Talk:Heritage turkey

A fact from Heritage turkey appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 September 2008, and was viewed approximately 7,154 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that heritage turkeys (pictured) are the only domestic turkeys able to reproduce without artificial insemination? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/September.

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I edited this page at little, today. Here's a note I sent to the author:

"Hi Steve. I removed one tiny section from the Heritage Turkey sections today, and [have made] a few more small edits.

I'm founder and president of the Heritage Turkey Foundation and have been a part of this movement since its beginning. If you'd like to follow up on any of this, feel free to call or write me. You can find us at HeritageTurkeyFoundation.org. We're non-profit and have no financial interest whatever in this new field.

One very good thing about it has been that many small family farms have found it a lifesaving business area, as we hoped they would. See the listings at LocalHarvest.org.

The edit I made is to remove the comment implying that the term "heirloom turkey" is synonymous with Heritage Turkey. This is not correct. Here's the background: Patrick Martins and I first introduced Heritage Turkeys to retail stores by contacting the owners of the four major independent, premium, "boutique", "speciality" turkey growers in California and asking them to grow Heritage Turkeys and sell them in the retail market through retail grocers. I then contacted a number of premium retail grocery chains and persuaded them to sell the turkeys, mainly in California. This effort was successful.

The only producer still selling them is Pitman Farms, selling as Mary's Turkeys. Patrick also went on to found Heritage Foods, a mail-order retailer.

One of the farmers we contacted, Diestel Turkeys, decided to go its own way with a non-Heritage breed, but still one of the older breeds, the Broad-Breasted Bronze. This is the ancestor of the current Broad-Breasted White Frankenturkey. It can't mate naturally and is therefore not a heritage breed. Tim Diestel marketed this breed as an "heirloom turkey", with Whole Foods and other retailers. I believe there was a flap about this a few years ago when consumers in LA realized that these were not a Heritage Turkey. I've heard that the Southwestern Region of Whole Foods dropped them. You could probably confirm this by contacting Whole Foods' Office of Compassionate Animal Production in Austen. I was very concerned that the "heirloom" turkey not be confused with real Heritage Turkeys. The Diestels undoubtedly produce very good quality range turkeys.

I'm not experienced in editing Wikipedia so I haven't added the information in this e-mail to any discussion. Feel free to quote any or all of it.

Another change I plan to make the the Heritage Turkey article is to emphasize how very tiny the number of real Heritage Turkeys is. More than 200,000,000 frankenturkeys are sold each year. Numbers of real Heritage Turkeys are hard to track, but fewer than 50,000 are grown each year. My current guess would be around 25,000. Naturally, they are very hard for retail customers to find although I think we've "turned the corner" on this, this year. The number should steadily increase from now one.

Thank you for your article. I should have thought of writing one myself but I find the Wikipedia interface a little intimidating."

Mastrude (talk) 23:39, 19 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for signing up and for helping out with the article. The only change I've made is to remove the last sentence you added. I did this because you stated an opinion ("considered a great success") without attributing that opinion to an organization or individual. Since Wikipedia cannot

reliable published source. Otherwise, I really appreciate your edits. I'm glad we could resolve the difference between heirloom and heritage turkeys; I wasn't aware that Broad-breasted Whites were being marketed as heirloom birds. Steven Walling 23:52, 19 October 2009 (UTC)[reply

]

Mastrude (talk) 01:34, 20 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The initiators of this project knew from the beginning that it could be a great success. Americans love their turkeys, and many have been greatly distressed for decades over the disgusting way many or most commercial poultry are raised. To have the involvement of culinary organizations like Slow Food, with scientific organizations like American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, and with humane organizations like the Animal Welfare Institute and Whole Foods' Office of Humane Animal Production, makes an unbeatable combination." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mastrude (talk • contribs) 01:34, 20 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mastrude (talk) 01:08, 21 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for looking for a source, but an ALBC press release is not a

reliable, published source (like a book, newspaper, magazine article etc.) It doesn't quite qualify in terms of what need for sourcing. Since we're quoting their statement I think it's okay, but in the future I'd avoid using it. Steven Walling 01:45, 20 October 2009 (UTC)[reply

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