What have we done to turkeys??

      Like a lot of our food today turkeys have been significantly modified to meet consumer expectations.  Here are a few things that you may want to know about turkeys today:
1) The average weight of a turkey raised today is 29 pounds--about 121% of what they weighed 75 years ago.
2) Breeders have to clip the beaks of turkeys so they don't injure other turkeys in their confined surroundings
3) Because they grow so large so quickly that don't have lungs and hearts that can adequately support their weight and suffer from lung and heart problems.  They also suffer from leg and feet problems because of their weight.
4) Most male turkeys are too large to breed so artificial insemination is used to breed turkeys. This is because the breasts of a farm raised turkeys are 2-3 times the size of a wild turkey.
5) The life span of a wild turkey is 10 years but factory raised turkeys are killed at 5 months.

To listen to how we got to our situation today listen to this podcast from Freakonomics.

Anyone for a tofu turkey??