Key to any Thanksgiving Day menu is a fat turkey and cranberry sauce.
Some 242 million turkeys were raised in the U.S. in 2010 for slaughter, down 2 percent from 2009’s total, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Last year’s birds were worth about U.S. $3.6 billion.
About 46 million turkeys will end up on U.S. dinner tables this Thanksgiving—or about 736 million pounds (334 million kilograms) of turkey meat, according to estimates from the National Turkey Federation. (See the Green Guide’s suggestions for having a greener—and more grateful—Thanksgiving.)
Minnesota is the United States’ top turkey-producing state, followed by North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Virginia.
These "big six" states produce two of every three U.S.-raised birds, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
U.S. farmers will also produce 735 million pounds (333 million kilograms) of cranberries, which, like turkeys, are native to the Americas. The top producers are Wisconsin and Massachusetts.
The U.S. will also grow 1.9 billion pounds (862 million kilograms) of sweet potatoes—many in North Carolina, California, and Louisiana—and produce 931 million pounds (422 million kilograms) of pumpkins.
Illinois, California, and Ohio grow the most U.S. pumpkins.
But if you overeat at Thanksgiving dinner, there’s a price to be paid for all this plenty: the Thanksgiving "food coma." The post-meal fatigue may be real, but the condition is giving turkeys a bad rap.
Contrary to myth, the amount of the organic protein tryptophan in most turkeys isn’t responsible for drowsiness.
Instead, scientists blame booze, the sheer caloric size of an average feast, or just plain-old relaxing after stressful work schedules.
To read more click here for the National Geographic Web Story:
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