Halal turkey?

You may remember last year’s halalapalooza over Butterball turkeys spurred by Islamophobe Pamela Geller, the result of which, for many of us, might have been a shared “huh, Butterball is halal you say?” Of course, Butterball is not beyond halal. As Kristin Wartman put it last year in an article for The Huffington Post:

Turkeys on factory farms are hatched in incubators mostly on large farms in the midwest or the south. A few days after hatching, turkeys have their upper beaks snipped off. Once the beak is removed, the turkey can no longer pick and choose what it wants to eat. In their natural environment, turkeys are omnivores. But in a factory farm, turkeys are fed a steady diet of corn-based grain feed laced with antibiotics.

She goes on, ultimately recommending that Thanksgiving dinners center around a vegetarian meal. That works, but we’re traditionalists and relish the one day of the year when we eat turkey, not to mention the handful of days we get to eat leftover turkey. One thing to be thankful for is that there are farmers who care deeply about the welfare of their animals and raise turkeys that get to live according to their fitra, and as a community we should be supporting them.

Here are some tips for finding an ethically-raised turkey.

Find out whether the farms in our business directory have turkeys. Our turkey this year is coming as part of our CSA with Stony Brook Valley Farm, a halal and organic farm run by a Muslim brother in Western Massachusetts. Whole Earth Meats in Chicago has turkeys, as does Norwich Meadows Farm in New York.
Go for a kosher bird. Grow and Behold ships turkeys across the United States, as does Kol Foods.
Contact your local farmers, either by connecting with vendors at your neighborhood farmers’ market or by googling local organic farms. If your state has an organic farm association, you can contact farmers through them as well. Explain to them what you’re looking for, let them know that there’s a market for halal organic/sustainable/ethical products, and if you’re willing, offer to come to the farm to slaughter the turkey yourself.
And if you just can’t find a turkey? Go with the flow and cook something with chicken, cornish hens, go veg, or if you’re feeling up to it, go catch yourself some hamam.