If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t think much about turkeys until this time of year. But the pending Thanksgiving holiday has me pondering some surprising facts about the poultry.
Historians aren’t positive that a turkey was part of that first grateful feast in 1621. Most believe venison or some sort of waterfowl was the primary protein. What they do know is that wild turkeys and their tender meat were a staple of both the Native American and early colonial settlers.
The founding fathers of the American Revolution held turkeys in higher regard than the goofy gobblers that we typically picture. Despite a myth to the contrary, Ben Franklin never advocated for the turkey to be our national symbol, but he did think it better than the bald eagle, calling it a “bird of courage” in a letter to his daughter.
Wild turkeys are popular game for hunters because they are an intelligent and able adversary. Wild turkeys are survivors with keen eyesight and the ability to fly short distances at speeds up to 60 mph and run as fast as 25 mph. They are social and communicative creatures that protect and nurture one another. Thanks to efforts by South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources, wild turkey populations have spread from small pockets in the Lowcountry into every county in the state.
The turkeys that end up in our ovens are nothing like the ones we see strutting across our fields and farms. Since we eat approximately 250 million turkeys each year—46 million just on Thanksgiving—mass production and breeding have created a very different species. Instead of dark, speckled plumage, domestic turkeys are white so that the pin feathers aren’t noticed on their carcasses. They are twice the average size they once were, so they can’t mate, much less fly. These turkeys live in isolation and would be incapable of surviving beyond the turkey houses in which they are raised.
Just as wild turkeys need to be distinguished from the domestic breeds, electric cooperatives should be viewed differently than other utilities. Cooperatives operate according to a set of seven core principles and values that make them unique. We’ve grown and evolved over 80 years of serving rural communities, but these principles are like a genetic code that guides us in everything we do and provides a standard by which we are measured.
When we are true to that original DNA, cooperatives have proven to be agile and innovative, fulfilling areas of local need like providing high-speed broadband service to rural communities. Co-ops work together to solve common problems and protect members and their communities.
This Thanksgiving, I’m not only thankful for cooperatives, but I’m also thankful for the DNA that makes us different.
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The seven cooperative principles
- Voluntary and Open Membership
- Democratic Member Control
- Members’ Economic Participation
- Autonomy and Independence
- Education, Training and Information
- Cooperation Among Cooperatives
- Concern for Community