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You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Food / Open Thread: Turkey Shopping PSA

Open Thread: Turkey Shopping PSA

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Maryn McKenna, at “Superbug”, her Wired blog: “To Slow Down Drug Resistance in Health Care, Buy an Antibiotic-Free Turkey for Thanksgiving“:

… How can healthcare workers contribute to slowing down antibiotic resistance? A healthcare nonprofit suggests they commit to buying an antibiotic-free turkey for Thanksgiving…

Here’s the backdrop to the campaign, created by Health Care Without Harm,the Sharing Antimicrobial Reports for Pediatric Stewardship (SHARPS) collaborative, and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society (PIDS):

Health Care Without Harm takes seriously the injunction in the Hippocratic Oath — “first, do no harm” — and works to improve the industry’s impact on patients, workers and the environment. Among other things, the group has encouraged large healthcare organizations to use their institutional food-purchasing power to support production of sustainable meat and produce. Recently, they have been encouraging hospitals to commit to buying meat from animals raised without the routine use of antibiotics, and a lot of hospital systems have signed on.

Their new pledge asks health care workers to make the problem personal, by choosing an antibiotic-free turkey for Thanksgiving — arguably the meat-animal purchase that gets the most attention out of all the holiday meals in the year…

More details at the link.

Reader Interactions

76Comments

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Sounds like a good idea. But can I ask, how easy is it to find antibiotics-free turkeys in an American supermarket? Are they labeled as such?

  5. 5.

    srv

    All these subliminal product placement posts for Tofurkey are for the turkeys.

    Why is there still no Ombudsman listed in the contact list?

  6. 6.

    ? Martin

    @Amir Khalid: In a supermarket, probably quite difficult. In a specialty market, probably not so hard. I’d wager I can get one from my butcher without trouble.

  7. 7.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    On Friday I got a 13 page letter from my editor with her initial impressions, plus a Word file of the novel itself with suggested edits and comments.

    I have not even opened up that Word file yet. I spent yesterday watching a hockey game and composing an 8 page letter of my own responding to her letter. It has 27 bullet points, some of which are as simple as saying that an issue is resolved and others describing what I was trying to do in some part of the story. And the last one, which takes up three pages on its own, covers my ideas for basically completely redoing the second half so that Phoebe isn’t so damned passive and actually engages in some character growth.

    I sent that letter to my editor about midnight last night.

    I plan on opening up the Word file and seeing what suggestions she has in it today, though have a headache and a sore throat and I may decide to pass on it until tomorrow. Then I get to reorganize the pieces of the first half into what is hopefully it’s final order; some stuff will be cut along the way.

    After that it’s off to see which scenes from the second half can be salvaged to fit into the new story line. I really hope I can keep the one where Abby tells Phoebe to leave Canada before she calls to have her deported.

  8. 8.

    raven

    All Natural Turkeys Trader Joe’s. They are about three bucks a pound but go for it.

    Given the bird’s importance to this holiday – to America – we take care to offer fowl with only the finest attributes. Our Fresh Young Turkeys are high quality hens, raised for us by experienced turkey farmers in California, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. We ensure that they are “All Natural,” which for us means that they get a diet of 100% vegetarian feed, are minimally processed and NEVER receive antibiotics or added growth hormones. What’s more, all of our fresh turkeys come brined (with salt – Kosher salt is used for Glatt Kosher birds) to ensure that they remain moist and juicy, no matter how you cook them.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @raven:

    In response to the implentation of the Affordable Care Act, Trader Joe’s announced in September 2013 that it would do away with health insurance options for its part-time employees rather than continuing to provide affordable options for health care to part timers (those working less than 30 hours weekly). In January 2014, the company provided employees with a $500 check to help cover the costs of obtaining coverage under the new exchanges forming under the rubric of the Affordable Care Act.

  13. 13.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Baud: Actually, I don’t think that’s such a shitty thing. Between the government subsidies and the check from Trader Joe’s, I’d bet that most of those part-time employees are better off buying health insurance on the exchanges than getting it through their employer.

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    @skerry:

    And their employees dress way informally. Facial hair and tats and everything.

    ETA: Incidentally, thanks for informing us about sundown towns. I’d not heard of them. Topic to research.

    Glendale, CA was a sundown town.

  15. 15.

    BD of MN

    Here is where we’re getting our turkey(s) from this year, we reserved a 18lb for t-day (which will actually be Saturday) and two more 12lbs for the freezer… $1.99/lb fresh, $1.79/lb frozen at their store, which is in front of their house in Cannon Falls, MN…

    (If you’re in MN, WI, IL, IA, and far eastern ND or SD), check out the locator map, looks like they also sell retail across the region…)

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    Anne: my comments on thread below about Cleveland shooting of young Tamir Rice were eaten. Not sure why. They’re marked spam. Can you release? Thanks!

  17. 17.

    skerry

    @Elizabelle: Sundown towns are a forgotten piece of our history. Even the town I grew up in has integrated now. But it didn’t happen until the 1990s and the town grew to become a suburb of Indianapolis.

    I like to think that I have evolved, but I confess that when I am back there (my parents still live there), I look twice when I see a person of color. There is a piece of my brain that thinks “what are they doing here?” Strange psychology. Only happens there.

  24. 24.

    Viperbuck

    An excellent option for those of us in SW Ohio is a local producer that has been in the free range / antibiotic free / heirloom bird biz since 1948:

    My late mother began getting our holiday turkeys from them shortly after our family moved to the area. She grew up in the country and recognized that factory farm birds are abused/mutant products of torture and greed.

    The taste convinced me that she was right – again.
    Driving by the farm one late September afternoon and seeing the young turkeys free range-style frolicking in the cornfield convinced me that happy birds are tasty birds.

    And their bacon is awesome all year long…::obligatory drool::…

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    @Elizabelle: I went into the spam filter and “released” your first, most explicit version. Didn’t think you’d want the string of duplicates to trail behind…

    And I will take the opportunity to add, for general reading: FYWP’s spam filter has been intermittently over-enthusiastic about labeling comments “spam” — if you haven’t commented in a few days, or if it decides your comment is too long, you’ll get dinged. I’ve been venturing over there a couple times every day to fish out the real comments, but anyone getting dinged, feel free to send me an email and I will take a look specially for your name.

    And, no, “we” can’t just disable the filter. There’s a couple hundred pure-j JUNK comments hitting the BJ site every day, and you guys wouldn’t want to wade knee-deep through the sludge in every post!

  27. 27.

    another Holocene human

    @Baud: appears they are taking steps to build the market

    Usda meat is a coMmodity, drives price below cost of production, so short cuts like fattening animals with anti-biotics won’t stop without consumer market changes or govt action

  28. 28.

    Comrade Mary

    And don’t forget to spatchcock your turkeys, folks. Probably as tasty as those death-defying deep-fired birds y’all seem to love so much, plus just as fast to cook.

    And did I mention that it’s probably a lot safer?

  33. 33.

    another Holocene human

    @? Martin: of course somebody could go to the farmers market and say they are selling anti biotic free meat and get away with it. .. lots of bulshitting there unless the owners really clamp down

    In supermarket they could run afoul of state and federal authorities for mislabeling plus potential problems with the chains themselves for making them look bad

    National broadliners probably most honest in biz but consumers can’t buy from them

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @Anne Laurie:

    It would be nice if a couple of common words could be removed from the auto-spam filter, though. I have no idea why any comment containing the name of Sherlock Holmes’ doctor sidekick is automatically killed as spam, nor why the last name of New Jersey’s junior senator is on that same “auto delete” list.

    This would particularly come in handy for the next Benedict Cumberbatch thread. Just sayin’.

    ETA: If you use those two last names, the comments don’t go into moderation — they vanish into the ether, never to be seen again. It’s a little annoying if you’ve forgotten that FYWP hates those two names with an unreasoning passion.

  35. 35.

    skerry

    @raven: We moved there in 1964. The signs were off the roads by then but the volunteer fire chief had one of the signs hanging in his garage. I know personally of 2 houses that burned in the ’70s when people tried to integrate. Nasty history.

  38. 38.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne: Not sure about Watson (maybe a programming thing?), but Booker is blocked because it’s a deliberate misspelling used by casinos. Yes, I have seen ‘b3st booker on the weeb’ variants!

  39. 39.

    Mike J

    @Mnemosyne:

    If you use those two last names, the comments don’t go into moderation — they vanish into the ether, never to be seen again. It’s a little annoying if you’ve forgotten that FYWP hates those two names with an unreasoning passion.

    That’s the behavior you get from WP when you use the name of a banned commenter.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    It does cost more, but now always seek out a frozen kosher turkey. One and only one supermarket here carries the Empire brand.

    Swear there is no way (and no cook unskilled enough) to have it come out any way other than juicy, tender and luscious.

    Dunno quite why, but suspect that it is primarily the brine they are packed in before being frozen. Also possibly that it is a quicker trip from butchering to freezing than with the more mass market birds.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    I only moved there in 2004, so I can’t really take responsibility for that. ;-) Now I can’t help wondering if that was one of the many reasons James M. Cain loathed Glendale so much. Most of the bad people in his novels and the movies made from his novels live in Glendale, including Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce.

    Interestingly, the neighboring and much ritzier city of Pasadena was not a sundown town — in fact, it was Jackie Robinson’s hometown. This Bad Glendale post includes an interesting story about Robinson getting beaten up during a game between Glendale’s and Pasadena’s high schools.

  44. 44.

    Melissa

    This issue is important & not just for turkeys. Superb bugs are developing in reaction to our overuse of antibiotics. I’ve suffered from a hospital-acquired infection (cDiff) since May. These are persistent, antibiotic- resistant infections that can be fatal.
    Please cut down on your use of antibiotics.

    -Devoted reader, occasional commenter

  48. 48.

    Citizen_X

    @srv:

    Why is there still no Ombudsman listed in the contact list?

    That would be Cole. If you have a complaint, email him; he loves that!

  51. 51.

    lamh36

    @NotMax:

    It’d be interesting to know who approached who? Remember it was CNN who allegedly PAID George Zimmerman for that interview he did.

  52. 52.

    another Holocene human

    @Elizabelle: Wow, if we don’t talk about these things people forget.

    My great grandfather was a fiddler. He gigged (get it?) with a Black musician but in some towns all Blacks had to leave by 9pm.

    Even in the 1950s it was common for Black entertainers to be denied accommodations in some places or at certain establishments. And the highway could be dangerous for ordinary people.

    Must thank MHP for introducing me to the green books – not surprised but I never knew about it. (Gay community has our own version of that. )

  56. 56.

    Suzanne

    @raven: That’s where we got our turkey. Love TJs. They recognize me at my local store, probably because I often dance around the store like an idiot.

  59. 59.

    raven

    @Mnemosyne: This is a good book that includes info about the Green Book.

    The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

    Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster are among the six million African-Americans who fled the South during what would become known as the Great Migration, a watershed in American history. This book interweaves their stories and those of others who made the journey with the larger forces and inner motivations that compelled them to flee, and with the challenges they confronted upon arrival in the New World.

  65. 65.

    Mike E

    Oh looky, 60 Minutes is doing a story on our crumbling infrastructure.

    I reckon Ebola and ISIS are less important than roads, rails and bridges and not worthy subjects…what happened to change the producers’ priorities? Anyone?

  66. 66.

    Mike E

    @raven: My first taste of soul food was in Philadelphia, Pa…the sweet potato pie was most memorable. It set me up for living in NC.

  67. 67.

    Don K

    The grocery where I do my regular shopping carries Bell and Evans poultry as well as Empire, since they’re Jewish-owned in a very Jewish part of the Detroit area. I’ll be buying a B&E breast for T-day tomorrow, along with their own stuffing (as good as anything I could make).

  68. 68.

    Ken Pidcock

    Truth to tell, our most serious antibiotic resistance problems have nothing to do with the use of antibiotics in animal feed. Which isn’t to say that eliminating such use isn’t a good idea. It’s just that the critical issues have to do with prudent use of antibiotics in people.

  69. 69.

    Violet

    @Melissa:

    I’ve suffered from a hospital-acquired infection (cDiff) since May.

    Sorry you’re dealing with this. Hopefully you know about fecal transplants now being approved to treat C. diff. Here’s an article on it. Here’s Mayo Clinic’s page on their process. It’s got a 90% cure rate, which is much higher than antibiotic treatments that continue to degrade the gut microbiome.

  70. 70.

    gelfling545

    Got mr antibiotic free turkey at my local supermarket – wegmans – no problem. Keep in mind that this is Buffalo, not NYC but this option was easily available here. I’m not sure all their poultry is antibiotic & hormone free but a lot is.

  71. 71.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @Ken Pidcock:

    No kidding. What medical professionals need to do is STOP providing prescriptions for antibiotics to those with colds.

    ETA: antibiotic free, ranged turkey at local co-op. Butcher shop carries them as well.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    @another Holocene human: First time I heard of The Green Book was seeing a kids book of the same name on a library table a few years ago. The story of a young girl in the 1950s whose family was going on a road trip.

    I was shocked, but it made sense.

    I remember the Colin Powell stories about his family driving at night (??) so that kids would not find out family was not welcome at the inn.

  73. 73.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @another Holocene human: I can certainly say that I personally got to see things similar to that in the bar scene in Ontario, Canada,in the late eighties/early nineties except that it was First Nations people. I played in a c&w band with a FN bass player; there were a couple of occasions where we got fired on arrival because of it.

  75. 75.

    mclaren

    How about just buying a large pizza the day before Thanksgiving and eating it on the next day?

    No antibiotic resistance problems there…

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