Turkey has become a centerpiece of holiday meals and family gatherings. However, there are many ethical and health reasons to avoid eating turkey. Here are 12 reasons why turkey is bad for you and the environment.
1. Turkeys Suffer on Factory Farms
Over 99% of turkeys raised for meat in the U.S live on factory farms. These cramped, filthy environments cause extreme stress and health problems for turkeys. To prevent injuries from overcrowded conditions, baby turkeys have their beaks and toes cut off without painkillers Many turkeys develop leg problems and respiratory illnesses.
2. “Humane” Labels Are Misleading
While some turkey products boast “free-range” or “humane” labels, most of these farms have similar intensive conditions. There are no federal standards for “free-range” poultry, so these labels are not reliably ethical. Watchdog groups have found abused, sick turkeys at farms with Humane Farm Care Certifications.
3. Transport and Slaughter Are Inhumane
Catching and transporting turkeys to slaughter causes bruises broken bones and deaths. At slaughterhouses, fast line speeds result in many birds missing the throat-cutting blade and being scalded alive. There are no federal laws for humane poultry slaughter.
4. E. Coli and Salmonella Risks
Turkey products frequently test positive for dangerous pathogens like Salmonella and E. Coli. The crowded, unsanitary conditions of factory farms promote disease. The overuse of antibiotics leads to antibiotic-resistant superbugs that endanger human health.
5. Negative Environmental Impacts
Industrial turkey farming generates immense amounts of air and water pollution from massive amounts of waste. Producing just one serving of turkey meat generates 1.49 kg of CO2 emissions. Eutrophication from phosphorus in poultry waste causes algal blooms and dead zones.
6. Unhealthy for Your Body
Despite perceptions of turkey as a healthy meat, it is high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Turkey skin is full of artery-clogging saturated fat. Studies show meat-eaters have a 50% higher risk of heart disease than vegans. The World Health Organization has declared processed meats like turkey bacon to be carcinogenic.
7. Harmful to Your Taste Buds
Traditional turkey meat is notoriously dry and bland without salty brines, butter injections, and heavy basting. Relying on flavors from fats, oils, brines and rubs shows that turkey itself has little redeeming taste. Comparatively, plant-based roasts can be very flavorful without additives.
8. Wasteful Use of Resources
It takes significant land, water, fossil fuels and feed crops to raise turkeys. Producing just one pound of turkey meat requires 77 gallons of water. With millions of people hungry worldwide, these resources could nourish more people if used directly for plant crops instead.
9. Taxpayer Burden for Waste Disposal
Turkey waste and runoff impose cleanup costs on municipalities. Failing to regulate factory farm pollution properly shifts these taxpayer costs away from corporate producers. Subsidizing meat production with public funds encourages overproduction.
10. Turkey Consumption is Declining
Per capita turkey consumption has dropped since 1970s peaks, according to USDA data. In 2020, turkey consumption was 16 pounds per person, down from 17.5 pounds per person in 1995. Consumers are shifting away from turkey for health, environmental and ethical reasons.
11. Delicious Plant-Based Alternatives Exist
With realistic turkey roasts from Tofurky and Field Roast, homemade seitan roasts, roasts stuffed with plant-based stuffing, and even turkey roasts baked in puff pastry, skipping turkey has never been easier or tastier! New options emerge every year.
12. Avoid Supporting Cruelty
Choosing plant-based foods is a powerful act of compassion. By not demanding turkey meat, you withdraw support for industries that abuse these sensitive, intelligent birds. Your choices can motivate progress toward kinder foods.
This Thanksgiving and holiday season, opt for a delicious plant-based main dish. With so many reasons to avoid turkey, transitioning to a turkey-free table has compelling benefits for health, ethics and sustainability.
Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Turkeys
During this holiday season of peace and good will, anyone can save a turkey like Lofty by choosing a veggie meal for the holiday feast. Take it a step further by making a veggie diet your New Years resolution, and youll save hundreds of Loftys and Babes and other dear animals who dont want to die in the new year!
Need more motivation to erase the turkeys, chickens, pigs and other animals from your holiday grocery list? In one step, you can sweep away worries about your waistline, catering to veggie visitors and your guilty conscience simply by exploring super-tasty vegetarian meals.
In nature, turkeys are inquisitive and intelligent birds, but when they are reared for slaughter, they endure lives of suffering and terrifying deaths.
Here are 10 (out of a million!) good reasons to carve out a new tradition by flocking to vegetarian fare during this holiday season.
Turkeys have personalities, just as dogs and cats do. According to Oregon State University poultry scientist Tom Savage, turkeys are social and playful. Of course, Mr and Mrs Wickersham, who took in Genevieve, a rescued turkey, could tell you that. Genevieve comes when she is called, loves classical music and dances to the flute. Turkeys relish having their feathers stroked and will “sing” along to their favourite tunes.
In factory farms, turkeys are crowded together so tightly that flapping a wing or stretching a leg is close to impossible. To prevent stress-induced fighting, their beaks are often cut off with a red-hot blade. At the abattoir, the birds are stunned by having their heads plunged into an electrically-charged water bath, but some birds are not rendered unconscious and are scalded to death in the defeathering tank.
There is no fibre in turkey meat, but there is cholesterol – a whopping 83 mg in a 112 g serving, which also contains 8.3 g of fat, including 2.4 g of saturated fat. Turkey is not a “health” food compared to truly healthy foods such as beans, veggies, fruits, grains and nuts. Research has shown that meat-eaters are a whopping 50 per cent more likely to develop heart disease and nine times more likely to be obese than vegans.
Experts warn that a virulent new strain of bird flu could spread to humans. Cooking a turkey can adequately kill bacteria and viruses, but even a little of what makes you ill can lurk on cutting boards and utensils and thus spread to hands or foods that wont be cooked.
If you want the taste of turkey without the ethical dilemma or cholesterol, there is a cornucopia of turkey alternatives, including Redwood Foods Cheatin Roast Turkey and Celebration Roast, which comes ready-sliced with gravy and gourmet sausages wrapped in Streaky Style Vegetarian Rashers. Realeat Veggie Roast comes with stuffing and can be topped with Redwoods Cheatin Bacon.
Dosing turkeys with antibiotics to control the diseases that spread rapidly in filthy, crowded sheds poses even more risks for people who eat them. Leading health organisations, including the World Health Organisation, have warned that by giving powerful drugs (via animal products) to humans who are not sick, the farmed-animal industry is creating possible long-term risks to human health and will spread antibiotic-resistant supergerms.
Anyone who has driven by a factory farm has probably smelled it first from a mile away. Turkeys and other animals raised for food produce tons of excrement, all without the benefit of waste-treatment systems. The methane gas produced by turkey waste pollutes the air and contributes to global warming.
Millions of people go hungry and thirsty in the developing world while grain and water are squandered on the developed worlds factory farms. Why should we feed grain to turkeys to produce meat when many more people could be fed if the grain was fed directly to them?
Lets face it: If youre eating a turkey, thats a corpse on your table, and if you dont eat it quickly enough, it will decompose. Is that really what we want as the centerpiece of a holiday meal: an animals dead and decaying carcass? Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill, so why not extend those sentiments to turkeys too?
There are all sorts of killer bacteria found in turkey flesh, including salmonella and campylobacter. The governments Food Standards Agency has written a detailed 1,000-word guide for cooking turkeys in an attempt to reduce the large number of people who contract debilitating (and sometimes fatal) food poisoning every year.
How Has Turkey Been Going?
FAQ
Why is eating turkey a problem?
Eating too much lean turkey or chicken can be problematic if it leads to an imbalanced diet, excessive protein intake, or lack of variety. Overconsumption may strain kidneys, increase cholesterol (if skin is consumed), or expose you to additives in processed meats.
What makes turkey unhealthy?
Potential culprits include the trans fat in meat, the saturated fat, cholesterol, heme iron, advanced glycation end products (glycotoxins), animal protein …
Why is turkey a high risk food?
Harmful bacteria can easily splash from raw meat and poultry onto worktops, chopping boards, dishes and utensils. Germs that cause food poisoning can also linger for days in the sink. Up to 80% of people significantly increase the risk of food poisoning by washing their turkeys before cooking them.
Is turkey meat forbidden in the Bible?
God also lists birds and other flying creatures that are unclean for consumption (verses 13-19). He identifies carrion eaters and birds of prey as unclean, plus ostriches, storks, herons and bats. Birds such as chickens, turkeys and pheasants are not on the unclean list and therefore can be eaten.