The Inkling Volume 2

Turkey Farms
Dedicated to lewis chapman
This might seem like quite a random article: after all, who cares about turkey
farming? Well, after a conversation with a friend about his favourite topic, I
realised that the journey your turkey takes to get to your Thanksgiving plate or
your Christmas dinner is pretty crazy considering we just ignore it - again, a
special thanks to Lewis Chapman (with some help from Mrs Hardwick), as
without him I would never have discovered the hidden world of farming.
Disclaimer: Vegetarians may find some parts of this disturbing, sorry…
Step 1: The Farms
When I say ‘turkey farm’, you probably think of a field with some clucking birds
in it. In the sad reality, most turkeys come from battery farms - rows of tightly
packed cages in dirty conditions, where the sole purpose is to fatten up the
poor birds to be sold for high prices at low costs. However, there is a better
option, with cleaner conditions and, more importantly, with the turkeys able to
wander freely - free range turkey farms. These farms are fighting a price war
against the battery farms, and gaining sales and popularity each year (after all,
a happy turkey is definitely better than a cheap one from a battery farm). Once
10 million of these turkeys (yes, 10 million - and that’s each year) are eventually
killed, they are drained of blood, plucked and prepared, they are ready to move
onto the next phase of their journey.
Step 2: The Voyage
I’m sure this might be shocking for some of you, but not all turkey farms are
located in the UK; turkey farming is an international business, and in order for
that lovely turkey to travel from Peru to your local Tescos, they need to be
flown. Cargo planes provide transport for approximately 7 million turkeys each
year, travelling across continents just to get to a shop near you. However, it's
not like the planes go directly to the shops (my Sainsbury’s definitely doesn't
have a runway). After spending an average of five hours travelling in these cold
cargo planes, these turkey planes touch down at the airport, ready to move to
their next location.