged to get their orders in.
LDA Meats in the Lower Road Trading Estate are selling free range Whites and Bronze turkeys sourced from Matthew Jeynes Farm, Combe Hill in Gloucestershire, about 26 miles from Ledbury. These birds, like those above, are also not 'organic'. They are selling for £2.90 a pound and are still available.
Wild turkeys have a natural life span of about ten years. Intensively farmed turkeys are slaughtered between 9-28 weeks of age, depending on the desired size of the bird. During that time they will have had their claws cut (age 3 days), have been de-beaked and de-snooded, all to avoid injury as they are packed in windowless barns with up to 25,000 other birds.
Techniques on free range farms differ from farm to farm, but generally these turkeys are not mutilated to avoid injuring each other, are not pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics, are not crippled and have a life spent out in the open with the sun and rain on their feathers.
As you sit down to enjoy your roast turkey this Christmas Day, ask yourself which bird you find more appertising, and whether it's worth spending a bit more money to treat yourself and your family. If you buy a truly free range turkey then at least you have helped that bird avoid a life not spent in pain, confusion and misery.
Compassion in World Farming is an organization that has a vision of 'a world where farm animals are treated with compassion and respect and where cruel factory farming practises end.'
Response to a foolish professor (12)
When Europeans discovered America they found the big country; a land of wonder, mystery and plenitude. Settlers wrote back to their loved ones in Europe exclaiming: "We eat meat three times a day." Turkey was on the menu and the Spanish soon started to export the birds back to Europe in the early 1500s. The birds had been first domesticated by the Aztecs in Mexico. When they reached English shores it was erroneously believed these birds (mistaken for guinea fowl) came from the East, and Turkey was chosen as an exotic English name for the bird back in the 1550s.
Wild turkeys have a natural life span of about ten years. Intensively farmed turkeys are slaughtered between 9-28 weeks of age, depending on the desired size of the bird. During that time they will have had their claws cut (age 3 days), have been de-beaked and de-snooded, all to avoid injury as they are packed in windowless barns with up to 25,000 other birds.