Where: The Twittersphere (and Grist.org)
When: Tuesday, November 22 at 1 p.m., East Coast /10 am, West Coast
Who: People with things to say about turkey, Thanksgiving, and aggressive napping
Why: Who gets any real work done in a holiday week, anyway?
This Thanksgiving, the hard choices begin well before Uncle Bob hits the whiskey. In fact, they start on the plate: Should you buy heritage bird? And why, as a Grist reader asked recently, are there so few “other alternatives between $7.50/pound heritage breed and $0.75/pound conventionally-raised turkeys.”
This is a time when the whole nation comes together around food. So why not throw a few tough questions in the mix? And through the lens of this maligned, (but delicious!) species, no less (If nothing else, it’ll give you something to talk about around the dinner table.)
Have you heard that 99% of conventionally raised turkeys are artificially inseminated? What really happens to the turkeys that get adopted? What does it really take to produce the 40,000+ birds (over a billion pounds of meat) Americans will eat in just one day — plus a few million sandwiches afterward. Which reminds me: where does food waste enter the discussion?
Clearly these are juicy questions. I’ll be co-hosting a live Twitter chat this Tuesday with Leslie Hatfield (@lesliehatfield) of Ecocentric (a blog about food, water, and energy, by the folks who brought you the Meatrix). We’ll dive into these questions like so much holiday stuffing. And don’t worry — Thanksgiving’s supporting players will make an appearance as well. For instance: Should we be worried about BPA in canned Thanksgiving foods like cranberry sauce, or the condensed milk that makes it so easy to bake a pumpkin pie “from scratch?”
Bring your questions and answers. We’ll see you there!
