"I Can't Have Sex"

I had previously heard that turkeys used in today’s industrial production are artificially inseminated, but I was not aware of the scale of this operation or the fact that man’s use of turkey artificial insemination is due to selective breeding. As it turns out, the turkeys used in industrial production today are significantly different from wild turkeys.
Selective breeding has a long history within food producing industries, however it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the Large Breasted White Turkey came to dominate the turkey industry. According to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, “By 1965, the new Large Breasted White had nearly taken over the turkey market”. This is due to the fact that the Large Breasted White Turkeys could produce more meat (especially white meat), and could be slaughtered at a younger age than other breeds. Unfortunately, developing such a meaty bird has created its own set of problems. Specifically the fact that the, “low fertility of heavy, broad-breasted turkey lines, has prompted almost complete integration of artificial insemination into commercial production". Agriculture Research Service poultry physiologist Ann M. Donoghue said that, “essentially 100 percent of the nearly 300 million turkeys produced annually in the United States for consumption are the result of artificial insemination”. The male turkey's breasts are so developed that they cannot have sex themselves. We have created an animal that cannot reproduce on its own. THIS IS NOT NATURAL and how can it be healthy? It's just weird. It is interesting to note that consumer demand has driven us into a situation where we are raising essentially man-made animals that are unable to reproduce naturally. As a consumer I feel that it is now very important to pay attention to breed selection, and it seems that there are other groups such as Slow Food USA who are helping the public pay attention to it as well. One way they are doing this is through their “Ark Of Taste” initiative. This program promotes the consumption of foods in danger of extinction (Slow Food USA). We, the consumer, created the demand for an unnatural turkey. Surely we can turn the demand back towards more environmentally sound practices.
Visit:

-www.slowfoodusa.org

-"Turkey's Ghrelin Gene Sequenced" by Sharon Durham. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, April 2004:
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2004/040430.htm

-"Revolutionizing Turkey Production: Functional Genomics is the Driving Force" by Rosalie Marion Bliss. From Agricultural Research, September 2004:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep04/turkey0904.htm

-"Turkeys: Beltsville Small White." The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy:
www.albc-usa.org/cpl/belt.html

-I also HIGHLY recommend looking into a local free range organic turkey farm near you. Visit it and look not only at the living conditions and type of feed being used but think about the breed of turkey being raised.