02/18/2026
"I’ll own my bias as a turkey farmer but I don’t think turkey’s story as a versatile protein option has been well told. From the vantage point of a turkey guy, we're often the forgotten meat, when stories (and menus) feature beef, pork, and chicken. And, frankly, chicken seems to steal most of the spotlight with consumption growth each year. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy chicken like the rest of us, but turkey farmers everywhere wonder why turkey never found its nugget, wing, or Nashville hot equivalent.
Credit where credit is due, the chicken business has done a terrific of expanding into all types of menus, but I think it would surprise most people to know how dramatically chicken consumption has eclipsed all other meats in America. It wasn’t that long ago that beef was America’s meat of choice. Today, we consume 80% more chicken than beef. Even McDonald’s sells more chicken than beef, despite their burger roots. More strikingly to me, Americans consume nearly 10 times more pounds of chicken than turkey each year.
I think most turkey farmers would agree that turkey somehow stands just outside the spotlight. After all, there’s nothing you can do with other poultry that can’t be done with turkey. While we don’t have the dollars for a catchy national campaign (think “Got Turkey?” or “The Original White Meat!”), I’ll start my grassroots campaign here and encourage you to try a turkey tenderloin in place of a chicken breast. Or, to be equal opportunity, choose a turkey burger or a turkey bratwurst for a lean, high protein swap to diversify our national meat mix.
The campaign has officially launched. Someday we’ll all be eating jumbo turkey wings for the Super Bowl!"
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