Something's Fishy at the Turkey Farm...

Today I checked on the website for my local turkey farm hoping it wasn't too late to put in an order for this year's bird. Said turkey (and quail) farm was just featured in an article in this Sunday's New York Times, which made me think of it. I check out the website and lo and behold, I am advised that persons looking to order a turkey for local pick-up should check back later. At this time they're only taking orders for birds to be shipped (at a starting price of over $100!) Now, giving the farm the benefit of the doubt, perhaps I'll be able to order my bird as soon as tomorrow and maybe this is just some sort of administrative thing... but the more cynical view seems to me that especially following NY Times coverage, they're hoping that the bulk of the birds fly south (or north, east or west... just fly) for the holidays. Perhaps there's an extra cushion of profit margin built in to the shipping costs? Unclear, but what kind of irks me is that I am a fifteen minute drive from the turkey farm and all you hear about these days is "eat local" and "sustainability", yada, yada, yada.... all of those "go green" buzz words that have fueled an entire economy around Whole Foods and the like. Here I am, literally trying to eat locally and I've been stymied in favor of folks who want their turkey UPS'd to them. Argh!