Gobble gobble: Turkey prices jump three times inflation

“Official inflation statistics suggest the price should only have risen 19.3 percent to $19.09. Part of the cost increase may be due to ethanol mandates driving up corn prices. Another effect is the government’s underreporting of inflation,” he wrote on the blog for his Virginia-based firm, Marotta Wealth Management.

Marotta said that because turkey eating is an irregular event for Americans, it is often used as an indicator for inflation. But he said there are a lot of factors at play when figuring out the price of a turkey, including corn prices now that ethanol is taking a sizable chunk of the dietary supplement.

And even more, he described the tricks used to fatten and flavor up America’s bird that might drive some to a vegan meal.

For example, he said, the typical broad breasted bird eaten at Thanksgiving gets too fat too fast, interfering with mating. “Their large breasts get in the way of normal mating so they are artificially inseminated,” he blogged with co-author Megan Russell.

Most are caged, so they have their upper beaks clipped to avoid fighting injuries.

Since disease spread so fast, they are fed a heavy dose of antibiotics and those transfer to Thanksgiving guests.

And, he added, “Factory-farmed birds are often injected with a salt and flavor solution and then sold as so-called self-basting turkeys. Because the solution is mostly water, it merely increases the weight and thus the cost without increasing the substance. Its does create a finished product that appears incredibly moist without much work. However, the apparent juiciness is a salt solution, not tastier meat juices.”

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].