turkey

Elements of Thanksgiving Meals-Turkey

Home Page	(Photo of a turkey produced by Jennie-O Foods, Inc., a subsidiary of Hormel Foods Corp., Willmar, MN)
Methodology
Thanksgiving History
The Turkey Industry
Elements of Thanksgiving Meals
Culture of Thanksgiving Food
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Thanksgiving and the Environment
Works Cited

"Consumers don't know how to make sauces and gravies anymore. So we add the flavor."

-Joel Johnson, Hormel chairman and chief executive officer, quote from Daykin.

Jennie-O was sold to Hormel Foods Corp. in 1986, although it has retained its brand name. In 2000, Jennie-O plants processed 880 million pounds of turkey, after becoming the nation’s leading turkey producer in 1998 (Hart 2003: 179). Jennie-O’s facilities are in western and central Minnesota. In 2001, Hormel purchased The Turkey Store Co., which had grown from a small Wisconsin turkey farm to the nation’s 6th largest turkey producer. This acquisition is predicted to increase Jennie-O’s market share by 13-18.5 percent, and add another 375 million pounds to its production (Daykin 2001). As of 1998, Jennie-O produced one-third of its turkeys on 25 company farms and contracted for the rest with a group of 45 growers (Hart 2003: 179.)

The Turkey Store had grown from a small family turkey farm created in Wisconsin in 1922 to the nation’s 6 th largest processor before being purchased by Jennie-O. Its headquarters are in Barron, WI and The Turkey Store operated a processing plant in Faribault, MN, as well as feed mills in Medford, WI and Northfield, MN (Daykin 2001). Jerome Wallace, founder of The Turkey Store, switched from free-range to confinement housing in 1953 after he realized that people would purchase prepared turkey year-round (Hart 2003:180).

The process of turkey production at The Turkey Store (Jerome Foods until 1984), and at most large-scale turkey operations resembles the following:

1) Prime breeder turkeys are selectively bred to produce eggs on breeder farms. After hatching, eggs are taken to a hatchery.

2) Eggs are placed in a controlled hatching atmosphere for approximately 28 days. At a day old, poults are divided by sex, and then vaccinated and taken to a grow out farm.

3) Poults are housed in sanitized brooder buildings. After they mature they are transported to a range or finish building until they’re ready to be processed.

4) At Jerome/Turkey Store feed mills, nutritionists formulate feed that is delivered to breeder and grow out farms.

5) Upon reaching maturity, turkeys are transferred to a processing plant, and inspected for quality before being packaged as whole birds or moved on to further processing.

(Jerome Foods Reference Manual)

Some turkeys produced today have breasts so large that they cannot mate properly and must be artificially inseminated (Hart 2003). Researchers hope to identify specific genes in the turkey that produce desirable traits such as salmonella resistance, strong leg muscles, and large breasts, thus removing much of the guesswork of traditional breeding (Elias 2004).

Much of the turkey consumed today is further processed turkey, rather than whole turkeys, as shown above. Besides being one of the cheapest meats in the supermarket, turkey is also seen as a healthy alternative to red meat, because it's high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol (Hart 2003).