Ceremony will take place Tuesday, November 24th
By Diego Flammini, Farms.com
Families throughout the United States will be making their ways to grocery stores to pick up turkeys for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
Some turkeys across the country will be the most thankful as they will receive official pardons from government officials. As a result, they’ll be able to live out their days in comfort on farms around the United States.
In Utah, a lucky turkey will be chosen on Thursday afternoon to be pardoned. That bird will be honored at a ceremony scheduled for Tuesday, November 24th at 10:00am, at the Utah State Capitol North Plaza. The pardoned poultry will live out its days at Thanksgiving Point’s Farm Country and the turkey’s owner will receive a gift basket.
In Alabama, Governor Robert Bentley pardoned a turkey named Clyde from becoming part of a family’s thanksgiving festivities.
“By the power vested in me, I hereby pardon Clyde,” he said during the ceremony. “I want to pardon you from the succulent trappings of Thanksgiving dinner and may you live out the rest of your days in peace and happiness.”
A turkey from San Francisco will be getting the presidential treatment when it departs for Washington D.C. on Monday morning.
The bird will board a United Airlines flight, aptly named “Turkey One”. Once it arrives in Washington, a mock Secret Service detail will escort the bird to meet President Obama for an official pardon.
President Ronald Reagan pardoned the first turkey in 1987 and President George H.W. Bush made turkey pardoning an annual event.
Turkeys by the numbers:
- Total value of turkey production at the farm level in 2014 was $5.30 billion
- American turkey meat production in 2014 was 5.76 billion pounds
- The top five turkey producing states are Minnesota, Arkansas, North Carolina, Indiana and Missouri
According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, turkey meat production between January and September 2015 was 4.17 billion pounds, a 1.6% drop from the same time in 2014.
The total annual turkey meat production is estimated at 5.6 billion pounds – also down from 2014. The avian flu outbreak of 2015 contributed to 7.8 million birds being lost, with prices rising as a result. The wholesale price in October 2015 for a whole frozen hen turkey was $1.36 per pound, 17% higher than last year.