For millions of Americans, Thanksgiving is a day to express gratitude and celebrate spending time with loved ones, but of course, for millions of turkeys, it’s something entirely different.
Despite turkey being almost ubiquitous on Thanksgiving plates, Southland families who want to celebrate the holiday guilt-free have a surprising number of other food options.
The most popular vegan option for holiday dinners is Tofurky, an Oregon-based company founded in 1980 by Seth Tibbott, a teacher, naturalist, and self-proclaimed hippie. The company debuted a tofu-based holiday roast in 1995. Tofurky Roast and other products are available at many supermarkets in California and can be purchased online for about $15.
Several other companies have followed suit and developed their own vegan roasts in recent years, including Gardein, Field Roast, Quorn, Country Life, and Trader Joe’s.
Veg Out Magazine’s website (vegoutmag.com/food-and- drink/where-to-pick-up-a-vegan- thanksgiving-feast-in-) has a guide to where to buy vegan holiday meals in Los Angeles. There is a guide for this. Los Angeles/. This website also offers holiday recipes at vegoutmag.com/food-and-drink/vegan-thanksgiving-meal-guide/.
The largest in-person vegan event in Los Angeles is the Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck, held in the Cheviot Hills area south of Century City. It will be held Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2551 Motor Avenue near the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. Held annually for more than 20 years, the potluck typically draws several hundred people and features live music and open mics.
Other Southland animal rights groups are also busy celebrating the holiday in different ways.
Farm Sanctuary is conducting its 38th annual Adopt-A-Turkey Project. For a $35 donation, people can symbolically adopt a rescued turkey, or for $135 they can sponsor an entire flock, allowing the animals to live out their natural lives on one of the group’s spacious farms. You can send it to us. Donors who donate $35 will receive an adoption certificate with a photo of Serena “The Swiftie”, Thelma “The Tender Heart”, Freya “The Introvert” or Ferris “The Underdog” .
In addition to caring for rescued birds, the sponsorship also supports the organization’s other efforts at its farms in Acton and Watkins Glen, New York, which rescue animals in need and provide consumers with U.S. food supplies. Educate about the realities of the system and end factory farming.
The group has sponsored the program since 1986, and some of the turkey stories can be viewed at www.farmsanctuary.org/adopt-a-turkey.
The group petitioned President Joe Biden to grant a “true pardon” by sending the pardoned turkeys to one of Farm Sanctuary’s facilities during a White House ceremony this year.
“Celebrating Thanksgiving without a dead turkey in the middle of the table reflects the growing movement away from the cruelty of factory farming,” said Gene Baur, President and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary. said in a statement provided to City News Service. “When we choose considerate plant-based foods, we respect the lives of other animals and create kinder habits for future generations.”
Mercy for Animals, an international animal protection nonprofit headquartered in Los Angeles, is offering a free copy of the group’s holiday cookbook to anyone who pledges to pardon a turkey over the holidays. Turkey” campaign has been launched. Plant-Based Holidays: Tasty Recipes for a Turkey-Free Dinner. ”
The group also promotes the ChooseVeg guide as a resource for incorporating plant-based foods into holiday meals. Available at https://chooseveg.com/.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is also promoting a pledge not to eat turkey on Thanksgiving, in the sixth year of its “ThanksVegan” campaign. More information, including recipes, can be found at peta.org/thanksvegan/.
Last weekend, the National Humane Society hosted a Thanksgiving Vegan rally at the Kindred Spirits Care Farm Animal Sanctuary in Chatsworth, and on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, PETA volunteers took part at Glendale’s Brand Americana. We gave away 100 vegan roasts for free.
PETA also offers Tommy the AI Turkey, a friendly ChatGPT-powered kitchen helper who can answer questions like “What can I use instead of butter in the stuffing?” “Where can I buy a vegan turkey?”
Additionally, PETA produced a short family-friendly holiday film starring Toby the Turkey and screened it before screenings of Moana 2 in Indiana, Minnesota, and Kansas to teach young moviegoers that turkeys are just like humans. “Let them know that you feel joy, pain, and fear.” ”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 46 million turkeys will be killed for Thanksgiving dinner this year. And many animal rights activists say that even before animals are slaughtered, their short lives are filled with pain and fear.
Citing a 2006 study, PETA says, “Before becoming the centerpiece of a holiday, these gentle birds spend five to six months on farms, where thousands of turkeys are housed in 3.5 square feet of space per bird. “They are crammed into dark cabins with only a square foot space.” By Virginia Tech and State University. “To prevent the birds from scratching or pecking each other to death in very crowded conditions, workers cut off the birds’ toes and part of their upper beaks with a hot blade to remove the male nudes (snoods). is a flap of skin that runs from the beak to the tip (chest).No painkillers are used during this procedure.
“Genetic engineering has enabled farmers to produce muscular birds that can weigh nearly 40 pounds in just four months,” the group added.
“Factory-farmed turkeys are so large that they can barely walk, fly like their wild cousins, or even engage in normal reproductive behavior, so all turkeys raised for human consumption are artificially grown. Pregnant through insemination,” PETA said. 2015 article by Nicholas Staropoli for the National Council on Science and Health.
In fact, the average size of turkeys raised in the United States has nearly doubled since the 1960s, from 18 pounds to 32 pounds, according to product lifecycle management company Trace One.
The National Turkey Federation, an organization founded in 1940 to sell animals as food, did not respond to a request for comment about the welfare of factory-farmed turkeys, but the organization says on its website that states that they are “raised in a specially designed environment.” Environmentally controlled barns that provide maximum protection from predators, disease and extreme weather. Except for breeding and transportation purposes, turkeys are allowed to roam freely within the house. ”
The group added: “To ensure that animal welfare practices are followed across the industry, the National Turkey Federation works closely with American turkey producers, veterinarians, and industry experts to ensure that birds that are healthy in the environment. We have developed and maintained strict standards of conduct and animal care guidelines to raise the animals.” Provide a safe environment for turkeys at every stage of their life cycle. ”
Some vegans use Thanksgiving as another opportunity to promote the environmental benefits of a plant-based diet.
“Studies have shown that turkey emits twice as much emissions as a vegan roast, so cutting it out of your diet can cut your carbon footprint in half,” Sherman Oaks said Ellen Dent of the Animal Alliance Network, a group based in . is part of a global animal protection movement.
The top turkey producing states are Minnesota, North Carolina, and Arkansas. California ranks low on the list, producing 6.2 million turkeys a year, about 2.8 percent of the U.S. total, according to the National Turkey Federation.
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