Three somewhat related subtopics here: Food, Wal-Mart, and Food
Why Turkey?
I’ve got a beef with having two holidays that seem to mandate the eating of what is typically a dry, somewhat tasteless fowl as the main event. How did this happen?
In 2001, about 272 million turkeys were raised. The National Turkey Federation estimates that 46 million of those turkeys were eaten at Thanksgiving, 22 million at Christmas and 19 million at Easter.
There is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim’s first thanksgiving, but through ages it became an indispensable part of the Thanksgiving tradition. The tradition of turkey is rooted in the ‘History Of Plymouth Plantation’, written by William Bradford some 22 years after the actual celebration.
Turkey is often regarded as the usual Christmas meal but appeared on the menu only around 1650 after European colonization of North America. It was introduced to Europe by Sebastian Cabot on his return from the New World. The bird got its name after merchants from Turkey made it a popular dish. Prior to this Swan, Goose, Peacock or Boar were associated with the Christmas feast.
A wild bird, native to America, was taken back to Europe and became “a popular dish at banquets held by the French nobility”. The wild turkey is then rediscovered by the Pilgrims, who had also brought domesticated turkeys from Europe, essentially creating the double-shot of turkey.
I still don’t know how it happened. But I bet the holiday meal would be different if all the above had all been about cattle. Or even the venison served at the first Thanksgiving.
Big Spender
The AlterNet story Mad In The USA includes this:
Giant retail chains like Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot, have been muscling large manufacturers to move their factories overseas, primarily to China. With more than nine percent of U.S. retail sales and a third of the market for numerous products from dog food to diapers, what Wal-Mart says, goes. The company does so much business in China that it ranks as the country’s 8th largest trading partner, ahead of Britain and Russia.
And a 11/23 LA Times article on Wal-Mart includes the following:
- Wal-Mart has 2,966 U.S. stores, with global sales of $244.5 billion and $8,039 million in net income. That’s nearly four times the sales of the fourth largest retailer, Kroger, and twice the sales of the second largest, France’s Carrefour Group.
- 4% of the growth in the U.S. economy’s productivity from 1995 to 1999 was due to Wal-Mart alone. It also forced competitors to be more efficient, driving the nation’s productivity even higher.
- They are 8% of the nonautomotive, nonrestaurant sales in the U.S.
- On average Wal-Mart’s wage-and-benefit package is $10 an hour less than those offered by unionized supermarkets.
- One vendor moved his production to China where workers earn 25¢ compared with $13 in Chicago.
Ahead of Russia and Britain? 8% of sales? Wow. That’s a lot of political / economic muscle.
Oh yeah, this ties in from all the food that was bought and the ongoing supermarket strike.
Speaking of Meat
Every year, Americans consume on average 60 hot dogs. When I eat them, it’s usually two dogs; just keeping up means having them slightly more frequently than every other week. My intake may be falling below average, which is a surprise because I’m mostly a carnivore.
A historical note from a page about hamburgers:
THE ALL AMERICAN (BUT ACTUALLY GERMAN) HOT DOG:
Sausages produced in Frankfurt, Germany, were introduced to American tastes in St. Louis, Missouri, during the 1880s. Harry Stevens popularized frankfurter sales at the Polo Grounds baseball park in New York City. The term “hot dog” was coined by cartoonist T. A. Dorgan in 1906.
