How to Enjoy a Guilt-free Thanksgiving

This is the time of year that turkeys become frazzled. I am sure I would be, too, if I had no idea of when I was to meet my fate. Will I end up in a huge Thanksgiving buffet at the Holiday Inn or will I look fabulous on a designer silver platter at Lionel Richie's house?

The good news for now is that California passed Proposition 2 last week, which guarantees humane treatment of animals raised for food production. This will result in future generations of Tom the Turkey having happier lives that benefit the end consumer with better quality meat and a peace of mind. With Prop 2 limited to California, how do we make the right choices when balancing preparation of a tasty holiday meal and ensuring that our meal is eco-friendly, sustainably-produced and cost-effective whereever we are?

There are no easy answers for this particular problem.  Lou Bendrick at Grist recently wrote an article evaluating three types of birds: mail-order heritage breeds, local pasture-raised turkeys and organic birds from the local supermarket. He provides great pros and cons within the article, weighing transportation costs for mail-order birds versus local and the difference in taste (mainly derived from fat versus lean muscle in the bird).

Interestingly, one of the article's commenters presented an interesting argument — that the environmental cost of transporting grain to locally-raised birds may outweigh the benefit of going local in the first place. Transporting a five pound bird has much less impact than a bag of 100-pound grain to feed that "local" bird. This makes sense.

As an alternative to enduring this guilt, the commenter suggests Gentle Thanksgiving, a great site to help you go all vegetarian at your Thanksgiving dinner this year (I can just hear the guests grumbling about this one). If carving the Thanksgiving artichoke might not be your cup of tea, Shirley Gregory offers up some great tips for a sustainable but more traditional Thanksgiving here. But, let me throw out another idea.

Maybe the best decision for a green and happy Thanksgiving is to limt travel, invite no family members to visit from St. Louis and other fly-worthy locales and simplify your holiday experience altogether. Think of the carbon emissions savings from a stress-free afternoon watching football (again, no travel) and drinking organic wine. This approach may help you enjoy your supermarket non-organic Butterball bird guilt-free. As for Tom the Turkey — better luck next year!