Every Thanksgiving, I come across at least one ad or article about “heritage turkeys.” And I always get the impression that they are just another vegan-super-expensive-high-quality-psuedo-organic fad. This year I’ve seen at least six ads on Facebook alone, so I finally caved in and decided to do some research on heritage turkeys—after all, it might have something to do with science!

Basically, there are two types of turkeys: white industrial turkeys, and several breeds of “heritage” turkeys that closely resemble the wild ones hunted by Pilgrims and Native Americans. Both descended from the same wild ancestors, but the white turkeys have been selectively bred over hundreds of years to grow as fast as possible and produce the most amount of meat. As a result, they can no longer fly. Because they are so top-heavy and it’s hard for them to walk or even stand up after a certain age, they can’t mate, so they have to be artificially inseminated. And while wild turkeys are intelligent and aggressive (Benjamin Franklin considered it a symbol of “the temper and conduct of America”), white industrial ones are apparently very dim-witted because of all the inbreeding.

Bill Niman, who raises both breeds on his ranch, observed that “not only did the industry breed the ability to fly and [procreate] out of the white birds; they bred the personality out of them too. It’s hard to interact with them—they have limited cerebral capacity.”

In addition, white turkeys are dramatically less healthy—they are more prone to disease and require a lot of antibiotics in their diet, and have a lifespan of twelve months while heritage turkeys can live for seven years.

Selective breeding seems to have done some crazy things in this case; heritage and white turkeys are about as similar as German shepherds and pugs. Finding out all of this has made me really interested in getting a heritage turkey this year. Not surprisingly, they are extremely expensive and can cost as much as $7 per pound because they take so long to raise and require so much living space. But it might be a worthwhile investment, especially compared to the moral baggage of buying (and supporting) something that’s the product of extreme industrialization and shady farming practices and messing with biology in a way that’s not really beneficial to anyone. We should definitely look into this more!

Sources:

http://www.localharvest.org/features/heritage-turkeys.jsp

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/genetically-modified-turkey1.htm