Map Monday, Thanksgiving turkey edition

On this coming Thanksgiving more than 300 million Americans will sit down and consume cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, mashed potatoes, and for the non-vegetarians, of course turkey.  According to the National Turkey Federation (NTF), nearly 50 million turkeys will be cooked (I’m assuming no one will eat them raw and I’m discounting pre-cooked turkeys) on that single day – that’s roughly 20% of the almost quarter billion birds eaten each year.  For what it’s worth Christmas and Easter mark the end for another 39 million birds.  Of the remaining 150 million fowl 110 million will be eaten in the US primarily as deli meats and lower fat alternatives to beef.  The last 40 million are exported.

So were do all of those turkeys come from?  Surprisingly the largest producer, at 44 million birds was Minnesota.  North Carolina consistently finishes in second with about 10 million fewer turkeys and the bronze medal goes to Arkansas with 28 million.  The other turkey production leaders are shown in this week’s feature map which comes courtesy of UC Berkeley Earth Sciences and Map Library.  The map’s data is from 2007, but with turkey production flat since 2005 (according to the NTF) it’s probably close to what things are like today.  Basically it’s the best map I found, so I went with it.

Fun facts about our favorite fowl to feast upon

1.  A typical turkey consists of 70% white meat and 30% dark meat (light has less fat and fewer calories).
2. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s first meal on the moon consisted of turkey and all the trimmings.
3. The average American consumes nearly 16 lbs of turkey each year.  Canadians are the next highest consumers at 9 1/4 lbs.
4. While domesticated turkeys cannot fly, wild turkeys can fly faster than 50 miles/hour.
5. To avoid predators wild turkeys sleep in trees.
6. Only male turkeys gobble.  Females make a clicking noise.
7. Benjamin Franklin was dismayed that the bald eagle, “a bird of low moral character” was selected as our national symbol.  However, he never proposed it as a substitute he did praise the turkey.
8. With eyes on the side of their heads turkeys possess a 360 degree field of vision.
9. Turkeys have two stomachs.  The second known as a gizzard includes swallowed stones (gastroliths) which help break down the bird’s food.
10. Wild populations in the US dipped to 30,000, but in the last 100 years have risen to nearly 7 million.

As always thanks for reading.

Armen