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Interesting last? post. Nevermore Farm – Growing And Conserving A Variety Of Unusual Produce And Livestock » June 4, 2011 I already knew about the evils of corn, but had no idea about the cost of raising poultry.

At my favorite butcher Lindy & Grundy - Local, Pastured & Organic Meats - Los Angeles, CA they have special turkeys from Rainbow Farms this year that are very expensive. Someone on their Facebook page questioned them about it. Here are some of the questions and replies from L&G and the Farmer.

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I love Lindy & Grundy, but did I miss something...$16.99/per pound for a turkey? Even Whole Paycheck's most expensive organic, free-range, hand-fed and massaged kosher birds are $3.99 and Shelton's free-range, etc are $2.99 and Diestel's free-range, etc...are also $3.99 (at Gelson's). Even a heritage turkey is far less than $16.99/pound.

At $16.99 a 20# is going to be $339.80 plus tax!!! That's 425% more than what I will pay at Whole Foods or Gelson's and neither of them are inexpensvie places to shop.

Was this a typo?

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Lindy Grundy hey there David! yes, we understand the high price of these heritage turkeys from Rainbow Ranch Farms . Unfortunately we cannot compete with the prices of these huge corporate super market chains that buy their animals from huge farms, and whom also get very low prices wholesale. The truth is that this country has gotten very used to paying low low prices for food because of agribusiness- huge farms that raise animals fast and without care. We pay more wholesale for all of our animals than most people pay RETAIL at places like wholefoods, gelsons, etc... we're a tiny family business and only do business with tiny ranchers that raise their animals just for us. Raising animals is very expensive and these people need to be able to do more than break even on raising animals for people to consume. We kept our prices as low as possible without us taking a loss by selling turkey.

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Lindy Grundy they are $14.99/lb :)

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Rainbow Ranch Farms The turkeys L&G Meats will be offering are from heritage breeds, range grown, WITHOUT subsidized grains: No Corn, No Soy, No Wheat, No Barley, No G.M.O's and Gluten-Free. These birds take 8-9 months to grow instead of 14 weeks. It's a choice, and a good one. Thank you!

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Cherie Twohy loss leaders. of course grocery stores use the low (or free) turkey prices to bring folks in the door. they don't need to make a huge profit on the bird when they can make it up on the cardboard bread cubes, canned gravy and booze. none of which you'll find at lindy and grundy. i'm just sayin'.

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David Lasher I appreciate your reply and I understand your perspective...

I would never buy a "grocery store" turkey...'Butterball' does not mean quality to me. I have purchased a Shelton Farms turkey from Handy Market in Burbank for Thanksgiving for several years. I buy only the turkey here, so I don't even think about it as loss leader.

Shelton Farms claims that their turkeys are free range (and etc.) and raised for up to 26 weeks. At $2.99 a pound, it is comparable to Whole Foods (and I do not consider Whole Foods a 'grocery store' as compared to Vons, Jons or Albertsons).

Regardless of where you buy your turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I wish you all the best this holiday season. May you enjoy a great bird and great company!!

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John Brooks Hi Lindy. I appreciate quality, but i don't think a 3-4 fold difference in price means people are accustomed to low low prices. I pay a lot for food and go to trouble to search it out. Perhaps your suppliers could move toward making the price more accessible for more people.

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Rainbow Ranch Farms The price stems from the fact that these turkeys will eat 5-6lbs more (especially when not fed subsidized grains) to gain 1.0lb of meat, and for 7-9 months, in comparison to turkeys that gain 1.0lb of meat by 2.0lbs of corn/soy and only fed for 14 weeks. It is simply a choice.

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Lynn Ros I will be out of town for Thanksgiving, so unfortunately couldn't order my turkey from Lindy&Grundy. However, I sourced a heritage turkey directly from a farm in another part of the country, and am paying about the same price as quoted from Lindy Grundy and picking it up directly from the farm. I called and emailed approximately 20 farms in several different states and this price was the norm for the true heritage turkeys. Thank you to Lindy&Grundy for bringing high quality meats with total transparency on source. There are many companies (including Whole Foods) out there who use particular buzz words and aren't truly transparent on source, so it's hard to know exactly what you are getting although they make it sound as if they are a particular 'thing', and actually are not.