Don’t Blame Your Farmers
Did you catch the news this week that according to the United Nations, Earth’s human population surpassed 8 billion with 339 million of us here in the United States? And it seemed like every darn one of them were at market last week looking for eggs. Now the ones who haven’t yet ordered their turkeys are trying to track down a bird for Thanksgiving dinner.
When I was standing in line at my local grocery store, according to the check-out lady it’s our current administration’s fault there aren’t enough turkeys to go around and if you can get one, it’s too expensive. I was extremely tempted to set the record straight until recalling the advice of Sam Clemens who said, “Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” Recognizing I was deep in hostile territory I kept my mouth shut.
There are a lot of moving parts in our food supply, this year having more than one monkey wrench clogging up the gears. Let’s look at some of the factors offering lessons in supply and demand this holiday season.
Remember the saying, “Think globally, act locally”? Unless you’ve been living under a rock since February this year you might have noticed that there’s a war happing in the breadbasket of the world. When you’re at the farmers market and you’re favorite vendor is out of what you want, you’ll go to the next vendor offering the exact same product. Even if the price is a bit more, you’ll pay it because you need/want that particular product. The same thing is happening with the world’s grain markets causing prices to increase for animal feedstocks all over the world.
Add into those same increases the costs of fuel, also rising due to supply and demand (not the gub’mint). Planting, harvesting, processing, and transporting feedstocks takes fuel at every step of the way.
Some of you are saying I get it, just give me my turkey, and take my money, but this year it’s not that simple either.
There’s this little issue, little as in virus. No, not COVID19, but avian influenza (H5n1). It’s taken out over 49 million birds in 46 states, 4 million birds in Pennsylvania alone. This has reduced the nation’s egg, chicken, and turkey production leading to record price increases for these items. Complain to your elected officials all you want; they can’t reduce your grocery bill for holiday feasts.
Given the increased costs and additional risks in raising holiday poultry, some farmers chose to forgo raising the big birds this year due to processing and labor challenges. Even I didn’t raise my own Thanksgiving dinner this year out of fear of ordering poults (baby turkeys) that may have carried in the virus. Some hatcheries affected by the virus didn’t even offer turkey poults for sale.
But for those brave souls who have spent the better part of their summer and fall attending to birds in the heat, the rain, the cold, birds getting loose, and who have invested a small fortune in feed for the turkeys to reach market weight, thank them when you pick up your Thanksgiving dinner this year instead of grumbling. Be grateful you’re being handed a clean, neat package ready for roasting. I’ve talked to farmers who have been flogged, scratched, and even had their fingers broken in the process of getting the birds from their pastures to being ready for your plates. There have been plenty of 4 AM wake-up calls and miles driven to turn a feathered dinosaur into a juicy meal.
So if you’re only now getting around to ordering turkey for dinner a week away, if you can’t find exactly what you want, don’t blame the farmer. Get a bigger bird and enjoy leftovers or get a smaller bird and make extra mashed potatoes and stuffing. But most importantly, be thankful for your farmers.