Got a Thanksgiving Turkey for 68 cents a pound...How does that compare ?

NorTracNY · Nov 19, 2012

Wow, it really amazes me how people think about price 1st and foremost! I'm glad that someone brought up Twinkies for this thread. This is not some cheap Chinese toy that you toss when it breaks. This is stuff that you're going to put into your body! How much of that 20lbs frozen turkey that you paid a few cents on is just salt water that they inject into it. Would any of you consider raising turkeys and then sell them for <50cents/pound??? I use to buy those turkeys, not because I was poor, but because I didn't know anybetter. I never expected to find a thread like this on a "Rural-living" forum.

brin · Nov 19, 2012

I've actually toured and inspected poultry plants...big ones...and they don't inject just salt water...it is a seasoned broth and comes out of many injectors that come down momentarily as the birds pass down the line for packaging...it is one of the last steps in the processing ....all you have to do is look at the sodium content per serving and on the one I bought it is 200mg...which is fine...You should look at the sodium in the potato chips, fritos, cheese, lunch meat and other things you eat...You are from NY...you ever eat in a deli there ? A pastrami sandwich or corned beef sandwich in NY has between 2,000 - 6,000mg of sodium...just in the sandwich...now how about the pickle...you look that one up...it is huge...

I disagree with you...but I do think everyone should watch their salt intake....just don't pick on the turkey when there are so many other much more egregious offenders...

NorTracNY · Nov 19, 2012

brin said:
I've actually toured and inspected poultry plants...big ones...and they don't inject just salt water...it is a seasoned broth and comes out of many injectors that come down momentarily as the birds pass down the line for packaging...it is one of the last steps in the processing ....all you have to do is look at the sodium content per serving and on the one I bought it is 200mg...which is fine...You should look at the sodium in the potato chips, fritos, cheese, lunch meat and other things you eat...You are from NY...you ever eat in a deli there ? A pastrami sandwich or corned beef sandwich in NY has between 2,000 - 6,000mg of sodium...just in the sandwich...now how about the pickle...you look that one up...it is huge...

I disagree with you...but I do think everyone should watch their salt intake....just don't pick on the turkey when there are so many other much more egregious offenders...

I can't remember the last time I've had a pastrami or corned beef sandwich. It's not the salt content that was my main concern. Who here would think a turkey could be raised, processed, and sold for the prices people are talking about. I'm not referring to stores running a promotion either. I think it's wonderful for stores to help get a turkey into homes at Thanksgiving.

dave1949 · Nov 19, 2012

NorTracNY - A lot of stores are selling turkey below cost as "loss leaders" to get people in the store. We really don't know what the full price would be.

I agree with your general sentiments, but short of raising your own or buying from someone local who has to charge sky-high prices, there aren't many choices. I have raised family meat pigs, rabbits and chickens, I know the effort and expense that goes in to that. Living in a northern climate makes that all the more difficult. It just isn't worth it for two retirees, one of which eats hardly any meat.

Even if you raise your own, unless you grow your own grains--not an option for me, you will end up feeding GMO corn--so you too can be "Roundup Ready" :laughing: I think we are in an intermediate stage between the real foods of the past and the test tube delights of the future.

MossRoad · Nov 19, 2012

NorTracNY said:
Wow, it really amazes me how people think about price 1st and foremost! I'm glad that someone brought up Twinkies for this thread. This is not some cheap Chinese toy that you toss when it breaks. This is stuff that you're going to put into your body! How much of that 20lbs frozen turkey that you paid a few cents on is just salt water that they inject into it. Would any of you consider raising turkeys and then sell them for <50cents/pound??? I use to buy those turkeys, not because I was poor, but because I didn't know anybetter. I never expected to find a thread like this on a "Rural-living" forum.

The turkey was raised locally, and, I suspect, will be delicious! :licking:

Butterball was $3.00 a pound. Bargain local turkey was almost one fifth the cost. I cannot fathom paying $63.00 for a turkey.

NorTracNY · Nov 19, 2012

dave1949 said:
NorTracNY - A lot of stores are selling turkey below cost as "loss leaders" to get people in the store. We really don't know what the full price would be.

I agree with your general sentiments, but short of raising your own or buying from someone local who has to charge sky-high prices, there aren't many choices. I have raised family meat pigs, rabbits and chickens, I know the effort and expense that goes in to that. Living in a northern climate makes that all the more difficult. It just isn't worth it for two retirees, one of which eats hardly any meat.

Even if you raise your own, unless you grow your own grains--not an option for me, you will end up feeding GMO corn--so you too can be "Roundup Ready" :laughing: I think we are in an intermediate stage between the real foods of the past and the test tube delights of the future.

Luckily for those around me there are many non GMO sources still around, but you're unfortunately right. The corporations are slowly getting rid of the family farms. I'm just shocked that those in a rural living forum are apparently comfortable with that.

MossRoad · Nov 19, 2012

NorTracNY said:
Luckily for those around me there are many non GMO sources still around, but you're unfortunately right. The corporations are slowly getting rid of the family farms. I'm just shocked that those in a rural living forum are apparently comfortable with that.

I can pretty much guarantee that 99% of the membership here does not make their living as a family farm and do work for a corporation. Some of those corporations actually provide a decent living and you only have to work 40 hours a week VS 12X7 on a farm. After visiting many farmer friends, I was shocked that they have almost no social life and are "wed to the farm" so-to-speak(especially dairy farmers). Most family farmers also have regular jobs too, now, because farming alone cannot pay the bills and they cannot provide adequately for their families on farming alone.

A friend of mine (and some family members, too) raises beef and sells it to their friends and family at near cost. It is more expensive by quite a bit. It makes no economic sense at all. We buy it because we know them, like them and trust them. We are fortunate to be able to afford it. But tell me who in their right mind, facing financial uncertainty at home, would pay 5 times the price for a turkey because it is a brand name?

Furu · Nov 19, 2012

I stopped buying the "high end" turkeys years ago due to the injections that they are guilty of putting in them so they do not turn out "dry". If properly cooked, turkey is not dry. The lower end turkeys have less injections of stuff, at least according to the labels the government requires companies to put on the birds. I know I can taste a high sodium content with the brand name birds than with the low end birds. So which is more pumped up with additives?

dave1949 · Nov 19, 2012

NorTracNY said:
Luckily for those around me there are many non GMO sources still around, but you're unfortunately right. The corporations are slowly getting rid of the family farms. I'm just shocked that those in a rural living forum are apparently comfortable with that.

Well, I'm sure some aren't happy with it, and some are not aware of it, and some see no problem with it.

My biggest issue with food is the lack of labeling requirements. I don't know how the free market is supposed to function when there is no accurate information. You really cannot tell what you are buying, where it is sourced from, or where it is processed. I don't think it's very realistic to say, "Just don't buy those items." Besides the problem of how to know which items I shouldn't buy, that would eliminate 95% of the items in the store.

To me, a grain that has foreign DNA spliced into it is not just grain. I should be able to know if I am buying real grain, or grain plus some other genetic material. I might decide I care or don't care, but to make that decision I need information. The free market is after all, the sum of many individual choices. And that doesn't address the legal assault-paid for with consumer dollars--on anyone, from consumers to small producers, who tries to challenge them.

There is all sorts of stuff going on. For example, if a saturated fat is chemically altered to another form of saturated fat, then the label can say "0 trans fats" and it is perfectly legal although far from ethical. People buy those products thinking they are avoiding high cholesterol foods when they are not. To me, that is a real health issue.