🦃 GBCFC LETTER REGARDING 2021 TURKEY PRICE INCREASES 🦃
Dear Reno,
We really need your help this holiday season. If you can, please buy your turkeys and vegan alternatives from your local food co-op this year ♥️
We have hundreds of fresh (not frozen) organic turkeys coming to Reno the week before Thanksgiving. Diestel Ranch in Sonora, CA, is our main supplier for organic and heirloom birds. Kennedy Ranch (Lamoille, NV) is supplying most of the pastured turkeys for our co-op. UNFI (Rocklin, CA) is bringing us plenty of vegan field roasts, tofurkeys and other vegetarian options.
We reserve our holiday offerings nearly 8 months prior to the actual feast. We get the final confirmation and pricing for our order about 2-3 weeks into the month of October. Needless to say, we were shocked to see that turkey costs had gone up 30% from 2020 to 2021. Accompanying the bad news was an even heavier letter from Diestel Ranch:
"Throughout the past 15 months (like all of you) we have navigated a global pandemic, economic shutdowns, national labor shortages, and rising costs in nearly all areas of our business. In particular the global supply chain of organic soybeans and soybean meal has turned the organic poultry industry on its head, just in time for the holidays."
Diestel went on to explain that the USA imports roughly 42% of our organic soybeans from India, a country that has endured the highest number of lockdowns in 2021 due to COVID cases. "These lockdowns have had significant economic repercussions and have severely disrupted the global supply chain of organic soybeans and soybean meal."
Folks in our industry don't seem to think that these cost increases will last beyond 2021 and that we will see prices go back to "normal" in 2022. Really, who knows that far ahead? Possibly the corporate giants that have been able to weather these price increases without a flinch? Maybe with that large of a buying power, the increase didn't matter much and they are still making decent profits? Or maybe they are taking a hit because they have the cash flow to support it and it's an easy way to squeeze out the small independents and co-ops of the world?
Every grocery store runs thanksgiving birds and alternatives as their loss leader, meaning that we don't charge much margin to begin with. It's a strategy to get folks to come buy their other Thanksgiving meal items from the retailer. Everybody does it. However, this year, because we aren't the large corporate retailer with billions of cash flow to ride off of, we are charging the lowest margin we've ever charged on turkeys before...Our mark-up this year is only covering the labor to handle the holiday goods with no room for loss.
Small independent grocers and co-ops across the nation are feeling this intense inflation of holiday meat prices. Please help keep us alive and vote with your dollars. If you aren't on a super tight budget this year, and you can spend that extra $5-$15 per turkey, please buy your Thanksgiving supplies from Great Basin Food Co-op. We are relying on our community now more than ever to choose to support small, independent, and local.
Thank you,
Amber Sallaberry
Co-Founder & General Manager
“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations.” ❤️
– Declaration of Nyéléni, the first global forum on food sovereignty, Mali, 2007
🦃 We've got a limited supply of Nevada Raised Kennedy Ranch pastured turkeys for sale 🦃
Kennedy Ranch is a fourth-generation cattle ranch located in Lamoille, Nevada. Sue Kennedy and her husband Ken Hirst are the owners of the ranch.
They serve their community by providing delicious, ethically produced beef, chickens and turkeys, all raised in the sunshine on Lamoille Valley grass. They also manage the Lamoille Farmer's Market, so that local folks have a fun, convenient, and family-friendly way of providing exceptional food for their tables.
They believe that people can do good by eating well, and that it's important for people to know where their food comes from. They welcome visitors to come to their place, to meet the critters, and to see how sustainable ranching can save the earth, one great meal at a time.
Check out Kennedy Ranch's very own turkey recipe: https://kennedyranch.net/thanksgiving-turkey/
Our co-op kitchen isn't offering sides this year but our friends over at Perenn Bakery are! We are overjoyed that Perenn has recently started sourcing all of their flour from Mile High Mill located in Ravendale, CA (Lassen County...about 1.5 hours from Reno). Mile High Mill is a certified organic family-owned mill committed to restoring, preserving, and recreating the lost art of local flour milling in Lassen County CA.
Check out Perenn Bakery's Thanksgiving menu by clicking here or on their logo below 🥖
Anyone can shop, everyone can join!
Open everyday from 7:30am – 9pm
Great Basin Community Food Co-op
240 Court St Reno, NV 89501
775.324.6133
info@greatbasinfood.coop
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