WASHINGTON – The meat and poultry industry's efforts to bring transparency to animal processing plants continued with the release of a new video of a turkey farm and processing plant. The video is the product of a partnership between the American Meat Institute and the National Turkey Federation.

Hosted by Dr. Temple Grandin —professor of animal science at Colorado State Univ. and a long-time Meat&Poultry columnist — the video depicts how 253 million turkeys annually are grown, processed and delivered. Grandin is shown interacting with the birds in a climate controlled turkey house that stretches the length of a football field. Additionally, birds are shown being humanely stunned before processing as a US Department of Agriculture inspector looks on and ensures safe and sanitary preparation. Grandin's narration provides context to the process and "common sense" explanations.


“I’m really pleased that the industry wanted the public to see this process because I think we need to show people how it’s just done right in a typical plant,” Grandin said. “There’s a lot of good work going on in animal agriculture and I’m glad we’re telling our story openly and honestly.”

“The generations that have moved away from the farm to the city take a personal interest in seeing how their food is raised,” said Joel Brandenberger, National Turkey Federation president. “Those farms are far from the cities but in this video are brought closer through Dr. Grandin’s one-of-a-kind way of explaining the orderly process of getting turkeys to market.”

The video is available on NTF’s YouTube channel http://youtube.com/NatlTurkeyFederation or by visiting AMI’s “Glass Walls Project” atwww.AnimalHandling.org.

“The responses to these ‘glass walls’ efforts have been remarkable,” said J. Patrick Boyle, AMI president. “More than 120,000 people viewed our beef and pork plant video tours and this latest turkey video tour will bring more fact-based information to consumers who seek it.”