Narrator: This is hell week at Gunthorp Farms in Indiana.
They'll harvest 1,000 turkeys in three days.
It's a fraction of the estimated 40 million birds
that will be slaughtered across the US
for just one meal: Thanksgiving.
Americans love cheap turkey.
But not all turkeys are created equal.
So we went to Indiana to understand
the true cost of Thanksgiving turkeys.
Greg's family has been raising animals this way
for four generations.
Greg: Yeah, they get rained on occasionally.
They even get snowed on.
But they get to live the life of a turkey.
Narrator: They're raised on grain
that's not genetically modified,
and Greg never gives them antibiotics.
Greg: The typical turkey is raised in a barn
with several other thousand turkeys.
Ours, you know, get to go out, scratch in the ground,
chase after some bugs, get to actually see the sun,
breathe fresh air their whole life.
Narrator: Catching this many birds
the week before Thanksgiving takes teamwork and patience.
Greg: Turkeys started out as a not very intelligent bird,
but they got a lot going on when they get to this age.
They got a personality.
Narrator: The next stop is the processing plant,
where they'll spend the night.
But we'll catch up with them later,
after Greg gives us a tour of the farm.
Greg: The animals that we consume
ought to eat their green, leafy vegetables.
They ought to get some exercise,
and they ought to get some sunlight.
There's a handful of other farms
that are raising pastured turkeys,
but it's a really, really small percentage
of the marketplace.
Narrator: All kinds of farms in America
have been decreasing for decades.
At the same time, the farms that have survived
have gotten bigger and bigger.
Greg's turkeys cost up to three times
as much as mass-produced turkeys in the supermarket.
The intensive work it takes to raise his birds
means they'll sell for up to $6 a pound.
Greg: Our biggest cost is that we just have more labor
in taking care of birds.
Narrator: Let's get back to those turkeys
we left at the processing plant.
It takes about 10 people working three long days
to kill and package all of these birds
in time for Thanksgiving.
Workers hang the birds upside down by their feet
and make sure the turkeys won't feel what comes next.
Greg: We stun our turkeys with electricity.
I think it's a really good and a humane way
to slaughter turkeys at a small scale.
Narrator: Greg's processing plant
is audited and certified annually
to prove his poultry is humanely raised and slaughtered.
Next, Greg tosses the dead turkeys into the plucker,
a machine that spins the birds to remove their feathers.
Then, workers remove their organs.
At the end of the line,
Greg's son Evan dumps them into ice baths.
Narrator: But keeping the business going
just keeps getting tougher.
Over the past few years,
turkey has grown to be about 15% of Greg's business.
That's because for the first time in two decades,
the farm is missing what used to be its biggest seller.
Greg: This was our pasture chicken operation last year.
It was about 250 chickens in each one of those.
We'd have 20,000 to 30,000 chickens on the farm at any time,
and we'd process about 3,000 of them a week.
Narrator: These now empty fields
used to bring in half of the farm's revenue.
But in 2020, Greg abandoned his chicken business.
Greg: An awful lot of our business
was focused on raising pastured chicken for 20 years.
It was probably the most difficult business decision
that I've ever made.
Narrator: His chickens cost nearly twice as much
as the cheap poultry that American consumers
have come to expect.
Wholesale buyers picked cheaper, mass-produced chickens
over his.
Greg: I'm extremely worried that the turkey
is going to go the same route as chicken.
Narrator: Last Thanksgiving,
Greg last a longtime retail turkey buyer.
He says the order was canceled at the last minute.
Greg: If you lose a big wholesale buyer,
it can be devastating on a business like ours.
Narrator: Greg had to put
hundreds of unsold Thanksgiving turkeys
in the freezer.
He later cut them up to sell as parts instead,
but it wasn't as profitable.
Greg: We get dropped on a regular basis by wholesalers,
and it's almost exclusively over price.
In some cases, we're able to differentiate our birds,
and in some cases we're just not.
Narrator: Greg should have an advantage
with customers who care about where their meat comes from,
but corporate marketers are doing their best
to tap into those consumers --
even if it's just about creative labeling.
For example, these three turkeys
look like they're from different brands, right?
Well, Honeysuckle White, Shady Brook Farms, and Honest Turkey
are all Cargill brands.
That's a food conglomerate
that is one of the 10 largest private companies
in the world.
At the end of the day,
there's really this illusion of choice in the grocery store.
We see a lot of deceptive marketing claims
being made by these big companies.
Narrator: Advocacy groups filed
a deceptive advertising complaint
with the Federal Trade Commission against Cargill in 2020.
Cargill told Insider it believes the claim lacks merit
and that its turkey production
is in line with USDA standards.
The FTC said it can't disclose the status of the complaint.
Cargill says their turkeys
are raised by independent family farmers.
This is how it works.
Large companies like Cargill or Perdue Farms
will often contract smaller farms
to produce their chicken and turkey.
But some small farmers say they lost their independence
once they were contracted with companies.
Craig Watts was one of them.
He raised chickens on contract for Perdue Farms
for more than 20 years.
The company owns the birds.
The company owns the feed.
Narrator: He says Perdue controlled
how many chickens he raised and how he raised them.
Craig: I definitely would have not had them
30,000 birds crammed in a 20,000-square-foot facility.
Narrator: In 2012, Craig says
he filmed Perdue employees on his farm
throwing chicks to the ground and kicking birds.
He ended his contract with Perdue in 2016.
They give you this image
of Ma and Pa, kid and the pitchfork,
and a nice, white-picket fence
and the red barn and the pretty white chicken.
When in reality, the conditions that these animals
are raised in are miserable.
Narrator: In a statement to Insider,
Perdue said it was not familiar with Craig's videos
and that they don't reflect its current practices.
The company also said it announced
commitments to animal care,
including focuses on farmer relationships and transparency.
Perdue connected us with a current contract farmer,
Steven Brake.
We have a whole lot of control of what we do.
We're not sitting here at the mercy of Perdue.
Narrator: Steven confirmed
that Perdue owns the chickens he raises
and manages their feed.
Back at Gunthorp Farms,
Greg's turkeys are chilled and ready to be bagged.
Despite all the extra costs,
Greg doesn't want to give up his farming methods,
even if it makes it harder for him to stay in the business.
In a week, customers will pick up their turkeys from Greg
in Chicago or directly from the farm in rural Indiana.
And this time around, he plans to sell all of his turkeys.
Greg: It's very rewarding to know that we're raising turkeys
for people that care about how their food's raised,
how it's processed, and how it gets to them.