News Tip: Eating Locally at Thanksgiving Can Be Expensive, Takes Planning, Says Duke Expert

If you want to eat locally grown food in the Triangle area, it's best to find a farm and pre-order a free-range turkey, even though it may be too late for this Thanksgiving season, says a Duke University professor who studies food politics.

"We're still not in a place where you can wake up and easily find a free-range turkey. You have to order them six months to a year in advance," says Kathy Rudy, an associate professor of women's studies at Duke who advocates eating foods grown or raised within a 150-mile radius. Her current project, "Culture and Connection in Animal Advocacy," looks at how animals are used as food.

Factory-farmed turkeys spend their lives in cramped sheds typically contaminated with waste, and are often fed genetically modified corn treated with hormones, antibiotics and steroids to make them grow faster, Rudy says.

"These chemicals are added to their feed and much of it stays in the meat," she says.

Free-range turkeys are not raised in confinement.

"When you have animals that are free-range, there is no need to supplement their diet with corn or grains. They eat what they're naturally evolved to eat."

Rudy says those interested in eating locally will pay nearly four times as much for a free-range turkey, making the switch to eating locally during the holidays more difficult for cash-strapped consumers. Locavores also need to reconsider the traditional Thanksgiving dessert of apple pie.

"There are no local apple orchards here. There are great apples in the mountains of western North Carolina, but that's pushing the 100 to 150 mile radius," says Rudy. "Most apples in the grocery stores come from as far away as New Zealand and Australia, maybe Washington state."

Greens and seasonal fruits and vegetables such as pumpkin, turnips and parsnips are grown locally and are inexpensive. However, Thanksgiving staples like cranberry sauce are imported because cranberries do not grow in North Carolina.

"It's okay to buy imported foods as long as the rest of the year you are making do with what your area gives you," Rudy says. "Mindful eating means that when we're eating imported foods, it's for a reason such as a special holiday."