RURAL ROUTES/Margot Ford McMillen

Know Your Turkey's People

If you’re a news director, Ebola has been the best thing since Monica Lewinsky. Like the easy days of the Clinton administration, when you could trot out the stained dress and guarantee attention, Ebola has given news folks a free pass to put their brains on hold. For a couple of weeks, it was the lead story on all the channels, internet sites, and above-the-fold print. Whenever that happens, we should be very afraid that something truly important is happening and we’ll never know.

And, sure enough, woo hoo! It’s time for the holidays!

Didn’t see that coming.

In the next couple of weeks, guaranteed, some newshound is going to abandon Ebola and come up with an article about Ben Franklin and his opinion that the best national symbol would be not the eagle but the ... wait for it ... turkey.

Ben Franklin, one of the fathers of our country, had a lot of ideas. In 1775, he made a good case for the rattlesnake as an appropriate symbol of “the temper and conduct of America.” The next year, he suggested Moses and Pharaoh. Then, in 1782, Congress adopted the bald eagle. Franklin wrote his daughter and said, “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.”

Ben was correct. Since the eagle’s return from endangered status, we see them feasting buzzard-style on carrion in the middle of Missouri roads, far from any spacious mountain majesty.

The artist, Franklin said, did a bad job of drawing the eagle: “I am on this account not displeased that the Figure ... looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America ... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

I am, with Ben, a big fan of turkeys, and I love to see wild ones in our pasture, but this time of year, my mind’s on the turkey in the freezer ... where does it come from?

For years, ours has come from a fine woman a few counties to our west. Laura raises them on a town lot, in a rotational grazing system that has transformed the neighborhood eyesore from a weed patch to a wonder. If she is out of turkeys because we order too late, we go to another neighbor (Susy) to the south.

The nice thing about buying from a neighbor is that we can visit the place where it’s raised and see that it is “pastured” and not kept in a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). Both Susy and Laura are improving the economies of their areas. They hire local folks to help out when they need help and they buy their grains from folks they know. Since they move their birds around, the manure is spread around and taken up by plants rather than leaching down through the soil into ground water.

In contrast, the large turkey barns create “litter” that is spread on fields and often runs into creeks and streams. Feathers, manure, composted bodies, bedding all go into “litter.”

We also avoid bewilderment due to the many labels producers and the USDA. have come up with. “Free-range” requires owners to provide a door in the barn, but the birds don’t have to walk through it. They can decide — or not — to walk outside, feel the gravel under their feet, and return to the confines of their building. They don’t have to nibble anything green to qualify. “Organic” puts a few more restrictions on the raiser—organic grains, no hormones or steroids and no preservatives. Note, however, that “organic grains” probably means grains fertilized with manure from a confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, and that grain can contain most anything.

“Heritage” means anything except a “broad-breasted white” bird. The turkeys in my pasture are “heritage,” but we don’t eat them.

“Natural” is all about processing — no added ingredients. “Kosher” means that they’ve been slaughtered according to ancient Jewish law. “Fresh” means that a turkey has not been chilled below 26 degrees, while “Frozen” means it’s been chilled to 0 degrees, and “Hard- or deep-chilled” means it has gotten to between 0 and 26 degrees.

“Self-basting” has been injected with “flavor solution” and sometimes feature a “pop-up” indicator to show when it’s done.

Ben Franklin would be appalled.

Margot Ford McMillen farms and teaches English at a college in Fulton, Mo. Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2014