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Talk Turkey: Thinking about your holiday meal

Target:
Factory farms

This year as you plan your holiday meal, consider the animal that is so often at the center of the table. What do we know about it? How was it raised? What was it fed? How was it killed?  Is it even possible to find these things out?

 Are the answers to these questions in line with your values, your family's values and the values we are celebrating during the holiday season?

 If our holiday meals are supposed to serve as a reflection of our gratefulness, can a turkey that spends its life crammed by the tens of thousands into giant warehouses, on antibiotics, that has been bred to suffer--as is true for more than 99% of turkeys sold in America--be the choice we feel best about?

 This holiday season, consider the turkey. Take this conversation in any direction you'd like. The most important thing is that our choices be deliberate.

There's nothing more powerful than an informed conversation.

This year as you plan your holiday meal, consider the animal that is so often at the center of the table. What do we know about it? How was it raised? What was it fed? How was it killed?  Is it even possible to find these things out?

 Are the answers to these questions in line with your values, your family's values and the values we are celebrating during the holiday season?

 If our holiday meals are supposed to serve as a reflection of our gratefulness, can a turkey that spends its life crammed by the tens of thousands into giant warehouses, on antibiotics, that has been bred to suffer--as is true for more than 99% of turkeys sold in America--be the choice we feel best about?

 This holiday season, consider the turkey. Take this conversation in any direction you'd like. The most important thing is that our choices be deliberate.

There's nothing more powerful than an informed conversation.

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We signed the "Talk Turkey: Thinking about your holiday meal" petition!
# 651:
11:24 pm PST, Nov 20, Verfaillie Claudine, France
# 650:
11:03 pm PST, Nov 20, Marion Lovell, United Kingdom
Turkeys should be respected, like all animals not tortured and slaughtered The best turkey to have on your table is TOFU Turkey
# 649:
9:19 pm PST, Nov 20, Name not displayed, Arizona
No turkey for the first time in my life. Adopted a turkey named 'Hawthorne' for a donation of $25 on www.FarmSanctuary.org. Posted video/research realities in turkey farming on facebook page. Becoming vegan.
# 648:
4:31 pm PST, Nov 20, Christiane Berckmans, Belgium
No, I will not eat turkey ... I never did !
# 647:
2:24 pm PST, Nov 20, Janine Boguslawski, New York
# 646:
2:01 pm PST, Nov 20, Name not displayed, New York
# 645:
1:05 pm PST, Nov 20, Name not displayed, Pennsylvania
# 644:
12:53 pm PST, Nov 20, Kristen Abram, Oregon
# 643:
12:05 pm PST, Nov 20, Terry Olinger, Indiana
# 642:
11:58 am PST, Nov 20, James Ball, California
# 641:
10:27 am PST, Nov 20, Dan Lipsitz, Colorado
# 640:
9:51 am PST, Nov 20, Gina Lannen, California
Thank you Jonathan Safran Foer for opening my eyes to what must be the endless seconds and minutes of cruelty animals endure in order to supply us with cheap meat. I can no longer ignore what I now know and turn a blind eye. Having just turned 40, I am saying "no!" to eating meat and committing myself (and my family) to learning more about the atrocities of factory farming. I just hope we can make a change soon.
# 639:
9:25 am PST, Nov 20, Lauren Fithian, Minnesota
I am vegan, but my children are not. I spent the extra money to buy a Heritage turkey, which my 19-year-old son and nephew will be preparing. Every Thanksgiving is an opportunity to talk with our children about our choices.
# 638:
9:04 am PST, Nov 20, Jan Heirtzler, New Hampshire
Our turkey is coming from a family farm about 15 miles from our house. We get to support a local business and have a humanely-raised bird for the meal. It is way more expensive than grocery-store turkey, but given that it's going to feed at least 7 people (more if you count leftovers!) it seems like a bargain to me.
# 637:
8:52 am PST, Nov 20, Rhea Parsons, New York
# 636:
8:46 am PST, Nov 20, BJ Wahl, New Hampshire
We say no to factory eggs, chickens, cows, pigs, and dairy products too. We try to be vegan and buy locally, but it is very hard to do both. This is an industry that needs changing NOW! Please help us create humane farming practices, in the U.S. and in the world.
# 635:
8:41 am PST, Nov 20, Caera Lerner, Texas
I can say nothing that has not already been said here and I feel that screaming at people passionately does absolutely nothing aside from get on everyone's nerves. I think the best way to get such a message across is with photos, not words.
# 634:
8:39 am PST, Nov 20, Megan Caudill, Oklahoma
I have now been a vegetarian for a year due to factory farming.
# 633:
8:29 am PST, Nov 20, Tomi McDonald, California
I will be buying as much locally grown organic produce as I can and our meal will not include any sort of meat. Why celebrate a holiday with cruelty?!?
# 632:
8:04 am PST, Nov 20, Amy Zeidman, New Jersey
Please stop the senseless and cruel slaughter of innocent beings!!!
# 631:
7:50 am PST, Nov 20, Laura Mulder, Michigan
Making seitan! Cruelty free yumminess!
# 630:
7:47 am PST, Nov 20, Carrie Springsted, Canada
Animals were born with legs so they can run away from their predators! You haven't seen a carrot run away have you????? It doesn't cry with with longing when you pick it from the ground looking for it's carrot mom, and, it doesn't scream from pain when you chop off it's root! Animals are living breathing creatures, vegetables are not.
# 629:
7:45 am PST, Nov 20, Valerie Young, Virginia
# 628:
7:41 am PST, Nov 20, Kelly Howard, New York
pass the Tofurkey please!
# 627:
7:27 am PST, Nov 20, Nick Easterling, Kentucky
# 626:
7:02 am PST, Nov 20, Thomas Thirion, Arizona
# 625:
6:36 am PST, Nov 20, Stefanie Retterbush, Germany
# 624:
6:20 am PST, Nov 20, Gloria Gilmore, Florida
# 623:
5:18 am PST, Nov 20, Cris Berjac, Belgium
I never eat a turkey ... and now, after what I learned about the way they are killed ... I just will act the same !
# 622:
4:05 am PST, Nov 20, Aija Arikane, Ireland
# 621:
4:00 am PST, Nov 20, Soile Suanto, Finland
# 620:
3:09 am PST, Nov 20, Diana Arikane, Ireland
# 619:
2:02 am PST, Nov 20, URSACHE IOANA, Romania
# 618:
1:23 am PST, Nov 20, Susanne Tyler, Germany
Why not try & turn the turkey into a tempura-veggie meal ? I mean, does it always have to be MEAT-that we have to eat -out of a tradition ? There are much (better) alternatives, i.e. a whole range of healthy fresh vegetable dishes! I´m always finding new cooking ideas for veggie meals at the site at care2, just take a look, you´ll be surprised!
# 617:
8:19 pm PST, Nov 19, Name not displayed, Hong Kong
# 616:
7:14 pm PST, Nov 19, BETH SCHALLER, Nebraska
I am reading a script and it is about a turkey named Trever. He is complaining about the fac that fellow frind turkeys, are beingate evey year and he does not like the fct that his friends are being ate eey time at Thanksgiving. He said that the maincourse should be fish. Then at the end Sally the salmin comes in and says that the maincourse sholdnot be fish. Tever (the turkey) lives in Turkey Town,USA.
# 615:
5:33 pm PST, Nov 19, Tiffany Holsen, Pennsylvania
# 614:
4:38 pm PST, Nov 19, Raj Rajkumar, Australia
We should not eat these Factory reared Turkeys full of Antibiotics and crammed into small spaces.
# 613:
4:15 pm PST, Nov 19, Michelle Graham, Canada
# 612:
3:22 pm PST, Nov 19, Jason J Green, Virginia
# 611:
2:58 pm PST, Nov 19, Laura Lovelace, California
# 610:
2:00 pm PST, Nov 19, Anna Szaszorowska, Poland
# 609:
11:48 am PST, Nov 19, Keith Marx, Illinois
First I believe we must show respect to the animal that has been harvested by not wasting the food it has supplied to those of us who consume meat or fish of any kind. That respect should be extended to the captive animals yet alive, as there destiny is to be our food supply as well. I support the move to eliminate crowded and confining areas in the farming of animals, and while I am a meat consumer, I limit my consumption and avoid any waste out of respect.
# 608:
11:38 am PST, Nov 19, Katherine Nelson, New Jersey
# 607:
11:11 am PST, Nov 19, AnimalSpirit Martz, Indiana
# 606:
11:09 am PST, Nov 19, Kara Kuresman, Illinois
I'm a vegetarian, but I know that most of my and my boyfriend's family will eat turkey this Thanksgiving. Therefore, I decided to buy free range, organic/vegetarian-fed turkeys from a local farm that I've visited (and where I've met the turkeys...they are always outside with ample room to roam and seem like happy turkeys!) for both families. It is much more expensive than a convential, factory-farmed turkey, but it is completely worth it. Hopefully, it will be an experience that sticks our in our families' lives that they will think of when they are considering their next meal with meat.
# 605:
10:05 am PST, Nov 19, Lisa Mazzola, Florida
# 604:
10:02 am PST, Nov 19, Charles Ferrara, Arizona
Happy Tofurky Day!
# 603:
9:54 am PST, Nov 19, Deb Chirgwin, New Hampshire
# 602:
8:56 am PST, Nov 19, E. Vink, Netherlands
# 601:
7:43 am PST, Nov 19, Name not displayed, Massachusetts
When books and movies on this topic are breaking into the mainstream, we are moving in the right direction. Soon, petitions like this will not be considered visionary but required.
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