Food For Thought – Talking Turkey

This week on Food For Thought, I talked turkey with three researchers who say you should think more about where your Christmas turkey comes from.  To listen to the 6-minute documentary as an mp3 file, click here .   Most of the turkeys raised in Canada stay within their own provincial borders for processing, so you are fairly assured a Canadian bird you buy for Christmas is relatively ‘local’.  But non-organic birds are raised in higher concentrations with a smaller genetic pool and are fed anti-biotics as part of their diet, according to Dr. Art Bomke, a professor in the Land and Food Systems Faculty at the University of British Columbia.

Professor Bomke, shown here, as well as Land and Food Systems doctoral students Yona Sipos and Liska Richer, were originally interviewed about turkeys and sustainable food systems for this edition of UBC Reports at Thanksgiving, but certainly their thoughts on these issues are valid any time of year.  If you want to listen to our entire conversation, you can check out my latest All You Can Eat podcast called Talking Turkey.