Talk about being relegated to second place: the turkey surely comes in first for that one. Back in 1782 when the U.S. Congress made the bald eagle our national symbol, no less patriot than Benjamin Franklin lobbied against the eagle.

He wrote that the eagle was a coward and a thief and represented such people. Additionally, the eagle was the symbol of powerful governments and military superiority, the very things this new country opposed. Ol’ Ben proposed the turkey as our national symbol, saying the turkey was a noble and brave bird that defended the barnyard just fine.

So instead of sitting atop the Capitol dressed in bronze, the turkey winds up on the dining room table naked, stuffed, seasoned and baked. It symbolizes our honoring the Pilgrims and Native Americans who neighborly feasted on local foods including wild turkey. But making turkey a nationwide staple of Thanksgiving meals is a more modern tradition. The turkey growing and processing industry began a marketing blitz after World War II to promote its product. And it caught on very well.

Yep, mass marketing, also as American as Momma’s turkey and apple pie, is why turkey farmers now raise and sell us about 45 million birds for Thanksgiving and five times that many for the rest of the year.

Only one in seven turkeys consumed is bought as a fresh turkey. The frozen bird market makes it feasible for turkeys to be raised and processed throughout the year.

The turkeys we buy at the store were about four months old when slaughtered. Gender accounts for the difference in size, with live males being about twice as large as the females and consuming nearly three times as much feed. Toms and hens are raised separately beginning at hatching.

Domestic turkeys have gotten so large and grow so fast that a problem exists when it comes to reproduction. Birds grown for breeding stock to produce eggs for hatching into slaughter turkeys simply cannot physically mate because of their huge size and clumsiness. Therefore, modern turkeys are hatched from eggs made fertile by artificial insemination. Luckily for diehard turkey hunters, the wild cousin turkeys retain their smaller size and agility and keep on strutting to mating calls.

Minnesota is the top turkey state in U.S. production, followed by North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri and Virginia. To my knowledge there are no commercial turkey farms in Mississippi.

While we Americans still eat more chicken, beef and pork, turkey has slowly but steadily increased its share of out diet. The emphasis on less fat in food has helped sell turkey to the current level of 16 pounds a year per person.

I‘ve never dined from the menu of the modern military MRE. But from a different time, I can say unequivocally that opening a C-ration and finding inside an OD (olive drab) green tin can marked “Turkey Loaf” was a joy and a blessing.

That day, somebody else got the funky canned scrambled eggs.

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Terry Rector writes for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District, 601-636-7679 ext. 3.